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The Masked Singer winner is Amber Riley! After weeks of incredible performances as the harp, the actress and singer walked away with the coveted Golden Mask Trophy. For her last performance, she performed an epic rendition of Lady Gagas “Edge of Glory.” HollywoodLife spoke to Amber ONLY about her Masked Singer Travel and circle back to a song she once performed joy.
“Honestly, it’s been like a week where they’re like, ‘Is there a song, any song, that you’re connected to?’ It was sort of like choosing the dealer. What’s really funny is the executive producer who produced my segments on the show, he used to be a dancer Joy. His name is Michael Ricoo. He was a dancer Joy, and now he’s executive producer The Masked Singer.”
She continued, “We were talking about what songs to do and I said, ‘I want to do ‘Edge of Glory’ as a nod to The Troubletones joy. It was one of my favorite songs, one of my favorite moments, and one of the last songs I did on that show in high school. So I thought it would be like competing on the show, so I thought that was a really great coming full circle moment.
Now that she can talk about her win, Amber admitted she’s “relieved because I don’t have to lie anymore. And it was such a bad lie. People knew it was me. It wasn’t even like a good lie. It was really hard. But I’m really excited. I really enjoyed that show.”
Amber admitted that The Masked Singer she “refueled” as an artist. She added: “I have such a connection to The Masked Singer, so I understand what people were saying when they said it was just one of the best experiences. Nobody knows who you are. When you go on stage nobody has these judgments or opinions or preconceived notions about who you are as an artist. You can literally go out and sing with no pressure. If you’ve been in this industry for a long time, people think they’re attached to you, like you can’t show them anything new. But the only expectation they had was to hear me sing and guess who I am. It’s an invaluable experience and I think anyone who has been in the industry for a long time should do it. What other place will you go where you will have this experience?”
The harp costume was incredibly constructed and dazzling on stage. Amber said the harp attached to her was “so light” and “on wheels.” Over the course of her time on the show, the singer admitted that the harp “felt like it was a part of me.”
However, Amber could barely see out of the harp mask. “At this point, not seeing is part of the competition,” she said HollywoodLife. “I could literally only see so much. I didn’t have peripheral vision and I couldn’t see the ground, so it was really about trusting yourself, trusting the stage. I really had to trust myself when I was on stage.”
Amber is currently working on her second EP and will release it in 2023. “I am very excited to share this music. My first EP Riley came out in 2020 and did really well,” Amber said. “I did that on my own. This time I’m just as vulnerable and just as honest as the first time. I’m really excited about the music coming out of the studio.”
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