While “The Masked Singer” can be seen on Fox, local Tifton residents had the opportunity to experience the show for themselves at the Tifton Theater. The Tifton show was inspired by the popular show that started in 2019. Originally from Sylvester, GA manager Kezia Larry sprung the idea up for the event, which came with much preparation.
Larry recently acquired the manager position. The past couple of years, she helped teach music at the theater, and this past summer she helped direct some productions. Such as “Beauty in the Beast” and “Moana Jr.”
Later, when the position was opened, she applied and got the job. Larry has a love for both music and theater. She said, “I think I love music and theater the most because there is something for anybody. There is a type of music and genre for everybody,” she continued. “Even in theater, if you like working backstage, acting, tech, lights, sound, costume make up, building sets, it’s so much.”
Larry is currently finishing her degree at Albany State University, in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on music and education. Before that, she graduated from ABAC with a Fine Arts Degree.
She said “Tickets sales, have been very good for this show. I think that they’ll get lots of excitement and lots of good singing.”
The Masked singer event started at 7:00 p.m. on Feb 15, and 8 contestants competed. The contestants and their costumes were: Riley Dorrity as Piñata, Claire Reeves as Zorro, Allison Jones as Miss Cupid, Joianna Duffie as the Queen of Hearts, Lee Dunston as Cowboy, Myron Stevenson as Dino, Colton Copeland as Mr. Cupid and Lauren Bulter as the Unicorn.
Mr. Cupid explained the journey he had been preparing for the masked singer and getting to know the contestants helped. He said, “It’s helped a lot, helping to ease my nerves and getting to the folks on a personal level. I’m just excited for all the fun we’re going to have tonight.”
When asked about how long he had been performing, Tifton native, Myron Stevenson, said “Back when I was younger, they used to have the Black and Art’s Festival, so really all of my life.”
Host Richelle Hart and Niki Bradley started the event by introducing the contestants. Each contestant was judged on their performance by three judges.
Contestant Piñata who performed the song “Never Enough“ from The Greatest Showman was first, followed by Zorro as she sang and played guitar to the song “I Love You, I’m Sorry” by Gracie Abrams.
Miss Cupid gave a soulful performance of “So Amazing” by Luther Vandross, The Queen of Hearts sang a powerful selection of “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton.
Next, the Dino sang “Her Heart” by Anthony Hamilton, which Cowboy followed with an well-rounded performance of “Your Man” by Josh Turner.
Mr. Cupid closed the first round with an emotional performance of “Colder Weather” by the Zac Brown Band, and the Unicorn sang a familiar hit song sung, Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You.“
Judges reduced the original 8 contestants down to 3 finalists by eliminating Unicorn, Pinata, Zorro, Cowboy and Mr. Cupid. Each of the contestants was given the opportunity to share a little about themselves with the crowd.
Initially, there were supposed to be three contestants to compete in the finals. But a change was made to announce that Cowboy will be in the finals as well. Audience member Austin Barnes, who is an artist, said “I think he did a really good job portraying emotion with his music; I think his stage presence was really good, also his ability to bring the crowd in with commonly known songs.”
The crowd was ecstatic, as Cowboy was placed among the finalists. So, the final contestants consisted of Dino, the Queen of Hearts, Cowboy, and Miss Cupid. Each had less time to wow the judges this time.
The Queen of Hearts went up first, with a quick selection of another powerful performance of Sam Cooke’s, “A Change’s Gone Come.” Mrs. Cupid followed with her engaging performance of SWV’s “Weak.” Followed by Dino’s performance of Rod Wave’s “The Great Gatsby.” The final round ended with Cowboy’s crowd rallying performance of “My Way” by Frank Sinatra.
The judges declared Miss Cupid the winner, as she became Tifton’s first Masked Singer.
Jones said, “I feel surprised and so happy. Most of the time the crowd will feed of your energy, and I brought the energy.” She got the crowd to clap around without any music to her song.