Exclusive: Bontle Modiselle on keeping her ‘Masked Singer’ secret
· The South African
South African actress and dancer Bontle Modiselle sat down with The South African for an exclusive interview on her The Masked Singer South Africa season three experience as she won the series. Bontle was under the mask of Spotty.
The Masked Singer South Africa season three finale aired on SABC 2 on Saturday 26 September.
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BONTLE MODISELLE WINS MASKED SINGER SA SEASON THREE
Bontle Modiselle, known for acting and dancing, has proven that she is a triple-threat. She bagged the number one spot on The Masked Singer SA season three defeated Robot Boii (Mosquito) who came in as the runner-up, Khanyi Mbau (Chopsticks) and Judith Sephuma (Gogga).
As The Masked Singer SA was pre-recorded over a span of 13 weeks, Bontle expressed that she was sitting with her win for a while now, and now that everyone knows, she is reliving it.
“I’ve been sitting with this victory for a while now because we stopped recording some time ago. So I’m reliving it, and now everyone finding out is exciting, it really is,” she said.
KEEPING THE BIG SECRET
The Masked Singer franchise is known for their high-level of secrecy in concealing the identities of the celebrities under the masks. Bontle expressed that keeping the secret was very difficult, especially from her mom who lives with her and her helper. While she did have to tell her husband. Bontle is married to Ricardo Moloi, popularly known as Priddy Ugly.
“Keeping the secret was incredibly hard. My mom lives with me and my husband and we have a helper, so needing to keep the secret from them was unreal. The only person in the house who knew was my husband because of how we had to leave the house, in a visor, completely covered up. You know being picked up, being dropped off was hard. So I had to fill him in and say ‘okay husband, no trust issues between us, this is what’s happening.’ So Rose and Oaks, Anele (Mdoda) and Frankie (du Toit) I think they understood how isolating an experience like this can be, but they knew how to make it the most high-profile, premium experience,” she said.
“So, it didn’t feel bad… at all. It was incredibly beautiful, it felt premium, you know you’re being picked up in this stunning car, and then you’ve got this security that’s on stand by waiting for you… and lockdown as soon as you step into the building, get into the green room and you have an entire buffet of things you like to eat waiting for you. You get into your rehersals, you bang it out, you do your things. They respected our time, they respected our effort,” she continued.
BONTLE MODISELLE ON GAINING CONFIDENCE IN HER SINGING THROUGH ‘THE MASKED SINGER SA’
The actress, who has 4.2 million followers on Instagram, expressed that she had fun recording and gave credit to South African singer-songwriter and musician Khaya Mthethwa.
“When it came to the recording of the song, it was so much fun. We had one studio session and we banged out all the songs, all at once. So, that was fun, Khaya Mthethwa was absolutely brilliant. Every insecurity went out the window. He really guided us through every note, through every vocal, through every lyric. He was very patient with us. It was an unreal experience from beginning to end,” she said.
She also expressed that she was excited to be under the mask of Spotty.
“It was two things: I was excited, but also it was like ‘oh no it’s me, and now you guys know’. There was something about individuality that was interesting because you’re excited to be revealed. But you also come to the reality that it has come to an end, but it was magical. Absolutely magical,”
Bontle further explained that the best part of being on the show was her performance as Spotty.
“Being Spotty and just doing what I wanted to do and just being on that stage was so much fun. You know when you have a dream… and it’s a thing you haven’t done and you finally get to do it? And I got to do it through this character of Spotty. My favourite part was getting into studio and recording, because I was like I always wanted to be in front of the mic. I’m no stranger to the mic, my husband makes music and we’ve made music before. But I didn’t have the confidence to fully pursue it,” she continued.
She teased that she could be venturing into the music industry as an artist herself now. Bontle also expressed that she was previously afraid to be judged over her voice.
“I think the vulnerability of being heard and being judged kept me from singing before. I think I just needed to get over being judged, through the thing that I felt the most afraid about… there’s just things I’ve been scared to do when singing is concerned, I always questioned my level of confidence in it,” she said.
“And it’s a raw vocal, it’s not being tweaked, it’s not being manipulated in any way. How I was on the show is how I sound. And we know that people can mix and engineer all of that to enhance what people sound like. Now, people know what I sound like, now I know I can do it. Do not be afraid if I drop music,” she said.
Bontle added that from all the songs she performed Titanium was by far her favourite followed by Drive. Spotty performed Drive alongside runner-up Robot Boii, who was under the mask of Mosquito.
“That song just affirmed that ‘you actually got some chops, there’s something we can do with it’ but Drive was so many things. It was vocal and it was performance and it was a performance next to a contender, who I absolutely respected. He (Robot Boii) was one of my favourites on the show, and he is in my personal space and world. We work very well together,” she said.