Boyz II Men named winners of ‘The Masked Singer’ season 12, Mario’s the runner-up

Season 12 of The Masked Singer has ended, with R&B’s own Boyz II Men being crowned the champions. Dressed as Buffalo, they’re the first group in the show’s history to win the trophy, beating out the season’s runner-up Mario aka the Wasp.

Speaking to Variety, the group’s Wanya Morris explains they decided to do the show after being asked multiple times and often having conflicting schedules.”It was something that we realized they weren’t going to stop asking us. So we decided to do it,” he says.

He admits they initially planned to tarnish their chances of winning by switching up their voices “so that we can spend our two weeks off without having to work.”

He continues, “But when we got there, we saw that there was great singers there, and the energy level was high. It seemed to be a very fun atmosphere. And we were like, let’s stick around a little bit longer. So therefore we did.”

Nathan Morris said “the costumes made it hard” to sing and breathe, noting it was a struggle but also a learning curve. They pushed through and sang Shania Twain‘s “You’re Still the One,” Toto‘s “Africa” and other non-R&B songs — an experience that allowed them to “show people that we’re more than just R&B singers, which is what we’ve always felt like,” Shawn Stockman said.

“This allowed us to really stretch out in a way where we wouldn’t be ostracized or looked at as uncool or corny. We listen to R&B, we listen to pop, we listen to rock, we listen to all kinds of music in our private time,” he added. “And this was probably the only time that we were allowed to express that in our whole entire careers.”