Jack Vidgen Opens Up About His New Song and His Time on The Masked Singer

With The Masked Singer grand finale tonight, only three characters remain: Vampire, Mullet and Dolly. This meant, on Monday night, viewers had to say goodbye to adorable Kebab.

It felt bittersweet because while we weren’t ready to farewell the delicious mask, we did want to know who was behind the incredible voice. Surprisingly, a lot of viewers and panellist Jackie O guessed correctly. It was Jack Vidgen, the Australian singing sensation who won Australia’s Got Talent in 2011 and appeared on a number of shows after that.

Not only was he Kebab, but Jack recently released his new single titled Goodbye, and he told POPSUGAR Australia all about it.

POPSUGAR Australia: How did you come to be on The Masked Singer?

Jack Vidgen: I was asked pretty much! Do you know what they didn’t do? They didn’t ask me if I wanted to be a Kebab, to begin with *laughs*. I was on the show and then they gave me the Kebab outfit. In the beginning, I was like, “I would love to have something with a bit more glitter and sparkle”, because that’s my thing. But you know what, once I got that Kebab outfit on and became the Kebab, whatever that means, I tried to make it sexy and tried to make it fun to spice it up. 

PS: Whoever appears on The Masked Singer has to keep it a heavily guarded secret. So, who in your life knew that you were going on the show?

JV: My mum knew, my manager knew, and that was about it. I think a lot of my friends and family picked up on it, I think they know my voice and they know my mannerisms. So I think they knew it was me and picked up on that, but I kind of had this blatantly lying answer for everyone which was very kind of panicked. I said, “no it’s not me!” which kind of gave it away as well. 

PS: Your performance was amazing last night, were you shocked to hear that your time was up?

JV: No not at all! It was so much fun and I was so happy that I came top four. I was just happy to be on the show and be able to prance around the stage during lockdown. 

PS: Was it hard performing in costume?

JV: It was very hard. It was very challenging. You’re so hot under there, at least in my outfit I was sweating my ass off. And you have a little mic strapped to your cheek, so you can barely move around let alone sing. So it was a challenge, but I started doing PT just by chance a few months beforehand. So, I built up my body to take on the weight of the mask on my shoulders because it was so heavy as well. And kind of moving around the stage and trying to see through the little mesh hole that I had, was definitely a challenge but it was all worth it. 

PS: How long did it take you to learn your performance?

JV: For some of them there was only a day turnaround, so I was given a song and then I would have to do it the next day. Thankfully they were all songs I’ve loved, so I already kind of knew how they went. Some of the songs actually surprised me. Some of the ones that I thought were not my favourite actually were my favourite, like the one I did last night, ‘Juice’ by Lizzo. I absolutely loved doing that and wearing the puffy blue cape and prancing around the stage. It was just so much fun. 

PS: Who do you think will win?

JV: My money is on Vampire. I’m obsessed with that voice. But I love all three of them.

PS: You recently released a new song. Tell us about it.

JV: So, I’ve released Goodbye. This is a really positive time in my life, coming off The Masked Singer, there’s a lot of positive vibes. But at the same time, this song is a reflection of the dark times, especially over the last few years, with my battle with substance abuse. So the song is called Goodbye, and it’s essentially saying goodbye to that life and that world, where I was kind of stuck in this reoccurring lifestyle of addiction. So, it’s just tapping into that and what that looked like. It’s bittersweet at the moment because obviously, it’s hard going back to those times, but if I can help someone by putting out a piece of my story then that’s worth it for me. 

Watch The Masked Singer final tonight at 7.30pm on Channel 10 and 10play.