‘The Masked Singer’: Why Showbird Said Yes Now After Being Asked for 11 Seasons

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[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 12 Episode 2 “Footloose Night.”]

It was even more of a Community reunion on The Masked Singer!

Ken Jeong is a panelist, Joel McHale was an ambassador in the premiere for Showbird, and in Episode 2, that masked celebrity was revealed to be Yvette Nicole Brown!

“It’s funny, I tried to make her—I just realized, when I’ve been speaking about Showbird, I’ve been speaking as if it’s not me because I really did want her to be a character,” Brown tells TV Insider. “I wanted her to have her little tail feathers and have her little moment.”

Below, the Community star opens up about her time on the show, why she said yes, and more. Plus, she provides an update on the Community movie.

What made you say yes to doing The Masked Singer? Did you have any hesitations?

Yvette Nicole Brown: Oh, absolutely. I had 12 seasons of hesitations. I’ve been asked to do it for about at least 11 seasons. Craig [Plestis], the executive producer, and Ken have asked me to do it, and I was never going to do it. I had decided, I don’t want to do it, I don’t want to sing. I don’t want people to hear my voice. And it was from a space of past pain. I started as a singer, and it didn’t work out for me, and I was like, “I’m taking my ball and I’m going home.” And I was never going to do the show as a singer. And this year, I’m a caregiver, and it was a difficult year for my dad in caregiving, and I needed a little bit of whimsy and joy and silliness and I needed something to take my mind off of what life was in that season of time. And so it was the right time. Then also I knew that it would really make Ken happy, and Ken is a really dear friend of mine, but and I wanted to make him happy. I wanted to delight Ken. So I was happy to do it for that reason.

What went into your song choices?

I picked songs that I love, that mean something to me. “Just Fine” by Mary J. Blige, the lyrics of it. The idea that, I like what I see when I’m looking at me, when I’m walking past a mirror, and it’s not arrogance. It’s basically saying whatever the world is telling me about myself, I am choosing to believe that I’m good and I’m beautiful and I’m kind and I’m wonderful. I saw it as an affirmation of, no matter what they say, I’m fine. I’m doing fine. I look fine. I’m living fine. So that song was special to me for that reason. Very difficult song to sing. She sings very fast. There are very little breath points in there. And if you’re not a trained singer, which I am not anymore, it was rough. We had a mountain to climb for that one.

And “Let’s Hear It for the Boy” [by Deniece Williams] was just a love letter to my fiancé, Tony, who I love. I could sing his praises every single day. And so the idea that the song was “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” and it was the Footloose Week and it was the only song on Footloose that I wanted to sing… I was like, please, if we’re doing Footloose, it’s got to be “Let’s Hear It for the Boy.” And I found out from the producers that every one of us that were on the Footloose night, we all had one song that we really wanted it to be and none of us had the same song, which, how often does that happen? I thought I’d have to have a cage match to get “Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” and I was the only one that wanted it and it was for me to sing. So I’m so glad and shout out to Deniece Williams and that octave range. She has that. I do not. I don’t know how I made it through, but I did.

Talk about listening to the panelists’ guesses. Did you come in expecting Ken to figure you out?

I was surprised that he didn’t go, “That’s Yvette, final answer,” immediately, because Ken and I did 16-hour days on Community together. Anyone else on that show, I could spot them in a lineup of a thousand in the dark. So the fact that as soon as I walked out, he didn’t go Yvette Nicole Brown, I’m shocked by that, but I’m also happy he didn’t because I got Jennifer Hudson and Sheila E. and Taraji P. Henson and Kerry Washington. And they’re all beautiful, talented, very trim and fit women, and I would love to be any of them on any given day. So it was nice to be guessed as those queens.

And then you also had even more Community with Joel McHale in the first episode. It was really a Community reunion for you.

