Viewers were left stunned on Saturday evening when one of the masked singers in the UK version of the hit show was revealed as music legend Dionne Warwick – and she was sent home after just one episode.
‘Weather’ appeared earlier in the show, heavily disguised, but as soon as she began to sing many viewers at home, and most of the show’s four judges, immediately guessed it was likely to be Warwick.
She was one of six disguised celebrities to take to the stage in the first episode of the new series, and became one of the three artists threatened to be sent home in the last minutes of the show.
After judges elected to save another contestant, and she lost the vote between the final two, ‘Weather’ was unmasked as the veteran five-time Grammy winner and Burt Bacharach muse. With a smile on her face, she appeared unshocked to be going home, prompting viewers to speculate on social media that she had made a single appearance a condition of her appearance on the UK show.
The Sun newspaper quotes several fans writing on social media:
“If Dionne Warwick is voted of #MaskedSingerUK 1st then there must be a 1 week contract available for those who want to take part but not for too long. Unless they just don’t want to pretend Weather is not her for another week?”
A second said: “Dionne Warwick clearly had a “one episode only” deal.”
And a third added: “#TheMaskedSinger is def a fix! They knew it was Dionne Warwick and woulda kept her in for being the legend that she is. Something fishy going on.”
Warwick previously appeared on The Masked Singer US in 2020 as a mouse, when she was equally swiftly uncovered. At the time, she said:
“It’s kind of hard to disguise my voice, unfortunately, in this case, and they recognised my voice, there’s nothing I can do about that.”