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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Zara Woodcock

The Masked Singer's Natalie Imbruglia reveals reason she chose to join the show

The Masked Singer star Natalie Imbruglia opened up about why she chose to join the ITV show.

She won this series of the competition after being unmasked as Panda on Saturday evening's episode.

The Australian singer, 47, beat Charlotte Church as Mushroom in the close race to be crowned winner, and fought off stiff competition from Westlife’s Mark Feehily who came in third place after being unmasked as Robobunny.

When asked why she chose to take part in the show, she sweetly revealed it was all for her son.

"I did it for my son," the Torn singer said. "He loves the character I chose. I also thought it would be fun to sing with a mask on, no need to spend hours in hair and make-up.

"I liked the idea of hiding my identity and putting on an accent to throw people off the scent. I guess it's also an acting gig."

Natalie took part in the show for her son (ITV)

The singer has a two-year-old son named Max Valentine Imbruglia.

Natalie admitted it was difficult for her to keep Panda's identity a secret from her friends and family.

"I found it quite hard as I’m a very open person," she explained.

"So, I had to create some interesting white lies about what I was working on and I had to avoid people which wasn’t hard as we worked long hours."

The finale of the singing battle welcomed back contestants from the first two series, including last year’s winner Joss Stone, who was unmasked as Sausage in 2021.

Joss joined the judging panel alongside Jonathan Ross, Mo Gilligan, Rita Ora and Davina McCall - all of whom were left gobsmacked when Panda took off their mask to reveal their true identity.

Natalie found it hard to keep it a secret (ITV)
The star won over Mushroom and Robobunny (natalie_imbruglia/Instagram)

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Panda gave final performances of Blank Space by Taylor Swift and One Direction's Story of My Life to a rapt audience in the studio, before offering the final clue: "Something I once said was quite Frankenstein".

Clues also included being shy, being solo while also possibly being part of a group, and nods to pandas.

After winning, the star took to Instagram to share a glimpse of her celebrations and apologised for lying.

She said: "The cat's out of the bag, or should I say Panda. Yes, it's me.”

She continued: “I'm so happy I can tell everyone now. Thank you to everybody who worked on the show and helped me get it and out of that costume.

“To everybody I've lied to, I'm really sorry but I had to.”

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