It really was. And I think it was really on the nose having Joel be my ambassador. I think I was chosen immediately or guessed immediately because of that as well. But I was honored that Joel wanted to be my ambassador and introduced me to The Masked Singer family from that side. I’d already been a guest judge, so to be introduced from the singing side was pretty cool.

Michael Becker/Fox

Did you have anything in mind from when you were guest judging when you were performing?

No, I just knew that there’s singers up there and they’re going to listen. I knew Robin [Thicke] and Rita [Ora] in particular would be like, okay, what is that tone and that person? And also I knew that they would know if I missed a note or if I was off key or if something wasn’t right. So I wanted to show up for them as a singer. I also knew the criteria that we used for trying to guess. So I knew that they would be picking through, okay, is it popcorn, and what is that could be? And there’s a gavel. And I thought my clues were pretty on the nose. I mean, if you’re a fan of Drake & Josh and you see that popcorn, you’re going to think the premiere and you’re going to know that’s Helen and A Black Lady Sketch Show was the gavel, which I got nominated for an Emmy for that wonderful show, thank you Robin Thede. So I thought that my clues were—if you knew me at all, you would know it was me.

What are you going to take away from the entire experience?

That it’s important to say yes to things that scare you. I was scared to do the show. I was against doing the show for my own things, my own issues with singing and all that. And I’m glad I did it. And so sometimes the things that you’re running from or you’re scared of or you think will not bear fruit are the things that will absolutely bear fruit. And I think if anyone can learn anything from me, it’s okay to pick up a dream that you set aside. It’s okay to trust that it won’t hurt you this time. So sometimes it’s important to revisit things that you let go of, just see if maybe the shoe might still fit.

Have you been hearing from any former costars guessing it was you?

I’ve been hearing from a lot of people, friends from back home in Ohio and Cleveland. And the funny thing, again, everyone knows it’s me, so no one was like, “I might be crazy, but are you on The Masked Singer?” Everyone has been, “Great job as Showbird.” So I haven’t responded to any of the messages because I was told with this NDA not to say anything. So I’ve left a lot of my friends on read for the last two weeks. But yeah, everyone knew it was me. Worst surprise in the world.

Now that you’ve gotten back into singing with this, might we hear some more singing from you going forward?

Maybe. I think I got an EP. I’ll maybe go and do a couple of songs somewhere. I’m friends with—I’m going to drop this name because I’m honored that he’s my friend—Jimmy Jam and I wonder, I’ve already joked like, I’ll come in and do some backgrounds on something you do. So to be able to do some background vocals on something would make me happy. I don’t have any aspirations to be a recording artist at all anymore, but to sing and support someone else or to go on tour as someone’s background singer, I think that would be a lot of fun.

What surprised you the most about the experience?

I was surprised, and this is nothing against The Masked Singer, but I always thought that they weren’t really singing in there. I thought that maybe they were going and recording their song and then lip syncing to their song. No, we’re actually singing and we’re actually singing live with something over our head and sweat pouring down our face and in my case a harness and a big caboose of feathers. So we’re singing under duress. So if anybody sounds good, just know they really are a good singer because there’s a lot of things working against you in those costumes and it’s all real. We’re really singing live.

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Did you make any adjustments to your performances at all because of the costume?

Yes. I am not one that exercises and my Showbird costume was heavy and there was choreography, so I did not perform the choreography as big as I could have because I was worried about my breath. Also I didn’t know where that caboose was half the time. I didn’t want to knock over a dancer. So there were adjustments like that. And then also you want to still sound good, so I didn’t want to overexert myself in the costume with the costume, with the dancing, and then sound crazy. So I chose vocals over performance to a certain extent.

While I have you, I’m looking forward to the Community movie.

Oh, yay. I’m glad. It’s coming.

Any updates at all you can share?

Just that it’s coming. We’ve read the script. We’re just trying to schedule it now. Literally, it’s not about desire or—everyone’s on board. We just got to figure out when we can all come together to do it.

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