“The Masked Singer” winner Goldfish avoided friend and judge Rita Ora: 'There goes our dinner plans'

"I cannot sit at a dinner table and stare at her in the face and not be like, 'Girl,'" the season 11 winner tells EW.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for The Masked Singer season 11, episode 13, "Finale: One Mask Takes It All."

What started out as 16 masks came down to two on Wednesday's season 11 finale of The Masked Singer, with one contestant taking it all by the end in what might have been the most closely contested battle yet on the show.

Before all that, though, the episode started off with the traditional recaps of the journeys of finalists Gumball and Goldfish, and host Nick Cannon told us both contestants would get two chances to sing their hearts out in one final effort to nab the Golden Mask Trophy. The panel — Rita Ora, Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, and Robin Thicke — got in on the recap fun, too, when Cannon forced them to take us through all of their (bad) thought processes for their Gumball and Goldfish guesses all season long.

Related: Breaking down all of The Masked Singer season 11 clues

When it was time for the first batch of performances, both finalists stunned, with Gumball opting for “Latch” by Disclosure ft. Sam Smith and Goldfish singing “Heart of Glass” by Blondie. Both performances were up-tempo, high energy, and proved why Gumball and Goldfish deserved to be there.

From there, Cannon instructed Ora to push the Prime Delivery button, which was still there for some reason, and it delivered the Golden Mask Trophy... for some reason. McCarthy-Wahlberg understood the weirdness of this, and made a joke at Jeong's expense (naturally), saying of the package, "I thought for sure it would be a booster seat for Ken, but no such luck."

Gumball and Goldfish finished up with performances of “Renegade” by Styx and “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” by Elton John, respectively, the latter of which got the panel feeling weepy. So much so they started crying over the (possible) end of Ora's time on the show. After all the waterworks, it was time to finally crown a winner, and Goldfish o-fish-ially swam away with the title.

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This meant Gumball had to unmask, and final guesses for his identity were... not the panel's best work to-date. McCarthy-Wahlberg and Thicke guessed Derek Hough, and Jeong stuck to his guess of Taran Killam. Ora had the most to be upset about, though, because earlier in the episode she had guessed Friday Night Lights' Taylor Kitsch, but then inexplicably went with Joseph Gordon-Levitt at the last moment.

It wasn't Kitsch, but it was indeed Friday Night Lights, Hart of Dixie, and Ginny & Georgia star Scott Porter, though, and Ora was understandably upset with herself for the last-minute switcheroo. Ora and the panel fared much better with their Goldfish guesses though: Both she and McCarthy-Wahlberg clocked that Goldfish was none other than actress and singer Vanessa Hudgens.

Ahead of the reveal, Entertainment Weekly caught up with newly minted season 11 champ Hudgens to talk about why she decided to do the show now, why she's not looking to release more music, and her hilarious reaction to longtime friend Ora joining the show.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Congrats on winning, first of all! Are you a competitive person or were you more there to have fun?

VANESSA HUDGENS: I mean both. I am very competitive, but I feel like I'm more competitive when it comes to athletics, physical things. In this situation, I am the most competitive with myself. I'm my worst critic, so I was doing what I could to make myself proud and being as nitpicky as possible, because while I was anonymous, it's still me under there, and I want to be proud of the work that I was doing.

Related: The Masked Singer reveals season 11 finalists after 'monstrous' 3-way Battle Royale

How long have they been asking you to do the show? I feel like you're someone they've been hounding since day 1.

It's been a good minute. It definitely has. The first time was years ago, and this kind of just came around at the perfect time, and my fans had been asking, saying, "We want more music, we want singing anything, give it to us please." And I was like, you know, this would be a really interesting way to give my fans what they want, but make sure they're really fans. [Laughs] And they are!

Oh yes, people knew it was you immediately, from the very first episode.

I wasn't really trying to cover it up. I was covering up myself, so I felt like that was good enough.

Related: Gumball on The Masked Singer revealed as a Friday Night Lights alum

Speaking of, Gumball a.k.a. Scott Porter, whom you've worked with before, he told me yesterday that he clocked you immediately. Did you figure him out, too?

No, I was the worst! I could never be a judge on this show, and if I did, I would need a lot of help because I was just lost. And I was really invested too! I was trying, I would watch people's performances after my own and sit backstage and just try to figure it out and just get so lost, and I had no idea.

Related: The Masked Singer season 11 reveals: See every star under the mask

The panel struggles all the time, too, so you're not alone! One person on the panel who did not struggle, though, was Rita Ora, who knew you really early on. I know this was all filmed months ago, so have you had a chance to connect over your Masked experience?

Yeah, we have. We're friends, and it is just so funny how this all happened, because we were with each other about two weeks before the show started, and I found out after the fact that she was a judge, and I was like, oh God. And then I had my first performance, and she guessed it was me, and then I was like, Well, there goes our dinner plans, because I cannot sit at a dinner table and stare at her in the face and not be like, "Girl." But yeah, no, she's the best. I love her. She's always been such a wonderful bright light and fun energy to be around.

Speaking of fans wanting more music, did The Masked Singer maybe make you rethink releasing more music down the line?

No, I always say life is about priorities and that's just not a top priority right now. Who knows? Maybe down the line, maybe it will be, but as of now, it's still no.

Related: Will Smith and Martin Lawrence promise Bad Boys: Ride or Die is 'what a summer movie is supposed to be'

You have Bad Boys: Ride or Die hitting theaters soon on June 5. What can you tell us about that?

Yeah, it's literally big, summer blockbuster fun. It's the series we know and love with the characters that you know and love so dearly, meeting them at this point of their life. They're not the young sprightly agents that they once were, and they really lean into that. And it's funny, you get to see a little bit of weakness in these really strong characters and get to see them lean on each other and have others kind of pick up the slack, but it's just a good, fun ride that'll have you cracking up the whole time.

And what was it like watching Will Smith and Martin Lawrence do their thing after all this time?

It's the best. It's genuinely the best. I feel like I always get to be front row in a sketch comedy standup show whenever I'm around them, because they're always cracking jokes and just seeing them work is just such an honor.

Related: Vanessa Hudgens is expecting her first child with husband Cole Tucker, debuts baby bump on Oscars red carpet

You've got a lot of exciting things going on right now — like becoming a mother for the first time — but what else do you have on the horizon, or are you going to take a step back for a bit?

I am taking it day by day. No, really week by week is as far as I can go right now. [Laughs.] So we'll see. I don't know, there's still a lot on the to-do list, so we'll pick it up at some point.

What did you learn about yourself from doing The Masked Singer?

Probably just how much weight fame bears, and once I got to take it away, I felt so free and liberated. So I guess tell the young ’uns out there, be careful what you wish for and make sure you're doing things for the right reasons because fame itself isn't the reason to do things.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.