[SPOILER ALERT: This story contains the identity of the winner and runners-up revealed on Wednesday night’s (April 1) season 14 finale of The Masked Singer.]
From the very beginning of the 14th season of The Masked Singer, it felt like the universe was lining up to bring Galaxy Girl to blast off into the winner’s circle. In a season that featured one of the wackiest collection of undercover stars to date — including baseball legend David “Big Papi” Ortiz, convicted reality TV fraudsters Todd and Julie Chrisley, actress/comedian Tiffany Haddish, soccer legend Alexi Lalas, TV judge Greg Mathis, rapper Tone Loc, reality TV star Heidi Montag and movie star Tara P. Henson among others — Galaxy Girl consistently shined brighter than the others.
She busted out with a strong first performance of Chappell Roan’s “Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl,” saying her strategy was to just “have fun.” Among the early clues was that she was a child star who kept her singing a secret for a long time and that “perfection” was never her thing, though her performance of No Doubt’s “Just a Girl” was dubbed the most fun by judge Robin Thicke.
She showed her versatility by crooning Incubus’ mellow rocker “Drive,” with Rita Ora describing the vocals as “raw, rock & roll, gritty, sexy and fun.” And then she did it again, ripping through a powerhouse cover of Ellie Goulding’s “Lights” that had her dancing with joy as judge Ken Jeong agreed with his fellow panelist Jennie McCarthy-Wahlberg that GG was the standout front-runner.
The guesses were mostly in the ballpark, with Emma Stone, Gwen Stefani, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Lindsay Lohan, Taylor Momsen and Hilary Duff being tossed out as possible identities along the way. In the lead-up to the finale, GG dipped into her emo bag with a high-energy run through Paramore’s “Misery Business” that had the judges saying that GG “came to win!”
On Wednesday night’s season ender, GG secured the bag with fiery performances of Olivia Rodrigo’s “Good 4 U” and P!nk’s “Try,” winning over runner-up Pugcasso (Phillip Phillips), Crane (Normani) and Cat Witch (Kylie Cantrall). Who was the intergalactic star under that Saturn-like ringed mask? None other than Ashlee Simpson.
Billboard spoke to Simpson before Wednesday’s finale and found out whether she kept her gig a secret from her three kids, how the show got her psyched to tour again, and if she secretly wanted to win just to beat her husband, Evan Ross (Stingray).
You said you’ve wanted to do the show for years, but in a clue package you said you were thrown off by a reference to something bad that happened in the past. Why now and what was your motivation?
For me, it was something me and my kids watch together [and I thought], “This will be a fun moment for me.” At first I was like, “I’m gonna surprise the kids.” And as my daughter hears me rehearsing a song every day, she knew every song I was doing so I let her in, but I said, “You cannot tell your friends!” Being under a mask, getting to find your character and learn different songs … this show was so hard and so much fun. Also navigating where you’re going on the stage.
Your costume really allowed you to move around, but the giant planet head seemed very top-heavy! What was it like trying to navigate the stage with such a giant head?
Luckily for me, I could move my body in my costume, but I did a lot of knee drops and I could feel that every time. My knees were black and blue. … Galaxy Girl’s going down! I think even that, finding moves that were big and fun … I truly — and I hope it comes across — was having the time of my life.
It definitely did. You looked so psyched after your first performance of that Chappell Roan song. What was going through your head at that moment?
For me, it was such a different experience, and that was my first moment of coming out onstage and not being able to have eye contact with the audience, which I’m so used to, that’s a part of delivering a set. Really to express yourself and find that was my first moment of that, so yes I was very excited in that moment and the sets were so much fun. For me it was the excitement of not knowing the crowd and them not knowing me.
You sang mostly songs by other female artists. Was that a conscious choice?
Yeah, definitely. We were looking for female artists and girls that had that strong quality. I really wanted that for Galaxy Girl, who is strong, sensitive and there to have a good time.
Outside of your Las Vegas Voltaire residency last year and some press runs in 2008, you haven’t performed much over the past decade. Did performing under the mask help you gain confidence in playing in public again?
It was definitely fun for me because I’d done my first Vegas run so it just kept that momentum going. It definitely led me to a place where I’m like, “OK, I miss performing and I want to perform all the time.” That push of, “Let’s get the album out, let’s go on tour!” It got that feeling going for me where I really want to get back onstage and tour.
So are you going to do that?
I definitely think so, yeah. All in the conditions of this and also being a mom, definitely.
Both you and your husband appeared on the show this year. Be honest: Was there a friendly competition going on, or did you want to crush him? You seemed like you really wanted to win.
Going into the show, I didn’t think I was going to be on that long, and all of a sudden I got competitive — not against my husband, because I couldn’t see him. They would give us different [rehearsal and performance] times and different paths, even though you can’t see anyone anyways. But it was so funny because we couldn’t see each other, so I would hear him sometimes rehearsing his songs at night and he would hear me rehearsing mine, but that was about it. Or we would call each other and be like, “How did it feel? Did you see?” We were both just rooting each other on and there to have a good time. I definitely got into the competition not knowing, “Oh yeah, I’m really going to work on this song and get there!”
How did it feel when you won?
I fell to my knees and I was feeling great under my mask. I have to share the reveal video with my sister [Jessica Simpson] and my daughter and my mom’s dialogue, which was hilarious. They’re watching and it was like, “Oh my God! Is she gonna win?!” Their dialogue was pretty brilliant, they were so shocked!
You’ve done TV, theater, music — where did Masked Singer land in terms of you being an artist? How did it make you feel?
It was such a different version of being an artist. It was like, “How do you connect with the audience as Galaxy Girl?” It did remind me of theater [Simpson played Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway in 2009-10] in that sense that you discover who you are as this character and how to connect with them. It also felt like you were in bootcamp, learning a new song every day.
It’s been nearly a decade since you released an album. Any new music on the horizon?
Definitely new music on the horizon. I’m looking forward to playing new shows and definitely ready for that moment to release new music. I’m inspired.
Can you say anything else about the music?
It’s in the process, yeah.
Now that you’ve done this, has it inspired you in other ways to want to do movies or other big projects?
It’s gotten me to a place where I want to get into acting as well, and I’d love to go back to Broadway. It just gave me that itch of performing, between Vegas and this show it gave me that, “Oh, this is what I love to do.” This is my happy place.
Before you kicked off your Vegas residency at Volatire last summer, it had been almost 17 years since your last run, but you have performances at L.A. Pride and Stagecoach coming up. How does it feel to be more fully out there lately after a long time mostly out of the spotlight?
Stagecoach will be fun. It’s a DJ set with Diplo [as part of his Honky Tonk tent]. I’m so excited, because it’s one of the festivals that all my mom friends go to. That will be a great little party with emo cowboy boots. And as far as Pride goes, that’s my beautiful little fanbase. I was there last year — I saw Maren Morris play — so I’m excited to play that and also to watch the Pussycat Dolls and Ava Max and be in the crowd having fun with my gays.
