29 December 2023 , 19:22
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Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross have lifted the mask to reveal their close friendship on and off the set of ITV hit The Masked Singer.
Despite their age gap, singer Rita, 33, says presenter Jonathan, 63, has been her mentor since she started out in the industry more than a decade ago.
She said: “Me and Jonathan just have the same sense of humour. Jonathan’s always been there for me since the beginning of my career and he’s been such a great influence on me. I think with that comes this lightheartedness between us, along with a level of trust. It feels really nice to have somebody that can handle my sarcasm. At the same time, he knows deep down he’s one of my mentors and he’s always going to be that person to me.
“It is just nice to have somebody that has experience, to just put everything into perspective for you. I think when you’re overwhelmed by something, it’s really interesting to hear from someone who has been through it, that really gets it, and has clear advice on what you need to do. His advice is really practical. It’s amazing.”
Series 3 of The Masked Singer (ITV)The pair, alongside Davina McCall and Mo Gilligan, return to the judging panel for the fifth series of The Masked Singer, which begins tonight. But their working relationship began in 2012 when Rita – fresh from her breakthrough hit Hot Right Now – appeared on Jonathan’s chatshow.
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Jonathan said: “I still do the talk show on ITV1 and I’ll be doing that again in February. And the most fun thing about it for me is meeting the new talent, and maybe sharing my enthusiasm for new stars in different fields with an audience. Hopefully, they trust me enough to know that if we’ve got them on the show, then they will be worth looking out for. So there’s quite a lot of people who are kind of younger stars who had their first, or one of their very early TV appearances on my talk show.”
“I think it would be quite grand if I thought of myself as a mentor. I don’t think I am. Look, we all know I’ve made mistakes. We all have. I wouldn’t say that I was necessarily the right person to go to for advice, but as a friendship group, we all support each other. So if I know Rita’s going through something, I will reach out immediately, as I will for Mo, or for Davina, and as they’ll do for me. So we are in touch quite a lot outside of the show.”
Mo Gilligan, Davina McCall, Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross. (ITV)“We keep in touch and support each other in that way, but I think Rita is phenomenal. I think people forget what a great singer she is. She’s an amazing vocalist, but also, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who works as hard as she does. I mean, she’s grafting all the time. The fact that she left this show to fly back to do three of the American Masked Singers – I mean, literally, she flew there that night, the next day she was in the studio doing it. She did three days in the studio, she must have been so jetlagged. Then the day after that, flew home during the daytime, got here in the morning, and was back in the studio that afternoon with us. It’s an extraordinary work ethic.”
The judges have their work cut out tonight as they try to work out who is behind the masks. Rita in particular is not known for being the best at the guesswork and she admits she leaves it to the last minute for her answers. She said: “Davina remembers all the clues from every single episode! If I needed some detective work, I would call Davina. She’s so good at it.”
With the series having already been filmed, the pair don’t want to give too many clues. But the panel were beside themselves when a TV legend was unmasked and none of them guessed correctly.
Jonathan said: “I was kind of kicking myself, to be honest. The weird thing is, once the mask comes off, you even look at the way that character’s moving, you think of course it’s them. It’s so clear to you after the event that it was them.”
He added: “You’ve also got someone who’s been a superstar for five or six decades and is still performing live today. I’m the oldest member of the team and this person was having hits before I was born. It was so thrilling to have them on the show.”
- The new series of The Masked Singer starts tonight at 7pm on ITV and ITVX.