Meg Donnelly’s Coral Is Third

[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 13 finale.]

Boogie Woogie, Coral, Mad Scientist, and Pearl all competed in The Masked Singer Season 13 finale, but there could be only one winner.

Gretchen Wilson‘s Pearl won, followed by Andy Grammer‘s Boogie Woogie in second, Meg Donnelly‘s Coral in third, and Brian Kelley‘s Mad Scientist fourth. Below, Meg Donnelly opens up about her time as Coral and on the show.

So what made you say yes to doing The Masked Singer? Did you have any hesitations?

Meg Donnelly: Yeah, it was definitely nerve-racking to go up and perform on an elimination show. I think the thing that helped me was that it wasn’t live. It is live to the audience, so you still have that aspect of live, but it is aired later. Not that they would change anything or edit anything, but it took the stakes down just a tiny bit in my brain, but it was so much fun and I’m really glad that I said yes.

Talk about that costume. What appealed to you about that?

I loved the sparkles. When I went to my first fitting, they were like, “Do you want to add more sparkles?” And I was like, “Add as many sparkles as possible.” Especially on stage, I just think it looked really, really cool with all the lighting, and the stage design is just so cool, too. So I think the costume looked really cool complementing that.

Michael Becker / Fox

What went into your song choices, especially for the finale?

I feel like for all the songs, it’s like every genre that I love. I really love rock, especially Paramore vibes, but I also have theater roots, so I feel like for the finale, I kind of wanted to tap more into the theater side of me, and I’m really happy that I did.

You had some incredible performances over the season. Which stand out to you?

I think honestly my favorite was “Mad World,” which was the first one that I did, which is so funny because it was the first one, but I just remember after getting that first performance done and feeling so good, and it was just really cool the way the song was produced and it was such a different dramatic version, I was like, okay, cool. I could be a little bit more confident now and be less nervous for each performance.

Was there a specific performance that made you think that you could make far?

I feel like the last one, [in the semifinals], “What Was I Made For?” maybe. Once I got to the finale, because that’s the song that all four of us went to the finale, I was like, “Oh, okay, maybe there’s a chance that I can be in the finale after the reaction to “What Was I Made For?” But it’s crazy because I really did not expect anything. I didn’t even expect to go this far. So it was just really, really cool.

Talk about the panelists’ guesses because Rita Ora did figure you out.

Yeah. I feel like I was really shocked at the end that she did because the whole time they didn’t guess me at all. It’s really funny watching the internet kind of react to it because they knew it immediately and I feel like the whole time I was there, I just felt like I could be whatever and whoever, because I felt like nobody knew who I was. But yeah, it was crazy that at the very end there she guessed me. That was really shocking.

Did you come into this expecting anyone from the panel to figure you out?

Honestly, no. I think the only person I was like maybe is Rita because she’s in the Descendants world, so I was like, maybe, maybe she’s heard of me, or if any of the panelists have kids that watch Disney, but I really didn’t expect anybody to guess me, so I was shocked at the last one. It felt weird because you don’t know who anybody is and nobody knows each other, and so to hear my name out loud, which is what we’re told not to say, was really strange. [Laughs]

Who knew you were doing this?

My parents and Drake [Rodger], my boyfriend. The three of them came to set. Every time I had a performance, they were there, so they had to be in disguise, too. And then they also asked Milo [Manheim] to do something for the show. That was pretty much it. It was really funny because actually Dancing with the Stars and Masked Singer had the same showrunner, Deena Katz, and my best friend Chandler [Kinney] was on Dancing with the Stars at the same time and I couldn’t even tell her. But she was taping at the same time that I was taping. I remember trying to make it to her tapings at the same time. It was just really cool. It was a really cool moment of time.

What are you going to take away from the entire experience?

I feel like it gave me so much more confidence in myself because one of the reasons I did it is because I have music coming out and my dream is to perform my music live. I think this just really, really helped instill confidence in me, and I’m like, if I can do it with a mask and a big piece of coral on my back and huge platform heels not seeing anything, then I think I can do it in real life, too. But yeah, it just gave me a lot of confidence and it was just so much fun. I met the best people, and it just made me more sure in myself.

What surprised you the most about being on the show besides the heavy level of secrecy?

I feel like how scary the elimination part is, even though it’s the most fun show and the stakes are so low because everyone’s just having fun. It’s not a real hardcore competition show, but every time the lights would go down and smoke comes out and they’re like, “Okay, here is who is eliminated.” it was so hard to stand there on stage and not hyperventilate. I didn’t realize that part was going to be so challenging. And then obviously I think the most surprising thing was putting the mask on for the first time because I’m like, “Oh, it’ll be easy. I can figure it out.” But it’s really hard. So yeah, I think that was really surprising.