The Masked Singer Season 12 returned on Wednesday night for the Semifinals. In the episode, the Top 3 contestants took the stage for their chance to move on to the finale. At the end of the night, Strawberry Shortcake was revealed as singer AJ Michalka.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYpc8g_Gm80
The Masked Singer Returns for the Semifinals
Wednesday night’s Semifinals only featured three panelists, as Rita Ora was feeling “under the weather” and had to sit the show out. The panel watched the remaining three contestants perform one solo song each to decide who should move on.
The first contestant to move on to the finale was Wasp, who performed Benson Boone’s “Beautiful Things.” They earned enough votes to be automatically declared safe, meaning they didn’t have to participate in the show’s first-ever “Smack Royale.”
This combination of the Battle Royale and Smackdown saw the bottom two contestants (Buffalos and Strawberry Shortcake) perform a duet to “Counting Stars” by OneRepublic. Ultimately, Buffalos won the Smack Royale, sending them to the finale.
The panel was impressed by Buffalos’ solo performance, in which they harmonized on a rendition of “Toto” by Africa. Panelist Jenny McCarthy said she thought it was the best performance of the season. They’ll compete against Wasp in the season finale.
During Wednesday’s Semifinals, Strawberry Shortcake took the stage to perform “Lose You to Love Me” by Selena Gomez. Unfortunately, she didn’t receive enough votes to send her straight to the finale, so she had to participate in a “Smack Royale” against the Buffalos.
Ultimately, the Buffalos won, and Strawberry Shortcake faced elimination. Before she was unmasked, the panel guessed that she might be Kelsea Ballerini, Sarah Hyland, or Joey King. But she turned out to be AJ Michalka, one half of the sister duo Aly & AJ.
AJ told Variety she she was originally going to compete on the show as a team with her sister, but it was “really tricky to schedule.” So she ended up competing solo, which Aly “fully supported.”
“The challenge and the excitement came from knowing that I had never really performed on stage without my sister,” she shared. “I wanted to challenge myself as a solo artist and see how far I could get. And I had a blast.”
Words by:
Jill O'Rourke Jill O’Rourke is a contributor at Talent Recap, writing news stories and recaps for shows like ‘AGT,’ ‘The Voice,’ and ‘American Idol.’ She graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in English and Film Studies, and has been writing about pop culture since 2012, with previous bylines at Crushable and A Plus. Jill spends her free time binge-watching sitcoms and daydreaming about life as a hobbit
