Spoilers ahead for The Masked Singer Season 3 finale.
The Masked Singer’s Frog went all out in Season 3, bringing the energy, the swagger, and more than a little excitement to the Fox competition show. Frog swept the audience away week after week with his dance moves and song choices, and all without having to melodically sing one note. With everything from MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” to 50 Cent’s “In da Club,” The Masked Singer’s Frog rapped his way through the competition. But the third-place runner-up had a reason for it.
Kicking the The Masked Singer’s Season 3 finale off with a rendition of P. Diddy’s “Bad Boys for Life,” which led to his elimination, Frog’s unmasking revealed him to be none other than rapper and CSI: Cyber vet Shad “Bow Wow” Moss. Moss’ rapping played heavily in cluing many viewers in on his identity early on (along with a near-endless stream of Like Mike clues.) So if singing in each round might have fooled people a little longer, why didn’t he just do that during the competition instead?Moss had his reasons, and explained those choices to TVLine:
My whole vibe was to stand out. I didn’t want to come on there, standing in one spot, just singing. I watched everyone’s performance. I studied them. I’m like, ‘Yo, there’s a lot of slow ballads. There’s a lot of great, great singers with strong voices. But who is gonna be the person to get it going?’
And get the party going, he did. Shad “Bow Wow” Moss (who dropped the "Lil" part of the moniker years ago) knew he had major competition and used his experience as a performer to hype the crowd up and entertain them to great success. He definitely had a much different vibe going than Jesse McCartney’s Turtle or Kandi Buruss’ Night Angel, who came in second and first place, respectively, and it was a big reason why he avoided being eliminated until the finale.
To be sure, the rapper’s Frog costume drew attention from the start. Dressed to the nines in a zoot suit and hot pink suspenders, Shad Moss came ready to entertain. In fact, the one thing he felt very confident with was in knowing he could get the audience grooving. Here’s how Moss put it:
I’m not gonna lie: There was never a time where I felt like I did not have them in the palm of my hand. I felt like I had them since Day 1. I knew. Because I know me, and I wanted my performances to represent who Bow Wow was, also the Frog, too. But I really wanted to showcase the energy. My whole vibe was a party. . . . It’s a live audience, too. You want to feel some different type of energy in the room, and that was my whole key to me getting to the finals: Every time I go up there to be fun, have lots of energy and bring the party. That was the key to the Frog’s success, to bring the party. So there was never a doubt in my mind that I would lose the crowd or mess it up or anything. I was ready to go.
The Masked Singer has already been renewed for Season 4 and is currently slated to premiere at some point in the fall on Fox, assuming the filming schedule is able to go forward as planned. The competition series will maintain its Wednesday night time slot at 8:00 p.m. ET, and hopefully the producers find someone as energetic as Bow Wow to Season 4 and beyond.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for updates. For more on what to watch in the coming months, be sure to check out our 2020 summer TV premiere guide.
