Amber Riley has made TV history with her win on The Masked Singer season eight.
During Wednesday (30 November) night’s finale of the US version of the celebrity singing series, Riley – best known for her recurring role as Mercedes on creator Ryan Murphy’s series Glee – walked away victorious.
Following the top-secret 12-week singing competition, the 36-year-old actor, who had been disguised as a gold shimmery harp, was the last standing contestant to unmask.
Riley’s newest triumph marks her second major win on a TV reality show competition. In 2013, she and her dance partner, Derek Hough, took home the coveted mirrorball trophy of Dancing with the Stars season 17.
Other celebrities, including Gladys Knight and Margaret Cho, have attempted both competitions, however, Riley is the only one to have ever achieved the double feat.
Although The Masked Singer season two winner, Wayne Brady (How I Met Your Mother), came close when he made it to the Dancing with the Stars season 31 finale, he ended up placing third.
“This has been such an amazing experience,” Riley said after her winning performance of Lady Gaga’s “The Edge of Glory”, a song she previously covered on the fourth season of Glee.
“Just to be able to come out here and be completely covered and let my talent speak for itself. And the love that I have for people, and wanting people to heal, and feel what it is that I’m singing,” she added.
“So I hope everybody felt my soul, because I bared it right here on this stage.”
Along her Masked Singer journey, Riley also performed Pink’s “Perfect”, “I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston, Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” and “Gravity” by John Mayer.
This season had 22 contestants, the most of any of its previous seasons. Coming in second place was pop trio Wilson Phillips, followed by earlier eliminations of comedian Nikki Glaser, singer Ray Parker Jr, The Exorcist’s Linda Blair, comedian Adam Carolla, professional wrestler Chris Jericho, singer George Clinton, retired boxer George Foreman, NFL player Le’Veon Bell, actor Joey Lawrence and actor Kat Graham.
Along with the season’s first half of eliminations: talk show host Jerry Springer, singer Gloria Gaynor, Sex and the City’s Mario Cantone, TV personality Daymond John, The Brady Bunch stars Mike Lookinland, Barry Williams and Christopher Knight, singer Montell Jordan, Ventriloquist Jeff Dunham, singer Chris Kirkpatrick, comedian Eric Idle, and actor William Shatner.
