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United States The Masked Singer's Joss Stone says the 'funniest costume' helps win ITV show
Joss Stone belted out bangers as Sausage in The Masked Singer but she believes having the best costume helped her lift the reality show’s crown last year.
And tonight she’s back on the hit ITV programme as a guest judge for the much-anticipated grand final.
“It was really fun but it’s more fun being dressed as a sausage,” beams Joss, from her home in Nashville, Tennessee, where she’s still recovering from Covid.
“It was definitely the most bright, happy and silly gig I’ve ever done.
“I absolutely loved it. You can’t take it seriously and that’s why it’s good. But I mean I was dressed as a sausage so it’s hard to take any credit for it.
“It’s not really Joss that they liked, it’s the sausage. I just happened to choose the funniest outfit and I think it’s just about how much people laugh.
“There are some great singers that have gone out early.”
Watching who wins and the three unmaskings on the pre-recorded show were highlights, but the best bit for Joss was introducing her one-year-old daughter Violet to everyone.
Joss was five months’ pregnant when she won.
“It was great to see everyone because when I was pregnant, it’s fair to say I was so happy, I was annoying,” she laughs.
“That’s the way I am quite a lot of the time, especially when it comes to Violet.
“All I could think about was this baby so that’s all I spoke about.”
With her identity top secret like all the Masked Singers, only a few were treated to constant baby talk last time round.
Joss says: “I only saw five people: the runner, the vocal coaches, the ladies that do the outfits and they started to really get into the baby too.
"So when I went back for the final with Violet it was really nice because everyone’s like, ‘Let me see her!’ The lady that produces the show, Claire Horton, was working on the BBC competition Star For A Night when I was 13.
“Isn’t that mad? We’re reconnected and she came to see Violet in Devon when I was home. It was just so nice.”
Joss won Star For A Night and Steps To The Stars not long after, but it was when she released her multi-platinum debut album The Soul Sessions that she shot to stardom, aged just 16.
Brought up in Dover and Devon, she left school with three GCSEs, which she puts down to being dyslexic and more creative than academic.
Now 34, she has become synonymous with singing old classics by Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick but also for striking out on her own after buying herself out of her EMI contract in 2010.
She set up her own record company Stone’d and has not looked back.
Pals with Princes William and Harry, Joss completed her Total World Tour in 2019 after a five-year goal to sing in every country on the planet. She managed 204, including North Korea and Syria.
Although her music career has brought Joss huge success, she would not want it for her own kids.
“I want my children to experience music and to be able to able to play an instrument,” she explains.
“That is such a special thing I was never able to do because I haven’t got the focus.
“And also I have this voice that means I can join in anyway.
“So it made me lazy as far as learning an instrument.
“I hope Violet can join any campfire and sing or play along. It’s such a wonderful, fun part of life.
“But I really hope that it stays that. I took it to a place where it was really serious. And the world and his wife looked upon me and judged me. It was crazy at times purely because I was making music.
“I now feel like I’ve got to a place where that’s not happening because I’ve managed to dip out enough. But it wasn’t very nice or necessary.”
"It was in Belize at the end of her Total World Tour that Joss met Violet’s dad, Cody DaLuz, an American who now works in logistics for Amazon.
His job lets him join Joss and Violet for her current US tour with Corrine Bailey Rae. Joss is clearly in love after a long road to find “the one”.
“He’s so sweet and romantic,” she smiles.
“He’s a total gentleman and very traditional.
“I am a strong, independent woman that runs my own company, however, I absolutely love it that he opens the door for me and buys me flowers.
“We fight like normal couples but we have that romance that keeps us together.”
Despite her BRIT and Grammy awards plus 15 million album sales, Joss says becoming a mum tops anything she has achieved.
Becoming a mother has also been a big inspiration for new album Never Forget My Love with songs like You’re My Girl and Oh To Be Loved By You.
She worked on it with friend Dave Stewart, of the Eurythmics, and it symbolised a full circle to Joss’s career.
“I was inspired by some gigs I did with Burt Bacharach whose music I listened to growing up,” she says.
“I had to learn seven or eight of his songs and you realise how well put together they were. I was talking to Dave Stewart about it. I told him I’d love to do an album like Burt Bacharach with big, dramatic songs with a beautiful orchestra and he was like, ‘OK, let’s do it’.
“I met Dave when he was doing the soundtrack to the remake of Alfie, which was written by Burt Bacharach so it’s a full circle. He asked if I’d sing on those songs when I was 17.
“I love working with Dave. He will always keep you laughing.”
Not that Joss needs much more to make her happy.
Fans of her Cooking With Joss show on Facebook Live and her A Cuppa Happy podcast will know it’s rare that she’s not full of joy. And you’ll see that smile again tonight but also the shock at who is crowned the winner.
“I was very surprised,” she admits.
“And when they’re unmasked I think everybody’s going to go, ‘Of course, it’s that person!’ But unless you think it, it’s not going to come into your brain. It didn’t come into mine.”
* Joss Stone’s new album Never Forget My Love is out now on Bay St Records.
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