In the finale of Season 10, Cow a.k.a Ne-Yo, took home the crown after competing in two seasons.
The finalists included Macy Gray as the Sea Queen, Janel Parrish as the Gazelle, John Schneider as the Donut, and this season’s winner, Ne-Yo as the Cow.
Cow, a female costume, was able to disillusion the judges and audiences with flamboyant gestures all season. Ne-yo admitted he chose the apron-wearing cow costume to bewilder his friends on the panel, having to learn new moves and mannerisms.
The only other people Ne-Yo couldn’t fool were his children and mother. “My mom and my kids called it right away from the first show,” explained the father of four. He tried to deny it, but they were adamant.
They quipped, “We’ve been listening to your voice our whole lives. We know you when we hear you.”
Ne-Yo continued, “So yeah, they caught it right away. A lot of my friends, they didn’t catch it. They were fooled, but yeah, the family, immediate family, right away they knew it was me.”
As the masked contestant’s time on the show came to a close, Cow performed “Take a Bow” by Rihanna, and was revealed as the “Take A Bow” songwriter. By the show’s end, panelist Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke were able to pin Ne-Yo, who placed second in Season Two of Masked Singer U.K.
“And here he is, dressed as a cow with an apron on holding a trophy,” panelist Robin Thicke said after the reveal.
The 3x Grammy-winning singer previously competed on the U.K. version of “The Masked Singer,” where he was a finalist but did not win.
“I did the U.K. version before the American version because I felt like on the American version, I would get caught quicker. People would recognize my voice a little faster. So I did the U.K. version thinking that I had a better shot at winning, and it turns out I didn’t win and I was second runner-up, but that was fine,” he told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Wednesday.
As far as what’s next from the newly-minted winner, he’s working on a new album, will be embarking on an international tour with Mario in the spring, and teased that fans should “expect to see [him] on the big and small screen relatively soon in some ways that you’ve never seen [him] before.”