Strictly Come Dancing’s Shirley Ballas confessed she wore nothing but her “panties” underneath her elaborate Rat costume on The Masked Singer.
Over the weekend, the head judge was booted from the ITV competition but it’s fair to say her elaborate costume completely fooled the judges. On the show, the 63-year-old starlet sang the hit song Boom, Boom, Boom by the Vengaboys and disguised her voice with a Liverpudlian accent.
After her time on the star-studded detective show came to an end, she opened up about how difficult it was to perform on stage in such a heavy costume. Speaking to Daily Star and other press, the brunette beauty revealed that she refused most of the sweat-proof “special underwear” ITV execs provided.
READ MORE:Strictly’s Shirley Ballas supports ‘gentleman’ Giovanni Pernice as ‘feud’ rumours swirl
READ MORE:The Masked Singer Rat exposed as Strictly star as she makes ‘bum tattoo’ confession
She told us: “I embraced it [the costume]. They gave me like special underwear to go in, of which I took most of it off and just kept my panties on.”
(Image: BBC/Ray Burmiston)
When asked why she decided to ditch the extra underwear, she confessed: “Because I wanted it closer to my skin and I didn’t want to feel overheated.” The award-winning dancer pointed out that arguably the toughest part of the costume was singing in the mask.
Shirley went on: “This head was quite heavy but, you know, with a little bit of practice, I got used to it. I could balance a little bit on one foot and I just tried to see how far I could go with him.
“I think with any experience it’s just about embracing it and taking care of [yourself]. Like my mum said, ‘You signed up for it, just get on with it’ and that’s exactly what I did.”
(Image: ITV)
The ballroom dancer went on to reveal that initially she didn’t want to sign up to do the show but her doting mum Audrey Rich convinced her to do it. Shirley admitted: “I went on it for my 86-year-old mum who is a fan of the show, because I originally didn’t want to do it at all.
“She really had to give me a bit of a push. And my son Mark was a little bit [nervous]. He said, ‘I’m not sure about that mum, I’m not sure’ but in the end we decided to go with it.”
After she agreed to take part in the competition, the judge revealed that her son Mark – who is a professional ballroom dancer on Dancing With The Stars in the US – picked out her song. She went on: “I went to stay with [my son] Mark and then he got in touch with a senior teacher because he wasn’t convinced that the song was in my key.
(Image: ITV)
Have you joined Threads? Follow Daily Star to keep up to date on all things showbiz here.
“And he was the one who picked Boom, Boom, Boom. He said you need to come out [strong] and there’s not many lyrics and if you make a mistake, just keep booming. So yeah, he helped me with that song and he helped all the songs be in my key because he thought some of them were too high for me.
“So it was great. And the team were so lovely with him as well because he just wanted him mum to sound half decent.”
For more of the latest showbiz news from Daily Star, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
