Medusa Wins ‘The Masked Singer’ In Tear-Filled Finale: See Finalists’ Real Identities

The Season 9 finale of The Masked Singer saw Macaw and Medusa go head-to-head as they sang for first-place bragging rights—and the Golden Mask trophy—in what turned out to be an emotional final showdown.

In the end, it was everyone’s favorite serpent queen who took top honors, but finding out the winner was just part of the big event.

The even bigger reveal of the night came when fans found out who they’d been rooting for underneath those masks.

As the runner up, Macaw was the first to share his true identity after belting out two of his strongest performances of the season with James Bay’s “Hold Back the River” and Eric Carmen’s “All By Myself.” But as he hinted early in the evening, he’s no stranger to when it comes to falling short of winning.

“If I win, it means I actually can win something,” the birdman said with a giggle before he took the stage Wednesday night.

When his second song ended, Macaw broke down in tears while still masked up, sharing, “I had a lot of anxiety before coming onto the show, because I was afraid to show myself.”

But he did show himself after panelists Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger offered up a wide range of guesses about who he might be— including Elijah Wood, Zayn Malik, Doug Robb, Macaulay Culkin, Ryan Gabrera, Darren Criss, Daniel Bedingfield and Gavin Degraw.

Of course, there was one other name that had been mentioned in recent weeks by Scherzinger, American Idol’s Season 7 runner up, David Archuleta, and that’s who was behind the feathers.

Tears flowed again after the reveal—and not just from the 32-year-old singer. Judge Jeong wept, too, due to his own connection to the Archuleta.

“Real talk,” the father of twins began. “When my wife was on bed rest in a hospital, not knowing whether our kids would live or die, we would watch Idol every week, and you were like a ray of light for my family. It’s an honor to see you in this capacity. Thank God for you, and I love you.”

And that wasn’t the last emotional moment of the night.

Medusa, who performed Sia’s “Elastic Heart” before following that up with her take on My Chemical Romance’s emo anthem, “Welcome to the Black Parade,” ended up crying after the latter song, for a deeply personal reason. It was her sister’s favorite song, and as she explained, “Sadly she’s no longer here.”

That tragic detail narrowed down the judges’ guesses.

They’d suspected she might be Ellie Goulding, Lorde, Kesha, Halsey, Shirley Manson, Susan Boyle, Fergie, Grimes or Bishop Brigg. But only that last guess fit given that Briggs lost her sister, Kate, in 2021, following a battle with cancer.

And when the performer shed her snakes, that’s exactly who was standing on the stage as the victor of Season 9 of The Masked Singer.

“Oh, my gosh! This is the craziest, coolest thing ever,” the 30-year-old singer-songwriter said after learning she’d won the Golden Mask trophy.

Briggs then fittingly referred to entire competition as a “surreal journey” that she was grateful take.