The Masked Singer / The Voice 2020 UK

They were going out of their way to not say "Charlotte Church" this week.

xxp some of the clues seem to contradict clues from last week. Duck speaks Italian and Spanish now?

xp the UK version is about half professional singers, half celebs who can sing pretty well, and Pharoah. It was a surprise to hear his singing voice in juxtaposition to the costume. Good job he got voted off in the first week as that would have worn thin very quickly. This show would be worse than X Factor Celebs if none of them could sing.

Just gave it two minutes out of idle curiosity because the costumes are lovely jesus christ I did not need to hear Teddy Sheringham sing

Apparently neither did the panel because he's been voted off.

I particularly like TMS because there's no pretence that they're going to find the next Little Mix or One Direction. Unlike The Voice, which is all serious and earnest about finding the next big star (which they never do), combined with this bland daytime TV aesthetic (especially the VT on the boat, and oh and that's not the first time Tom's worn a captain's hat)
https://igifineart.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/tj010.600x1000_q85.jpg

lol at the guy who was prepared to throw his band under the bus to get famous, but then none of the coaches turned around

TMS unmasking was a surprise tonight. She looked sad to be out this early, would have been a deserving series winner.

be even sadder when it turns out she's lost to Ed Balls or something

or cee lo

Would've thought the audience would be voting for who they most want to see unmasked rather than who 'deserves' to win

Don't think so, they have previously unmasked the ones who can't sing that well.

yes, although iirc one of the good ones was in the 'bottom two'.

Octopus?

Joel Dommett - because Rylan would rather present Ready Steady Cook.

I thought Jake Shears.

― kinder, Saturday, January 4, 2020 11:38 PM (four weeks ago) bookmarkflaglink

cough cough

I said this from week 1!

Totally gutted I didn't get Duck. She's always been someone whose voice I've been fascinated with but never guessed. Kind of a mix between steely wee girly and gravelly older soul. I blame the waddly costume.

Surprised how much I'm enjoying this show! Except for Rita Ora

Like, I'm pleasantly surprised it's not all "someone from Made In Chelsea" - they're all well-established people in their fields/genres

Davina said that Duck was Skin a couple of weeks ago. Unicorn has been pegged as Jake Shears for a while now. I said upthread that I'd be surprised if it wasn't John Barrowman, but after a few weeks of performances I'd been moved over to the "It's Jake of course it is" side.
I get the feeling from Rita that she's trying not very hard to pretend that she's excited by this. Maybe because she's sitting between someone who makes a living out of looking at least semi-plausibly excited (Davina) and someone who makes a living out of appearing semi-interested (Wossy).

Meanwhile on The Voice, are the auditions where no-one presses their button more brutal than previous years? Or is it because there are more people auditioning this time, so they're not showing any of the crap or even mediocre acts?

xp it's unusual to see a celeb based reality show that isn't mainly people from reality shows - see the last few I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here's.

No-one guessed Jake Shears until a week or two ago so I'm claiming this one.

did Davina really guess Skin previously?

I think so.

I just skipped through to check - she basically says Mel C every time. No mention of Skin by any of them!

I wonder where I heard that Duck was Skin? Because apart from this thread and watching the show, I haven't been watching/reading anything else about TMS. Although I'm aware of Skin, mainly from Skunk Anansie, I never would have thought that she was Duck.

very odd to see skin in a small tent screaming about a baby drawing a swastika over furious punk rock then see her a quarter of a century later singing the song from titanic dressed as a giant duck, on ITV. Jake / unicorn was too obvious from the start, and his choice of song this time didn't work.

I love queen bee and hope to god she is Nicola Roberts and not someone shit. I will wager something she is not Ellie Goulding, sounds nothing like her. Think they got too close last week, so this time the clues were silly and their guesses ridiculous.

Worst one is fucking hedgehog, he may well be Michael Ball.

So basically Monster is cee-lo, and Octopus is probably Charlotte Church?

I don't understand how people are getting these so easily. They could be anyone on earth as far as I'm concerned. Although, not wanting to come over all Tuomas but I had never heard of Jake Shears before Saturday night.

I like this because they're mainly my-era people (I don't listen to much current stuff), and they've unmasked enough now for me to think I'll probably recognise them at least - whereas at the start as you say it could be literally anyone.

