Fans Were Right About The Astronaut's 'Masked Singer' Identity The WHOLE TIME

From Woman's Day

Fans were curious to see if the Astronaut on the American version of The Masked Singer would win just like the Astronaut costume did on Germany's version of the show in 2019. This time around, however, the Astronaut didn't have as much luck, getting sent home on April 29. Still, that's a pretty great run, because this competition started with so many contestants. But since the person under the Astronaut mask is a professional singer, it makes sense that he went as far as he did.

Who is the Astronaut?

On March 11, the Astronaut performed for the first time, and the judges had plenty of guesses about who he could be. Ken Jeong said Adam Devine, because of a Pitch Perfect clue, or Josh Hutcherson, because of a clue about hunger (Hutcherson was in Hunger Games). Jenny McCarthy guessed Lance Bass, because he has an astronaut certificate. And Nicole Scherzinger guessed Zac Efron kind of out of nowhere. Over the weeks, the judges' guesses evolved to Jonathan Taylor Thomas (because of some Lion King clues) or Joseph Gordon Levitt. But, in the end, Nicole Scherzinger guessed the right answer — country star Hunter Hayes, who was Twitter's top theory all season long.

The Astronaut costume came from the constellation for Orion — because he's a hunter. Pretty sneaky, huh? As for some of the other clues, Hayes has a song called "Wild Blue" that's filled with space references like the lyric, "I found some sunlight in the space." Additionally, one of the clues in the video package was a lei, seemingly because it rhymes with his last name Hayes. There was also a clue about "500 days," and days rhymes with Hayes as well. Plus, in the second clue package, the Astronaut said he was singing a song from one of his friends, and then launched into a Stevie Wonder number. Hayes and Wonder have actually performed together before.

One of the big clues from the March 25 episode also pointed to Hayes. The Astronaut said he and Nicole Scherzinger had been at a mall together for a big birthday. Well, in 2015 both Hayes and Scherzinger performed at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for July 4 — otherwise known as America's birthday. It makes sense that Scherzinger would have been the only one to guess correctly, since she actually knows Hayes and has performed with him.

The April 1 clue said that the Astronaut was a record breaker, and Hayes has a Guinness World Record for most shows played in 24 hours. (He played 10.) Then, on April 8 two of the clues were the White House and an accordion. When he was seven, Hayes performed an accordion number at the White House.

The April 29 clues included a "frozen" reference, King Cake, and the phrase "light my candle." For the frozen clue, it could be a reference to the time Hayes beat the Frozen soundtrack on the iTunes charts with his album Storyline. He also once made King Cake for an appearance on The Ellen Show. And he has a song called "Light Me Up," which is close to "light my candle."

All season long fans were convinced that the Astronaut's voice is the same as Hayes' voice, and it turns out that they were right.

As for a couple of clues that we were stumped on? The Astronaut revealed that the way a mobster helped him career-wise was that an actor from The Godfather gave Hayes his first guitar. And the bridge in the clue package was a reference to Hayes' hometown Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. We feel pretty pleased with ourselves for guessing right all along. Now we know how the judges feel when they get it right, too!

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