Warning! If you haven’t seen the Season 7 finale of The Masked Singer stop reading now!
Seriously, there are spoilers ahead! Fine, you’ve been warned.
After a season marked by controversy, FOX’s hit competition series The Masked Singer wrapped up Season 7 and crowned Firefly as the winner. Of course, you’re not here to find out which crazy, fever dream of a costume won. You want to know who was the gorgeous voice behind the bug.
Once she was named the winner, the judges gave their final guesses on who the Firefly really was. Robin Thicke and Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg thought it was singer/actress Teyana Taylor, Nicole Scherzinger guessed R&B singer Monica, while Ken Jeong actually sounded reasonable in saying it was Alicia Keys. Though Keys has a distinctive voice we probably would have recognized. In the end, Thicke and McCarthy Wahlberg were right and the winner was Taylor.
“Joining this competition meant that I had to face my fears and come out of retirement,” Firefly said in her clue package. “I refuse to fade away,” per Variety.
In a tough competition against the other two finalists, Ringmaster and The Prince, Firefly started things off with “Bad Girl” by Usher, where she worked the stage, then danced her way over to the judges table. She followed that up with a stunning version of Robin Thicke’s “Lost Without U.” Following Taylor’s performance, the emotional judge said, “I’m all flattered and choked up. That song was supposed to feel exactly the way you made it feel.”
Before Firefly’s big unmasking, The Prince came in third and was revealed as stage and screen star Cheyenne Jackson (Call Me Kat). After a beautiful performance of “Gravity” by Sara Bareilles, second place finalist Ringmaster turned out to be The Goldbergs actress Hayley Orrantia.
While The Masked Singer Season 7 featured a laundry list of controversial figures who I won’t mention here, there were also some fun surprises like En Vogue as Queen Cobra, Shaggy as Space Bunny and Jennifer Holliday as Miss Teddy.
To the surprise of no one, The Masked Singer has already been renewed for Season 8. FOX’s World Series commitments usually mean the bulk of its schedule premieres in the spring, so fans may have to wait until 2023 for the next batch of episodes.