This Glee Alum Is The First Star To Win The Masked Singer & DWTS
Hint: She’s a dreamgirl too.
The Masked Singer — a show that asks celebrities to sing in elaborate, masked costumes without revealing their name until they’re booted from the show — aired its two-hour finale on Nov. 30. Now as for the celebrity who won (and can now promote the season that has ended), well it was none other than a fan-favorite Glee alum.
Spoiler alert: The Harp won, beating out other contestants like the Lambs, a Snowstorm, and even a Venus Fly Trap. The Harp was actually Amber Riley in disguise. She’s best known for portraying Mercedes Jones on Glee. While Riley being crowned the winner of The Masker Singer is a big achievement, it’s especially notable considering she also won Dancing With The Stars all the way back in 2013. This means that Riley is now the first celebrity to have won both reality competitions, and it makes a ton of sense why she has.
The singer can, well, sing. Following Glee, Riley starred as Effie White in the 2016 West End production of Dreamgirls where she the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress. She’s also released an EP under the musical name, RILEY. Over the years, Riley has appeared on other reality shows like being a judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and BBC One series Let It Shine.
Now that Riley can finally discuss her appearance on The Masked Singer, she made it clear she’s stoked about winning. “This has been such an amazing experience just to be able to come out here and be completely covered and let my talent speak for itself,” Riley said on the show following her win. “I hope everybody felt my soul because I bared it right here on this stage.”
She also offered advice about pursuing dreams — like dressing as a harp and winning a singing TV competition. “Whatever it is that you want in this life, you go after it,” she said. “It may be hard, it may be a rocky journey, but at the end of that journey it will totally and completely be worth it, so keep going.”
She’s also celebrated her win in a series of Instagram posts. “Still buzzing from this moment. You guys don’t even know how relieved I felt to finally take that mask off,” Riley said in a post on Dec. 1.
Since Riley won as the Harp, it’s only fitting she releases a new song prominently featuring harp sounds, right? It so needed.
