The (Un)Masked Singer

A SINGER from Henley was “gutted” to leave an ITV talent competition.

Dressed as “Tattoo” Carol Decker performed on The Masked Singer on Saturday night where she sang Human by the Killers in the fourth episode of the show.

The T’Pau frontwoman faced elimination after a sing-off with “Dressed Crab”, resulting in her being the fourth contestant to be unmasked to viewers.

Decker, 67, was dressed in a love-heart shaped costume with the word “love” across her body, embossed with roses and bird figures on her shoulder which she wore with pink and yellow tights and blue heels.

Her performance was met by cheers and applause as the judges, Maya Jama, Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan, Jonathan Ross and Tom Daley tried to decipher clues as to who she was.

Decker, who had a number one hit with China in Your Hand in 1987, was introduced with three clues including a box of vegetables labelled “greengrocers x2” before a shot of her in black boots was shown and a false heart tattoo with an arrow which read “Mum”.

McCall believed the clues referred to the actress Catherine Tate, who played Donna Noble in the BBC series Doctor Who. She said following her performance: “Tattoo I literally love you. That was an amazing performance.

“I was looking at the clues. I saw the stethoscope hanging and I was thinking possibly Doctor Who. Then I saw there were two birds on the shoulder and the Doctor who has a child called Birdie was David Tennant. Catherine Tate was with David Tennant.”

Gilligan, a comedian and TV show host, believed the mystery performer to be Jade Thirlwall, from girl band Little Mix, after associating the gem lettuce shown in the greengrocers’ box with the green gem.

Jama, a TV presenter and radio DJ thought the “Mum” tattoo may have referenced a well-known quote said by Stacey Slater, played by Lacey Turner in the soap EastEnders.

Broadcaster Jonathan Ross guessed she was Lesley Joseph from Birds of a Feather, while former Olympic diver Tom Daley thought it was Kym Marsh, who is known for being on Coronation Street.

“Dressed Crab” and “Tattoo” went head-to-head after it was revealed they had received the fewest votes from the audience.

When Decker performed Proud Mary by Tina Turner all five judges stood up to cheer her on and show their support but it wasn’t enough to see her through the round.

After lifting her mask, Decker joked to Ross, “You should know me, Jonathan”. He replied saying that her rendition was sung “beautifully” while McCall remarked that her performance commanded the stage.

Decker said that her heart “skipped a beat” and that she was “so happy” to have made it to the fourth round and that performing had “always been in my blood”.

She said: “It was fantastic. The process behind everything, the costumes department, it’s off the scale. When I was first asked to do the show you got offered half a dozen sketches. I settled on ‘Tattoo’ straight away because I thought she was gorgeous.

“You have to then have a meeting for your song choices, your coaching, a little bit of choreography and what they have got planned for your different songs.” She added: “We did it in the summer. It’s fantastic.”

Decker said keeping her identity hidden throughout the show was hard. She said: “I only told my daughter, Scarlett, and my husband because they had to help me with my diary but I didn’t tell my son. They’re used to me coming and going and disappearing and being on tour so I was able to muddy the waters a bit with my friends and family.”

The costume she wore meant her eyes were level with the mask’s mouth, however she admits she “couldn’t see anything” and that singing in the costume was difficult.

She said: “It’s completely gauzed because they can’t have the studio lights revealing anything. You go on to the stage and somebody holds your hand and they tell you to look at the green light ‘over there’ that means you’re facing forwards and they said, ‘don’t get mixed up with the emergency exit’.

“It’s very difficult. When I did Human for the Killers, they stood me on the podium. I’m not scared of heights but once the mask was on, I felt vulnerable like I was going to fall or something. I had to work hard to relax and sing properly.

“I was a bit bemused because I was very confident in my performances. So, when I ended up in the bottom two, I’ve got to say, I was a little shocked. But I had a great sing-off with ‘Dressed Crab’, who had a charismatic voice, a good voice, so you can't be too arrogant about it."