Ne-Yo won season ten of ‘The Masked Singer’ reality singing competition as Cow earlier this week — and he admitted he had undergone a dramatic transformation because of his cumbersome outfit.
“I lost about 20 pounds because the costume did not breathe at all,” he told “Extra.”
In 2021, the star came second on the U.K. version of the show as Badger. Back then, he also had difficulty seeing where he was going when moving around the stage because the mouth didn’t align with his line of sight.
“There was a couple performances where they included like steps and stairs, and I’m like, ‘So, y’all want me to fall on my face. Okay, cool,'” he recalled.
Ne-Yo deliberately chose a female costume to “throw people off” because he was convinced his distinctive voice would “give [him] away.” But his mom and seven children couldn’t be fooled.
“My kids and my mom figured it out from the first performance,” the singer said. “Me and the kids sit and watch. Me and my mom sit and watch. I love that it’s a show that you can literally sit with every generation of your family and enjoy.”
The “Miss Independent” singer also admitted that opting for a female costume changed his performance.
“It gave me the opportunity to step outside my wheelhouse a little bit,” Ne-Yo, whose real name is Shaffer Smith, told People. “As a male cow, I could probably still dance like me. I’m definitely going to sound like me. And I was like, yeah, I’ll get caught quick like that.”
Ne-Yo “had an absolute ball” on the program.
“It’s been, in a word, fun,” he said.
“I had an absolute ball with it. It was a lot of fun stepping outside of the Ne-Yo box for a minute and being somebody else,” the Princess and the Frog soundtrack contributor said. “I genuinely enjoyed the experience and I would do it again if I felt like I could get away with it.”
