“The Masked Singer” finale on May 20 will be a battle between the three celebrities who are disguised as the Frog, Night Angel and Turtle. Of this trio of talent, the strongest singer is the contestant hidden inside the Turtle costume. We’ve watched all of his previous appearances, capped by his show-stopping performance of “Jealous” by Nick Jonas on the May 13 semifinal. We are now more convinced than ever that we know the real name of the Turtle. Keep reading if you dare for all of “The Masked Singer” finale spoilers.
From his debut on the season 3 premiere, when the Turtle ruled the stage with his electrifying cover of Seal’s signature song ”Kiss from a Rose” we’ve been certain that he was a professional musician. We became even more sure as the weeks went on and he nailed each successive appearance. From the sound and style of his singing, the clues he gave in his videos and his conversations with the four judges (Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Robin Thicke) we know the real name of the Turtle.
SEE ‘The Masked Singer’ finale spoilers: The Frog is …
The Turtle is Jesse McCartney, the Emmy-nominated actor, singer and voice artist. While he is just 33, Jesse has been in show business since he was a kid. He first came to fame on the ABC daytime drama “All My Children” in the late 1990s and earned consecutive Emmy nominations for his role as Adam Chandler, Jr. At the same time, he was part of the boy band Dream Street. He struck out on his own in the early 200os as both a solo artist and actor. More recently, he has made a mark with his voice work.
In his most recent appearance, the Turtle showed off his vocal range, including a falsetto that he said was a tribute to Robin Thicke. He revealed that he and the judge went way back; on his 2004 solo album, “Beautiful Soul,” Jesse included a cover of Robin’s song “The Stupid Things.” Earlier in the season, there was a shot of a map of Korea, with the capital city of Seoul highlighted.
That episode’s clues video included a shot of a street sign for “Back”; we can think of two connections to Jesse: he was the opening act for Backstreet Boys in 2009 and 2013, and he had a big hit in that latter year with the song “Back Together.”
SEE ‘The Masked Singer’ finale spoilers: The Night Angel is …
The quarterfinal had even more clues that confirmed that the Turtle was Jesse McCartney. The Turtle held up a wanted poster offering a reward of $1,999: Jesse’s line of fragrances included a perfume called “Wanted” and Dream Street was formed in 1999. And the Turtle stood next to a zombie; Jesse had a two-episode arc on “Fear the Walking Dead” in 2015.
In the clues video, the Turtle’s head is seen in shadow much like the Bat signal; McCartney is the voice of Dick Grayson (a.k.a. Robin/Nightwing) on the animated series “Young Justice.” Earlier in the season, the Turtle held up a comic book with the price tag $10.13; Jesse first did this role from 2010 to 2013.
That quarterfinal clues video also included a photo of poker chips strewn on a highway; Jesse is the voice of Theodore in the “Alvin and the Chipmunks” movies, including the 2015 flick “The Road Chip.”
Earlier in the season we saw the Turtle write “Don’t rave ever at my school, Turtle” on a chalkboard: the first letter of each word spells out the first name of the band. There were also some Greek letters on the chalkboard, which we take to refer to Jesse’s recurring role on the ABC Family series “Greek.”
In another clues video, we saw a surfboard, which connects to Jesse in two ways: he has won three Teen Choice Awards, which are life-size surfboard and hhe starred in “Summerland,” a WB drama set at the beach.
The Turtle told Nicole: “I’ll never forget the morning we spent together. It was turtle-y awesome.” Jesse was on the same episode of the NBC morning program, “Today,” in 2008 as Nicole. That same year he contended at the Grammys for Best Song for co-writing the Leona Lewis hit “Bleeding Love.” As a group, the celebrities on “The Masked Singer” have earned 69 Grammy Awards nominations.
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Do you think we are correct and that the Turtle is Jesse McCartney? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
