The Pepper was unmasked during the Group A semi-finals on ‘The Masked Singer.’ The Grammy nominee spoke EXCLUSIVELY with HL about the challenges of performing in the costume and more.
The Pepper is none other than “Unwritten” singer Natasha Bedingfield! The singer wowed with her performances of Ariana Grande, Labrinth, and Harry Styles hits. HollywoodLife got the chance to speak EXCLUSIVELY with Natasha about her experience on The Masked Singer.
Since she was one of the Wildcard contestants, she got her costume at the last minute. However, the Pepper was meant for her! “I loved it actually because they made it more feminine, and they let me actually show the more feminine spicy side of what a pepper is,” she said.
Natasha Bedingfield with Nick Cannon on ‘The Masked Singer.’ (FOX)When it comes to The Masked Singer, it’s always a challenge for the celebrities to perform while in the costumes. “It just takes a while to get comfortable,” Natasha noted. “The other thing that’s challenging is not seeing any of the other contestants, so you don’t really know. You can’t watch anyone performing. You don’t know what you’re up against, so that’s interesting too. I didn’t realize how much I rely on things like shaking my head. I’m a bit rock and roll. I’m a bit like Tina Turner and Diana Ross on stage. I just run around like a headless chicken. When I had the costume, I really had to be a little more careful. It could just all fly off.”
She added, “You have to balance it and find ways to fix it down so it doesn’t fly off for sure. I do have a little claustrophobia, so for me, I definitely had to get over that and just kind of breeze through that.”
No pun intended, but the Pepper costume was HOT! “But I liked that,” the singer admitted. “They kept on asking me if I wanted to fan myself. I actually kept my costume on longer than any of the other contestants. They would say when they dressed me that they’d never seen anyone who would want to stay in that outfit. I would want to get dressed like half an hour before going on stage because I wanted to feel used to it and not be rushing. They said that usually people just want to put on five minutes before they go one. I wanted to become the pepper, and I would feel the heat.”
Natasha Bedingfield as the Pepper. (FOX)Each of her performances was “special” to Natasha. She also has a connection to Labrinth! “I love Ariana Grande so it was incredible to sing her song. It’s a really hard song to sing that one. She’s got such an impressive range. ‘Jealous’ is from a guy called Labrinth. The song was a huge hit all over the world. He is actually from London and his drummer was my first drummer. That was really special to sing that song. I felt like I was crying as I sang it. I felt like I really stepped inside the song and really kind of communicated it. Each song had a special kind of thing to it. I loved the set design for Harry Styles’ ‘Sign of the Times,’ so that was kind of spectacular.” The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays on FOX.
