The Masked Singer Season 10 Finale: Cow takes home the trophy and pranks old friend Nick Cannon

DEVASTATION WARNING! This post contains details about the season 10 finale of The masked singerincluding cow’s identity.

The masked singer officially announced the winner of season 10.

In the two-hour finale of the Fox singing competition series, the four finalists – Cow, Sea Queen, Gazelle and Doughnut – competed against each other Masked Trophy. After two very different performances, Cow fought his way to the top.

No one should be all that shocked by this win, as Cow is none other than three-time Grammy winner Ne-Yo. Kudos to Robin Thicke for figuring it out first.

Ne-Yo has been impressing the judges all season, but no one but Thicke could see who was behind the mask until the final moments of Wednesday’s episode. It was only during a rendition of Rihanna’s “Take A Bow”, which Ne-Yo wrote and produced with StarGate, that Nicole Scherzinger realized who was standing right in front of her the whole time.

If anyone thought of it, it would have been Thicke or Scherzinger, Ne-Yo told Deadline. But he didn’t just have to fool the jury. He also got to stand next to his old friend Nick Cannon in every episode and also fly under his radar.

Before the final, Ne-Yo spoke to Deadline about how to keep the excitement going and bring home the wins Masked Trophy.

Reporter: You said you were a fan of the show, but what made you actually want to join?

NE-YO: Nick Cannon is a good friend of mine. He had no idea I was doing the show. I actually have another good friend to thank. Her name is Danielle Crawley. She’s a mutual friend of mine and Nick, and when we were literally just talking about it, she said one day, “How nice it would be if you passed.” The masked singer And we didn’t tell Nick? Do you think he will catch you? And I think: I don’t know. I might have to go to great lengths to make sure he doesn’t know it’s me, so I chose the female cow rather than the male cow. They actually asked me when it was agreed that I would do the show. They gave me the choice of being a male or a female cow and I went with the female cow and tried to go as far as I could to make sure no one knew it was me. And it actually worked because he had no idea at all.

Reporter: Some of your behavior as a cow was hilarious, especially when you were messing around with Nick. He points it out to you in the finale. How did you get this character?

NE-YO: I am proud to be an actor in training. You know what I mean? I don’t know if I’m good enough to call myself a real actor yet, but I sure love this job. And again I knew I would be a female cow. I grew up in a house full of women: my mother, my sister, my grandmother and me. So the female behavior wasn’t that hard to learn… it wasn’t hard at all to develop the character. But yeah, I played around with Nick just because I thought it was so funny that he didn’t know who I was.

Reporter: During the competition you really experimented with a lot of different genres. I know the producers help choose the songs, but what role did you play?

NE-YO: Yes, it was definitely intentional. My voice is quite distinctive. I find it very difficult to hide my singing voice. I knew it would happen if someone caught me. I can hide my speaking voice. I can’t hide my singing voice. So I tried to do songs that were a little bit beyond my abilities, songs that you probably wouldn’t expect Ne-Yo to sing, and I think it worked.

Reporter: How did you decide to perform “Take A Bow” in the finale?

NE-YO: “Take A Bow” was a joint decision between me and the producers. We wanted to do one of the last performances, a kind of final indication of who I was. Even then, some of the judges just weren’t convinced it was me.

Reporter: Robin and Nicole guessed your identity. Did you expect this?

NE-YO: I actually have a personal relationship with Robin and Nicole, so I knew that if I could get past them and convince them that I wasn’t myself, things would work out. What I was most worried about was that Robin, Nicole and Nick would find out who I was. Robin was actually the only judge who always said, “Yeah, I think Ne-Yo.” Everyone else was moving and possibly waving to other people. But Robin remained pretty consistent. This worried me. They didn’t really listen to Robin. Nick once said, “I know it’s not Ne-Yo.” From then on I knew that I was, for the most part, in the clear.

Reporter: What did Nick Cannon say to you all the time when he found out it was really you?

NE-YO: Well, backstage he said, “Okay, so I have to kill Danielle.” He knew our mutual friend was responsible. And then he was really impressed. Because he said, “I really didn’t know it was you.” I mean the voice, but the way you walk and the way you move, I had no idea.” He was impressed by my acting talent. He says, “You need to act a little more.” I think I can just do it.

Reporter: I also really liked the group number at the beginning of the final. Did you all have to rehearse in your costumes to keep your identities secret?

NE-YO: The security for The masked singer is great This is the president’s security as if no one knew who anyone was. If you didn’t wear a costume, we have hoodies with “Don’t talk to me” on the front, a mirror visor and gloves. No one knew who anyone else was. At rehearsals you were either in your costume or in this hoodie with a visor and gloves. They were very insistent. You literally couldn’t get on set…they weren’t acting.

Reporter: You said in your closing package that you were very excited about the possibility of winning The masked singer. What was it like to actually take home the trophy?

NE-YO: I’m in good company and I’m just talking about the other artists who won and it feels good. It feels good to step out of my own shoes for a moment. I never expected to step into the female cow shoes, but it felt good to step away from the Ne-Yo dynamic and just do something different. Most of all, I had so much fun. I really, really did. I will do it again. If I feel I can get away with it, I will definitely do it again.