‘The Masked Singer’ reveals runner-up Wasp as R&B hitmaker and actor Mario

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Masked Singer season 12, episode 12, “Finale: Champion Is Crowned.”

After a season full of epic performances, the Wasp has officially kicked off The Masked Singer stage for the last time.

On Wednesday’s holiday-themed Season 12 finale, the high-pitched dance-blaster was named runner-up after a final vote that host Nick Cannon called “very, very, very close.” When it came time to reveal, two panelists — namely Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg and Ken Jeong — guessed Jason Derulo and Usher, respectively. Not bad guesses, but not quite as good as Rita Ora and Robin Thicke’s guesses: hit R&B artist, actor and Empire star Mario. In something of a Christmas miracle, they were right.

Before the big reveal, Weekly entertainment caught up with Mario about the unique challenges of releasing an album while pretending to be the Wasp, the advice he got from Ne-Yo, how he worked the show to cultivate those cute dance moves, and what it was really like to dance with the stinger.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: To start us off, you just released a new album, Glad you cameon December 13. How has the reception been to your new music?

MARY: I’ve been in this place of awe with both releasing an album and The Masked Singer happening at the same time. Glad you cameto me it’s kind of like the title of this place in my life right now. I feel that people come to see me live on The Masked Singerbut they don’t know it’s actually me. I feel like they’re hearing this new album, which is a new era and a new elevated version of who I am as an artist, but reminiscent of the feeling they felt from my first albums, but with more elevated lyrics and production . So I feel like it Glad you came is just kind of like the title of my life right now in this era that I’m in, which is great because as an artist, your dream is for everything to come full circle.

There are so many moving parts to creating an album. I work with James Fauntleroy, who is an executive producer with me, and we both traveled and came in for a week here and then off for two weeks and then in again. So with all that we tried to maintain the intention of the album and I think we did a good job of doing that. And I think so far the reception has been fantastic and I can’t wait for more people to get their ears and hearts into the album. And to be wasps on this season of Masked singer is kind of just an extra piece of nostalgia for me because I’m able to make records and take it back to when I was a kid (when I was) very imaginative about music, my love for it. The same thing that Wasp had to do is have imagination and it’s like melding the voice with the costume and the songs with the costume and the intention with the art direction, the whole thing. It’s all Broadway and music for me. So it was never a departure from me leaving to work on the album and finish mixing the album. Everything felt very connected. So this whole journey has been just beautiful. But yeah, the album is out right now and I’m excited to take it on tour.

Ne-Yo (aka season 10 winner, Cow) was your masked ambassador, and in the finale you said you talked to him throughout the season for advice. Was he the reason you did the show?

No, no, no. I wouldn’t say he’s the reason I did the show at all. No, I think it was just having that kind of support from someone who actually made the show. Ne-Yo told me what to watch out for, what to expect backstage. Obviously it was all my own experience, but there were a few times I asked him questions about certain things and what it was like to be backstage, what it’s like to make that transition into the costume. It was clearly his costume very different than mine, but a lot of my questions were answered by the experience alone, and having time to live with the costume before we did the show helped me a lot. For example, I’m in practice for an hour or two with the mask itself on because I wanted to know what my limitations were, how to use my breath work and air to sing and dance and move even though I was restricted airwise a little bit .

The challenging part of it was also a big part of it because to be a great performer you have to know how to breathe and use your voice and your breath work in different ways. So it was something that no one could advise me on because my mask is different from everyone else’s mask and theirs is different from mine. So you really have to become one with your costume. I mean, that’s something I’ve learned. It’s like when you put it on, you literally have to adapt to that character’s world, and I feel like that was one of my favorite parts of just really becoming the Wasp every day. And the hardest part was not being able to take the costume home afterwards. I could have put that in the contract, but we thought about it too late.

I’m glad you brought it up because I think what made the wasp so special was not only the notes you could hit, but all the dance moves you added. So I was wondering if the show worked with you to create a costume specifically for you to do that, because with a lot of the costumes, you really can’t move much at all.

Right, right. No, I think their instincts were pretty good. I feel like when they called me about the show, I think it was actually the day after we had another call and they showed me the costume and I was like, yo, this is fire. It suits me, the character of the wasp, the design of it, the colors, the fact that the wings weren’t quite perfect if you look at it. It had like some broken wings, like you could tell he’d been through some stuff, do you feel me? So I love that I could pick that character and relate to it and take it on stage and bring those songs to life in different ways. As angelic as the Wasp is, and being able to fly and have wings and all that, he was still very grounded and had been through real things in life. So it was just merging those characters. I enjoyed it.

How hard was the giant stinger to dance with?

Oh man, you’re the first person to ask that. It took some getting used to because I had to work my space, especially when we had dancers, to make sure I didn’t hit them, poke them. And it happened a few times during practice, but then I got used to it. I think the mentality was becoming one with it and using it as an actual part of me. For example, on certain songs I would point the stick at the audience when I danced to use it as a prop, and the choreography that was deliberate, and just to get used to the way it moves, the weight of it, which is why I practiced with it and the mask every exercise. I didn’t want the first time to feel like it was on stage. But once you do it, like anything else, it teaches you that repetition is king and you just have to adopt it and make it work for you.

Be honest, did you find out you were going up against Boyz II Men in the finals?

By the time the finals took place, I definitely knew exactly what I was up against. Boyz II But, I have heard these voices since I was a child and studied their vocals. And they’re part of my R&B Mount Rushmore, period. There is no doubt that if I had to name one group it would be Boyz II Men. They would be no. 1 for me because of their vocal abilities, their song choices and being in a group is very tough. So that’s something, I definitely respect them for what they’ve done with R&B.

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