The Scissor Sisters were big in the early/mid 00s, I liked them a lot at the time. If anything the costume was too on the nose. He's the only one I've got so far.

Also apart from the non-singers, all the unmasked ones have been people with pretty distinctive voices which are proving to be really hard to place out of context (in fact even Patsy Palmer has probably one of the most-recognised non-singing voices in the UK, I would've thought). Kelis should've been more obvious. I'm expecting Cee-Lo to be Monster, but I don't think Charlotte Church is Octopus (did she ever actually do anything operatic? I thought she was a choir girl).
Darkness guy - they also had that big hit early/mid 00s and the Bells one seems to be accepted Christmas song canon now, although I mainly hear them regularly as the theme tune to Katie's Amazing Machines.
Fox I still don't know about. Someone Toyah Wilcox era?
Queen Bee I have been guessing Nicola Roberts for a few weeks due to the clues but - and I say this as somewhat of a fan - I don't think her voice is that polished and actually has a bit more character.
Octopus I'm kind of leaning towards someone European - before the operatics I thought maybe Lene from Aqua?
Hedgehog, I did think Michael Macintyre but don't think so now, or someone actory putting on an accent like Ralf Little? But yeah seems too stage-professional Michael Ball esque.

I'm trying really hard to stay away from any Twitter chat about this cos I want to guess for myself!

Rita Ora is mainly annoying me because she doesn't actually seem to know any singers' voices (although she got Kelis, so kudos). It's like "ooh the clue said 'fashion', it's Cara Delavingne", "oh they look athletic - Tom Daley". Lazy guesses.

I'm trying really hard to stay away from any Twitter chat about this cos I want to guess for myself

Probably a good idea. I looked at the twitter in the run-up to or just after some of the unmaskings and I was astonished by how many people were getting them right, even Darkness guy.

I watch it on itv+1 because my kids go to bed at 7.30 and have to completely avoid twitter because it will pop up in the trending topics straight away

Same here! Actually I record it and skip the ads/padding

I do my usual reality TV trick of doing other stuff at the same time.

No surprises in this week's one then...

"I don't speak French" suggests Bee is in fact Nicola Roberts.
Glad this is winding up next week!

Just one unmasked this week?

yes, i have committed too much time to this silly show, it was entertaining for a while but now I am basically done with it, glad it's a shortish series

queen bee's film was purposely telling us absolutely nothing.

two unmasked this week

Final on now.
Queen Bee - has to be (*gets coat to make escape from pun police*) Nicola Roberts.
Hedgehog - I think is Michael Ball but that's on the basis of not being able to think of anyone else, so I'm possibly wrong.
Octopus - no idea.

xxp certain elements of this show are irritating enough that I wouldn't want to watch much more: "I know exactly who it is", whoever's writing Joel's crappy puns, the padding, the number of commercial breaks

Queen Bee - has to be (*gets coat to make escape from pun police*) Nicola Roberts.

boooooom !
lets hope this gets her back in the game.

I got that one. Gave it away for sure with the Cinderella's Eyes ref.
Think I'd be better at this in general if I knew anything about West End stuff.

Nicola was genuinely amazing, not a performance I ever expected on such a silly show. Yes, hope this means she is putting out records again, it's been a while!

Oh and what in fucking hell was Octopus's choice of song tonight? As soon as it started I knew she would be out, what a bizarre choice.

"Please don't vote for me, I'm Katherine Jenkins" wasn't it?

Notice no one itt got Hedgehog but literally every other Jason Manford fan (yes, I'm one too) on social media knew it was him. Also, it's his social media that made me aware of this show in the first place.

I was like "It can't be, he's on bbc1 right now"

Obviously that's pre-recorded, I don't mean that.

I was like "It can't be, he's on bbc1 right now"

Obviously that's pre-recorded, I don't mean that.

Doing "First and Last", I see. I really hope they bring that to Britbox US because it looks like a lot of fun. Also, according to Manford "The Masked Singer" was taped last September.

I've just finished watching the second (of three) of the Knockout episodes of The Voice and it's really tough to call who is going to go through to the next round. You could get a couple of series of X Factor out of this lot.

