For the first time in the history of “The Masked Singer,” one contestant choked during the middle of their performance and required medical attention. The singer in question, Firefly, was 30 seconds into her rendition of “Ain’t Nobody” when she abruptly stopped performing, bent over and grabbed her throat, gasping for air. The show’s A-list panelists — Robin Thicke, Jenny McCarthy, Ken Jeong and Nicole Scherzinger — immediately sprung into action.
“Someone needs to help her,” shouted Nicole.
Robin chimed in, “Somebody get up there. Hey, hey, hey!”
Ken left the others behind and started running toward the stage himself, proclaiming, “She’s choking! Get a medic right now.”
Medics and stagehands climbed up to Firefly’s podium to give her aid and comfort, with one woman instructing, “I’m right here to take off [your mask].” Then, the show cut to black.
SEE ‘The Masked Singer’ Season 7 costumes, judges and host
When “The Masked Singer” returned from a commercial break, host Nick Cannon addressed the audience directly. “Before the break, Firefly had to suddenly stop her performance,” he explained. “She’s backstage right now being looked after by our set medic. Her well-being is our top priority. But for now, the show must go on.” He then introduced the next contestant, the Ram.
Following Ram’s performance, Nick returned to fill the viewers in on Firefly’s prognosis after her scare on stage. “The good news is, Firefly is one heck of a fighter,” he revealed. “She’s on stage right now.” The insect costume calmly walked up the steps to her podium and could be heard whispering, “Let’s do it, let’s do it,” as the audience cheered her on.
The judges were so impressed with Firefly’s reprise that Robin, Jenny and Ken jumped up onto the desk to give standing ovations. Robin said after regrouping backstage, she ended up giving the “best performance of the night.” Nicole called her a “fighter” and noted how she’s right at home on Team Good.
Firefly’s medical scare reminds us of what happened to Crab (aka Bobby Brown) in Season 5. The blue-steel crustacean had to evacuate the stage following his performance of “Give it to Me Baby” after overheating inside his costume. Minutes later, a cooled-down Crab returned to the stage to hear the judges’ comments. And then there’s Gremlin (aka Mickey Rourke) in Season 4, who removed his mask because he was too hot, thereby eliminating himself from the competition.
But unlike Crab and Gremlin, we have a feeling Firefly will be delivering performances on “The Masked Singer” for a long, long time to come.
