‘The Masked Singer’s Skunk on Performing Again: ‘The Gifts Are Still There’

Meredith Jacobs December 1, 2021, 9:01 pm

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 6 Episode 11 “Group A Finale.”]

And then there was one … left in Group A of The Masked Singer Season 6.

Bull and Skunk battled it out in the Group A Finale, singing solo and then duets (with Jesse McCartney and Michael Bolton, respectively) in hopes of continuing on and facing off with either Queen of Hearts or Banana Split of Group B. In the end, Bull moved on, and Skunk was eliminated and revealed to be singer-songwriter Faith Evans.

Evans takes us inside her experience on the Fox hit.

Talk about getting the call to do The Masked Singer. What made you say yes?

Faith Evans: Well, the fact that they called me, number one. I’m a fan of the show and knowing that it’s local, it’s taped in LA and I had enough lead time to prepare things for my son, who’s 14, to make sure I had someone to care for him. I was more than excited when my manager got the call. It’s not something I would’ve ever probably turned down unless it was just impossible.

FOX

What appealed to you about the costume? Were there any adjustments that had to be made?

Initially, there was another costume that I liked, but it was super, super sexy. When I sing, I tend to take really deep breaths, and I was like, I don’t want to be giving it my all and somebody’s taking a picture, the camera flashes and it doesn’t look like my body. [Laughs] So I chose the Skunk because not only was it still sexy but it was also glamorous and I’m biracial, so I thought the black and the white kind of was a little play on that. By the first actual performance, we certainly had to make some adjustments. The costume itself had a few layers and then the tail was 20 pounds, but the mask didn’t quite have enough air holes. So on the first performance, I was almost choking on my sweat under there. So that was probably the main adjustment, with the mask and not wearing a headband to make me sweat more in my face underneath the mask. But other than that, I had to stick it out.

Talk about your song choices. Did you make any adjustments as a result of the costume?

That first performance, “Diamonds,” that was the most difficult because that was prior to getting the extra air holes in my mask and I was almost choking on my sweat under there and I was singing and I was [coughing]. I had to catch my breath. I was like, Oh my God, I hope I sounded OK. It was just coming from everywhere But I was almost panicking, because I was like, what am I going to do if I can’t breathe?

Skunk and Michael Bolton in The Masked Singer

FOX

And talk about that duet with Michael Bolton. What made “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” the right song?

That’s just one of those songs that everyone I know loves that record. That’s one of the greatest duets of all time in any genre for me, and the meaning of the song of course. But to be able to perform with Michael was a huge honor and the fact that we sang together at someone’s house party like 15 years ago and he didn’t know who I was. I’m sure he doesn’t know it’s me, so I was really excited to see if he was going to [get it]. He kept looking like he was trying to figure it out the voice when we were in rehearsal. I wonder if it’s going to come back to him once he sees who I really am.

What song would you have performed next if you hadn’t been eliminated?

It was going to be “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from Dreamgirls.

What’d you think of the panelists’ guesses? Robin [Thicke] figured it out because you sang a duet together. So going in, had you expected him to guess you?

Definitely. I absolutely expected him to know. Because we were working together just as writing partners for a couple of months back around the time that we did release that duet together. So, we have a familial bond in a sense, but I definitely knew he would be the one to know of anybody.

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And the other panelists?

I remember Nicole [Scherzinger] a couple of times saying, “Possibly, OK, Robin, I kind of see why you’re saying that, but…” I enjoyed the guessing game. [Laughs] At least they were legends and renowned artists that they were guessing me to be.

What are you going to take away from your experience on The Masked Singer?

That I can still do this if I want to, performing and getting on the stage and giving it my all. I hadn’t been performing in a few years. It’s not like I sing around the house or anything like that. I’m glad that I did it. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of work, but it just reassured me that the gifts are still there.

The Masked Singer, Wednesdays, 8/7c, Fox