AMERICAN singer Macy Gray was tonight exposed as The Masked Singer’s diva who refused to be unmasked.
Now The Sun can reveal the full explosive story of how the ITV guessing game was thrown into chaos by the I Try star when she was voted out as Toad In The Hole.
A source has revealed that because Macy reached the final of the US version as Sea Queen in 2023, she was “totally blindsided” to be one of the first to leave this series.
Tonight Masked Singer viewers saw her storm off stage after host Joel Dommett, 39, revealed she’d been voted out – but she was then seen returning to stage, seemingly moments later.
But in fact bosses were left scrambling for nearly an hour to coax Macy back on stage – none of which was seen on screen.
A whistleblower said: “This has never happened on The Masked Singer before.
“When Macy stormed off stage everyone was frozen in shock but as soon as she reached backstage, crew removed her mask so they could talk her down.
“Macy was almost shellshocked to start with and was basically gutted to be out so early because she really enjoyed being on the American version – when obviously she did brilliantly – so was totally blindsided.
“It was the shock of it for her as well as the upset and in that moment she had a very raw, human reaction and wanted out.
“For a professional performer to reach that point shows how badly she felt.
“Obviously The Masked Singer isn’t a singing competition and is just a bit of fun, so being voted off was no indication of her talent, but no one could believe a global superstar like Macy had lost it like this.
“It took everyone backstage ages to talk her round and poor Joel was on stage essentially doing a stand-up routine to try and keep things under control.
[bc_video account_id=”5067014667001″ application_id=”” aspect_ratio=”16:9″ autoplay=”” caption=”The Masked Singer in ‘fake’ row as viewers convinced bosses stepped in over judges’ guesses” embed=”in-page” experience_id=”” height=”100%” language_detection=”” max_height=”360px” max_width=”640px” min_width=”0px” mute=”” padding_top=”56%” picture_in_picture=”” player_id=”default” playlist_id=”” playsinline=”” sizing=”responsive” video_id=”6366689893112″ video_ids=”” width=”640px”]“Eventually they managed to persuade Macy to go back on stage and be properly unmasked and sing for the last time.
“But it was totally wild.”
[authenticated-scripts src=”%3Cscript%20class%3D%22palin-poll%22%20src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thesun.co.uk%2Fpollingwidgets%2Fv3%2Fwidget.js%3Fquestion_id%3D102477%26game%3Dpolling%22%3E%3C%2Fscript%3E” type=”embedded” width=”100″ /]On tonight’s show, viewers saw Joel read out Toad In The Hole’s name and the audience cheered, then Toad stormed off stage.
None of the frantic backstage scramble was shown, just a shot of the panel including Davina McCall and Jonathan Ross’ shocked faces.
It then showed Toad returning to the stage to be unmasked and seemed like just a few minutes had passed.
Joel first hinted at Macy’s explosion when he chatted exclusively to The Sun last week.
He said: “A great thing this series is that someone gets very annoyed when they get voted out and they storm off stage.
“Seeing someone storm off in a massive costume . . . it was more of a shuffle!”
Toad In The Hole sung against Pufferfish, Bear, Wolf and Bush on tonight’s show, the latest in a storming run for the ITV1 and IVX favourite as it enjoys peaks of 4.7m viewers.
Guesses so far include Jamie Lynn Spears, Michael Sheen, Marti Pellow and Patrick Stewart.
Kate Garraway, aka Spag Bol and Prue Leith aka Pegasus left this year’s series first.
The Sun first told of the character chaos on Friday, when an audience member told us: “It was absolutely bonkers. Usually the celeb with the lowest votes takes off their mask and then chats to the panel and sings again.
[boxout headline=”Who won The Masked Singer 2025?” featured-image=”32646117″ intro=”Much to the delight of telly fans, The Masked Singer came back in 2025.”]Twelve celebrities were hidden behind intricate costumes, with their identities concealed.
Pufferfish – This year’s winner had flawless vocals throughout the competition. West End powerhouse Samantha Barks told the audience she’d loved every second of the series.
Dressed Crab – Former American football player turned jazz singer Gregory Porter was the man behind the crustacean. He duetted with Keala Settle, who previously competed as Air Fryer, in the final.
Wolf – Wet Wet Wet heartthrob Marti Pellow was unmasked as the rugged character. McFly’s Danny Jones, who won last year’s show as Piranha, was on the panel in the final and paid his respects to the Scottish crooner.
Bush – she didn’t fool viewers and the judges were so close, but Bush was in fact EastEnders legend Natalie Cassidy. Davina McCall came closest, guessing Morgana Robinson, who does a mean impression of the Sonia actress
Bear – another success for new judge Maya Jama as she guessed correctly that the singing Bear was none other than singer, songwriter Example – real name Elliot Gleave.
Snail – this singer certainly fooled the judges as the mask was lifted to reveal Andrea Corr. Jonathan Ross admitted to being a huge fan of The Corrs.
Kingfisher – everyone was convinced this was Harry Hill, but the mask was lifted to reveal artist Sir Grayson Perry, who is known for his alter-ego Claire.
Teeth – this character baffled judges and viewers with their changing voice. They were finally unmasked as former Bake Off host Mel Giedroyc. None of the panel managed to guess it was her.
Tattoo – despite Davina McCall saying “you sound the same” after this character was unmasked, none of the judges guessed it was 80s singer Carol Decker, whose hit China In Your Hand was a No1 hit for five weeks.
Toad In The Hole – a massive diva strop saw the character storm off the stage after the judges voted them off. They later returned to be unmasked as singer Macy Gray.
Pegasus – the mythical horse was revealed to be Prue Leith, with judge Jonathan Ross correctly guessing her identity.
Spag Bol – this character was first to be unmasked and was none other than Good Morning Britain host Kate Garraway.
Plus there was one extra unmasking this season, with Giant Joel – a caricature of host Joel Dommett – unveiled as double-double Olympic champion Sir Mo Farah.
“But instead this character turned around and shuffled off stage, which was hilarious in their costume obviously, but we were all stunned.
“We knew something was going on because we saw lots of to-ing and fro-ing with crew before the person eventually came back on stage.”
A celebrity has never reacted badly to their unmasking in the ITV show’s five-year history.
Soul superstar Dionne Warwick left first in 2024, whilst on series two Sophie Ellis-Bextor left in week one and Spice Girl Mel B left in week two.
An ITV spokesperson declined to comment.
