The Masked Singer's most shocking reveals ever

The Masked Singer is back on our screens and Aussie viewers are hooked, with Hollywood actor Brian Austin Green the first to be unmasked in the new season.

Nobody guessed the former 90210 star was behind the mask, but there have been even more shocking unmaskings over the years. Here are the show's most shocking reveals from around the world.

Ryan Reynolds

Deadpool and Green Lantern actor Ryan Reynolds turned more than few heads when he made a surprise appearance as a unicorn on the South Korean version of the show, The King of Mask Singer, in 2018. However, the Canadian doesn't exactly have fond memories of competing.

"When I was there, I was like, 'Why did I sign up to do this? This is horrible! This is truly horrible! I don't know this song, I don't know how to do this,'" Ryan shared during an appearance on US morning show Today. "It was traumatic."

The audience loved it though. "At the time, no Westerner had been on that show before," Ryan revealed.

Kermit The Frog

In 2021, it was the unmasking that no one expected when Kermit the Frog was revealed as the singer beneath the snail costume in an the US version of the show.

The Muppet stunned the judges when the Snail was voted off and when unmasked, at first no one was revealed. Then two little green hands peeked over the edge of the costume and his head popped out to show that his voice, while not comparable to the trained singers that have taken part, is still just as distinctive.

But Kermit was upset he was voted off first. "I was disappointed," he told People. "However, I did set the record for 'longest-lasting celebrity frog in a snail costume' in the entire history of Masked Singer. So, I'll always have that."

Cody Simpson

Is there anything this guy can't do? He gave up swimming when he was a junior state champion to pursue a career in music and acting. Then in 2019, he won the inaugural Masked Singer Australia. Nobody, not even guest judge Lindsay Lohan who knew Cody from LA, guessed it was him.

"This is like winning an Olympic gold medal or something," he declared when he won. "This is going on the top of the cabinet."

In 2021, Cody returned to swimming to compete for a place in the Tokyo Olympics Australian swimming squad. While he just missed out on a berth in the team, the following year he competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games team in Birmingham, England. Cody and his teammates worked together to bring home the gold medal in the 4×100 metre men's freestyle relay.

Dick Van Dyke

Also in 2021, the first contestant to be eliminated from the American version of The Masked Singer caused quite a surprise, because it was none other than 97-year-old actor and Hollywood icon, Dick Van Dyke.

"I was so positive that nobody would ever guess it was me," Van Dyke told EW. "I don't think they expected anybody from my generation to be on that show," he explained "So I knew I was gonna fool them. They were so surprised. I stepped out and everybody's mouths dropped open. I think some people thought I was dead."

Lil Wayne

Most rappers are far too cool for talent shows but not Lil Wayne. In fact, Wayne even admitted he's been a fan of the show for a while. His original plan to get fellow rap superstar Nicki Minaj on the show in 2020 backfired when the show's producers asked him to come on instead.

"I've been watching since the first episode, because the first episode, when it came on I knew it was T-Pain," Lil Wayne revealed to MTV's Fresh Out. "Because of that I told Mack Maine to call them," Wayne explained. "I told him 'Let 'em know I'm a huge fan' and I wanted to get Nicki on there." But the show's producer had other ideas: "Man they want you on there," Maine told Wayne.

And Wayne certainly fooled the judges. "This is the most shocked I've ever been on this show," singer and panellist Robin Thicke said upon Wayne's unmasking.

A-Ha's Morten Harket

In the UK, the franchise was lucky enough to get A-Ha lead singer, Morten Harket up on stage in 2021. "I was meant to be busy during the period in question when invited to join The Masked Singer," he explained. "The pandemic cleared the majority of activities off the calendar and suddenly the door opened for other types of requests."

However, dressing the 63-year-old Norwegian singer as a viking was a bit of a giveaway, and when the star sang a slower version of his most famous song, Take On Me, it seemed the jig was up. But no singer had ever sung his or her own song on the show before, so the judges were all shocked when Harket's identity was revealed. "I did it because I needed to be kicked out of my comfort zone," the star said at the time.

Sarah Palin

We know US politics is a little crazier than our own, but even the Americans didn't expect a former politician to be taking part in a celebrity singing contest. Enter Sarah Palin in a rave-inspired bear costume, complete with leg-warmers.

The former governor of Alaska and vice president hopeful not only agreed to perform on the show, but even spat out the lyrics to Sir Mix-a-lot's Baby Got Back. Yep, Sarah Palin saing "I like big butts and I cannot lie" in front of millions.

"I knew it would be so refreshing and so freeing and, well, in a real respectful way, kind of a walking middle finger to the haters out there in the world," the divisive Republican Party figure told the show's host Nick Cannon. "Where I could do whatever I wanted to do and not care what anybody said because they wouldn't know until after the fact. So it all worked out," Palin added.

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