Pigeon became the next character to be unmasked on the popular ITV show, The Masked Singer - and their identity left fans in shock. On Saturday night's (January 28) episode of The Masked Singer the contestants comprising of Knitting, Jellyfish, Otter, Phoenix, Fawn, Jacket Potato, Pigeon and Rhino all took to the stage to sing in disguise.
Fawn impressed the judges with her rendition of Ironic by Alanis Morissette, leading Mo Gilligan to become convinced he knew Fawn’s true identity as he guessed singer LeAnn Rimes. Phoenix opened the show with a performance of I’m Still Standing by Sir Elton John, while Otter sang 9 To 5 by Dolly Parton.
Jellyfish sang Leave A Light On by Tom Walker, which led Ross to guess Glee star Amber Riley was behind the mask.
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Jacket Potato gave a performance of Smooth by Santana and Rhino wrapped up the evening’s show with a rendition of I Just Can’t Wait To Be King from The Lion King.
But it was Pigeon who would say goodbye when Katherine Ryan was unmasked as the character, with the 39-year-old comedian and actress ended up in the bottom two during Saturday night’s show alongside Jacket Potato, following a vote by the studio audience.
After deliberating, the judges decided to unmask Pigeon and offered their final guess of who the character could be – with suggestions including actress Liza Tarbuck, model Jodie Kidd, Loose Women’s Nadia Sawalha and actress Emily Atack.
Following her reveal, Katherine explained that she had kept her involvement in the show a secret from her daughter Violet, saying: “You can’t tell my daughter anything because she’d spill it to her whole school so she’ll be finding out with everyone else. We watch the show together.”
Earlier in the episode Ryan had performed Cheryl Cole’s Fight For This Love and following her unmasking said: “I love Cheryl and I used to do a bit of roast comedy in my act about her.”
She jokingly added: “So I feel like it’s beautiful karma that I went off on her song.”
Katherine earned additional praise from the judging panel – consisting of Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, Jonathan Ross and Rita Ora – after sharing that she was heavily pregnant during her performances.
Katherine, who is just one month away from giving birth at the time of filming, told host Joel Dommett: "I have a month left. I have a baby's foot in my lung at most times."
Viewers were quick to have their say: "I'm shocked," said one fan. @CerealKillerStu exclaimed: "WHAT???? I absolutely didn't see that coming - Katherine Ryan!" @HW_247 wrote: "No way has #TheMaskedSinger done us all like this @Kathbum you are a bloody legend." And @VanessaJ2Inspmy commented: "Wow!! Katherine Ryan. Was convinced Pigeon was the GC."
Following her time on the celebrity guessing game, Katherine admitted she loved her character Pigeon because “she’s a sassy nana. An East End bird. A real grafter. And crucially, a fan of hip hop who can bust a move”.
Throughout the competition Ryan adopted a cockney accent in an attempt to deceive the judges further.
Explaining why she opted for the Pigeon disguise, Ryan said: “I was quite pregnant while filming and I thought the big pigeon costume would hide that.
“It was important for me that the character had a face because some of them don’t, but I personally connect better to the characters with faces.
“I felt like it was important to represent a strong pensioner and I loved that Pigeon was all comedy and not trying to be attractive for anyone else.”
The Masked Singer continues on Saturdays at 7pm on ITV1 and ITVX.
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