‘The Masked Singer’ Season 9: French Hen Dropped Out, Resulting in Last-Minute Change
Fox’s The Masked Singer Season 9 continues to delight fans with quirky masks and fantastic, mysterious performances. And the show has nearly reached the end with Space Night. Space Night brings UFO and Lamp to the stage for the first time, and Dandelion also gets to perform once more. And it seems the season almost had another mask — French Hen — perform, but they dropped out.
‘The Masked Singer’ Season 9 Episode 9 brings 2 new masks in for Space Night
The Masked Singer Season 9 Episode 9 celebrates extraterrestrials and the solar system in Space Night. The ninth episode of the season brings UFO and Lamp to duke it out. And fans will also see another performance from Dandelion.
Clips from the episode show UFO performing an acoustic version of “Yellow” by Coldplay. “She sounds a little nervous,” Jenny McCarthy says as fellow judge Nicole Scherzinger listens with her mouth wide open.
Additional clues regarding Dandelion’s identity were also given in another clip posted to Twitter. “My life has always felt kind of like a movie — The Wizard of Oz, to be exact,” Dandelion said. “Like Judy Garland, I started my career when I was just a kid.” Dandelion then mentioned that she worked with “the greats,” including Madonna, Flea, and Sir Elton John.
French Hen allegedly dropped out early on, and Night Owl took her place
The Masked Singer Season 9 debuted tons of funky masks, but not every masked singer who was planned to hit the stage actually showed. According to Reddit, a singer in a French Hen costume dropped out of the costume very early on. Another masked singer took their place — and that singer was allegedly Debbie Gibson as Night Owl.
“Didn’t her clue package say she only had like, 24 hours’ notice?” a fan on Reddit said of Gibson. “And a lot of her costume was probably repurposed from the Snow Owls. (Both the costume team and the performer did great with such short notice!)”
“It was Night Owl!” another fan confirmed. “Debbie Gibson posted on Instagram saying that she was a last-minute casting.”
“So, it turns out Night Owl was a last-minute entry on ABBA Night,” yet another fan explained. “This makes me wonder why they didn’t re-use the French Hen costume for Debbie and make some adjustments, considering the trouble they went through making and promoting the costume.”
It’s possible that the show will reuse the French Hen costume in the future, thus giving Gibson a different costume as seen on the show.
These celebrities have yet to be unmasked in ‘The Masked Singer’ Season 9
Fans may never know who was meant as French Hen in The Masked Singer Season 9. But they’ll eventually learn of every masked singer’s identity.
On Space Night, UFO, Lamp, or Dandelion will be revealed. The remaining two masks will likely remain a mystery until episodes 10-12.
The other masked singers who’ve kept their identities a secret are Medusa, California Roll, Mantis, Macaw, and Gargoyle. The Masked Singer Season 9 finale is rumored to take place on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
The Masked Singer Season 9 airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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