Fawn, Phoenix and Rhino competed in the finale.
After eight weeks of singing and bizarre costumes, The Masked Singer came to an end this weekend with the 2023 champ crowned.
Following a double performance, Rhino was announced as this year’s winner and revealed to be none other than Busted’s Charlie Simpson.
“I never expected to win to be honest but I just wanted to give it my best. I had no idea who I was actually up against and didn’t really hear the other people sing as we were kept away from each other during filming,” Simpson said after being unmasked.
On whether his bandmates knew Rhino was him all along, he added “My band mates in both Busted and Fightstar guessed it was me within the first two seconds of hearing Rhino sing. When you spend that much time on stage with people and spend so much time in the studio, it would be very hard for them not to get it pretty much instantly.”
👑🏆 UNMASKED AT LAST! 🌟❤️ THE CHAMPION OF THE MASKED SINGER 2023!! ✨Let’s give some love to #Rhino!!! 🦏 🎭#MaskedSingerUK pic.twitter.com/Nx1W6SJ5nO
— #MaskedSingerUK (@MaskedSingerUK) February 18, 2023
For the season 4 finale, Fawn, Rhino and Phoenix took to the stage for one last chance to impress judges Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross.
As they performed a trio of songs, each finalist was joined by a former contestant, with Rhino taking to the stage with season 2 star Harlequin, AKA singer Gabrielle.
Phoenix was joined by season 1’s Fox, better known as TV personality Denise van Outen, while Fawn performed with last year’s Traffic Cone, Aled Jones.
Coming in third place, Fawn was then unmasked as All Saints star Natalie Appleton. While, runner-up Phoenix was unveiled as Kaiser Chiefs frontman Ricky Wilson – a celeb our Associate Editor Helen Daly guessed weeks ago.
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As usual, all of The Masked Singer 2023 contestants reunited on the stage for an epic medley during the finale, and what a performance it was!
Season 4 kicked off on New Year’s Day with the first set of contestants taking to the stage. At the end of the episode, Ghost was unmasked as football legend Chris Kamara.
Read more:
- The Masked Singer fans think Phoenix is Doctor Who star
- The Masked Singer fans say Jacket Potato is EastEnders star
As the weeks went on and the celebs performed once again, the guessing game heated up with more clues on their true identities being shared.
It resulted in Scottish singer Lulu being revealed as the show’s Piece of Cake. Her unmasking was followed by Cat & Mouse, who were unveiled as Shirlie and Martin Kemp, Rubbish (Stephen Hendry), and Pigeon (Katherine Ryan).
The first of the double unmaskings took place in week 6, as Knitting was unveiled as Steps star Claire Richards, and actress Daisy May Cooper was revealed to be behind the mask of Otter.
A week later during the semi-final, Amber Riley was unmasked as Jellyfish, and Richie Samnbora was unveiled as the show’s Jacket Potato.
While Fawn managed to keep their true identity mostly under wraps, there were a few suspicions about Rhino and Phoenix.
In an exclusive RadioTimes.com poll, Busted star Charlie Simpson was top of fans’ list to be Rhino on The Masked Singer, while most fans thought Phoenix was Doctor Who star David Tennant.
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