And here's the weekend where they drop two thirds of the acts. If X Factor had that level of attrition, it'd be over in three weeks (there's an idea).

I know it's the US version, but this performance was INCREDIBLE:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-5qRTeuX8w

There should have been 6 last night but one was scheduled to sing Disco Inferno so it was pulled because of the fire in the Swiss nightclub.

Joel's outfit tonight reminds me of Roy Scheider's sleazeball look in the movie 'All That Jazz'.

xp ahh I see... presumably they will appear next week? or are they gone for good?!

I think they're still in, just couldn't be shown last night.

anyone watching? my attention to this show dwindles with each series, although I still enjoy trying to id the voices. didn't get today's at all... in theory a good person to have on the show, but not in practice maybe.

got an idea for Arctic Fox... but only based on what seemed like a Doctor Who reference and not because I think it particularly sounds like them.

I'm watching. I spotted today's eliminated contestant, didn't get either of last week's.

I'm pretty sure on voice alone that Arctic Fox is Anton du Beke (not hiding as it's just a guess not a spoiler)

I'm still watching, but there are more crap singers than last year and the panel seem to be intent on keeping them in. Yesterday's elimination, let's just say that every time John Lydon appears on something like this I'm not surprised and am not even disappointed anymore. It's just what they do now.

The panel voting off Arctic Fox but keeping in Red Panda is just madness.

yep, it's actually pissing me off.
genuinely surprised by the second unmasking. i had a completely wrong theory!

i wish they wouldn't spend so much time on the clues. the only way of identifying people for me is by recognising their voices, which is hard with all the whooping and they can be low in the mix.

i hadn't had a clue re Moth until today a tiny snatch of vocals suddenly clicked and I'm sure it was Keisha Sugababes .
although I hadn't thought she was that good - but I thought that about Nicola Roberts, ha

first episode i thought Sloth had the voice of James Corden but now I'm not convinced and also he must know no-one here likes him

It's a one and a half hour ITV1 Saturday evening light entertainment show, so an amount of filler is a given. But they've pushed it even further this series and put in a load of unessential nonsense. No-one cares who Mole Dommett is - it'll be one of Joel's showbiz mates and he won't believe who it is lol what a shocka larfs!!! Joel himself has become more irritating, like the little brother who won't stop showing off. Shut up, no-one's here to see you. The show is becoming more indistinguishable from the Butlin's ad break bumpers. It's like everything that made this show entertaining and fun has been sidelined. It comes to something when Davina and Jonathan aren't even the biggest irritants.

I'm pretty sure Sloth is David Baddiel. Toastie is a brilliant singer so will probably be knocked out by fucking Red Panda.

Somehow I'm even more annoyed now that Red Panda has been voted off and unmasked as Harry Hill. At least they won't be getting kept in at the expense of a better singer. Looks like the panel no longer get a say in the voting either.

that was one of my guesses for Red Panda! although I'm sure I've been sure it's him before and this time I was less sure...

there's a rubbish clip of his cut performance in ep 1 on YouTube.
tbf I've watched a LOT of this person and he's disguised his voice fairly well... listening to Bat Out Of Hell, I could imagine how he would sing it and it wouldn't be like that, but clearly couldn't disguise every aspect of his voice as I had it written down from one of the performances (not this one).

They were doing a very good impression of Alan Carr to the point that the unmasking surprised me.

wasn't there a previous series (possibly xmas special?) where one sounded exactly like Alan Carr but turned out to be Julian Clary ...

It was Christmas 2023.

If, as Wossy thinks, that Sloth actually turns out to be Shane Ritchie I'll put my foot through the fucking TV screen.

would never have gotten Sloth. don't think I've ever watched anything with him. thought it sounded like Jamie Oliver!

The 2nd one, I was clueless about until one of the panel suggested him and then I thought it was likely. I've not seen or heard him in anything except presenting the Hit List!

Was absolutely convinced Sloth was David Baddiel, was nowhere near the actual answer. I've actually met the other one a few times through work and still didn't get him.

I have been saying Conkers sounds exactly like this person the whole time! but something put me off the scent - presumably the special guest thing, which I now have no memory of...

Was nowhere near getting Toastie, but what a great voice, bonkers she lost out to Conkers.