The Masked Singer, Season 9, premiered on February 15th, just on the heels of its eighth season. The episode began with an introduction of the panel of judges, who have remained the same in all nine seasons: Comedian Ken Jeong, pop stars Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke, and actor/internet personality Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg.

The performances and clues began a few minutes into the show, beginning with the Mustang (middle). Clues consisted of a tic tac toe board, and a speech from Mustang regarding her near death experiences in the past. Mustang started the season off strong, with a powerful performance of ¨Here I Go Again¨ by 80s group, Whitesnake. The judges guesses contained a rather large variety, all the way from Joan Jett to Wynonna Judd.

Coming up next was a performance from the rather tall, long bearded ginger, known as the Gnome. While this was the weakest performance of the night, it was most certainly one to remember. Gnome spoke in his clues about being in our lives for decades, and always living to make people smile. With a classical rendition of the classical song “When You’re Smiling from Billy Holiday, Gnome captured our hearts. The judges had very similar guesses, as 3/4 of the judging panel was set on Dustin Hoffman.

With our final individual performance of the night, we focused on the stone-cold Medusa. Medusa´s clues included photos of Buckingham Palace, and a mixture of chess pieces. Medusa started out slowly with Billie Eilish´s ¨Happier Then Ever¨, but soon after, the pace picked up. Medusa showed out with a sensational, one-of-a-kind voice, that had the judges stumped. From Ellie Goulding to Charlie XCX, the judges had not a clue.

Soon after, the time for our first elimination came. After a very intense wait, our host, Nick Cannon announced that our first unmasking would be the Gnome. With the panel still set on Dustin Hoffman, it was time to take off the mask. After the infamous ¨Take it off!¨ chant, the Gnome took off his mask and was revealed to be the amazing Dick Van Dyke! Dick Van Dyke took the honor of being the oldest contestant to ever participate in the show, at 97 years old. Leaving the judges in tears and awe, Van Dyke performed his hit from Mary Poppins, ¨Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!¨ Van Dyke was moved to the VIP section, and we then moved on to the battle royale.

The two remaining contestants, Medusa and Mustang, took the stage with very different renditions of Rihanna´s ¨Diamonds.¨ While Mustang delivered a fast-paced performance, Medusa took a different route and did a more soulful take of the 2000´s hit. The time then came to announce the winner of the battle royale, and who was going home.

After a few minutes of voting and discussion from the judges, Medusa was announced as the winner, and Mustang would have to unmask early. With a very sad goodbye, and a variety of guesses from the judges, the Mustang unmasked herself, and was shown to be country star, Sara Evans! She performed one more time, unmasked, as the episode went off the air.

Stay tuned for Episode 2!