Amber Riley shares what feels like to be in the spotlight following her recent win on ‘The Masked Singer’

Amber Riley recently opened up about why she considers her win on Fox’s The Masked Singer a full-circle moment.

The Masked Singer, which first premiered back in 2019, is a singing competition series that involves celebrities battling it out for a mask trophy. The show’s plot twist is that contestants are required to hide their identity by wearing a full-body costume. Riley was crowned The Masked Singer‘s season 8 winner on Dec. 1 as The Harp. 

On Dec. 5, days following her victory, Riley shared details about her humble beginnings on The Jennifer Hudson Show. The 36-year-old revealed prior to landing her groundbreaking role as Mercedes Jones on Glee, she was a ghost singer. Riley claimed that producers would ask her to record demos for other artists. She said at the 0:09 mark, 

“I would do demos. But also sometimes when some artists couldn’t do what I did in the demo, they would have me come and imitate that artist to kind of fix vocals… They’ll say ‘oh we’ll just have you come in and you know they used to try to like lie and be like oh it’s just a background no it’s not. It’s lead. Like I know my voice when I heard it.”

Further in the conversation, Jennifer Hudson asked Riley how it felt to finally be “front and center” after being in the entertainment industry for years. While bringing up the past roles she played, including Glee‘s Mercedes Jones and Effie White in the broadway rendition of Dreamgirls, Riley said, 

“It feels amazing. You know it’s been such a full-circle moment. You know I started out on Glee playing Mercedes Jones… Her character was always fighting for the spotlight and then I did Effie in Dreamgirls.”

Riley wrapped up that part of the segment by explaining how her achievements on The Masked Singer and Dancing with the Stars benefitted her characters. 

“Playing Effie… I became close to that character and really knew her and having her story be like this gift and not being able to be out in the front, and I felt that. I feel like doing things like The Masked Singer, doing things like Dancing with the Stars, I get to be triumphant for those stories. I get to be a winner for those stories. Like it’s just full circle for me.” 

Riley competed in ABC’s Dancing with the Stars in 2013 during the show’s 17th season and was partnered with dancer Derek Hough.