Interview: Boyz II Men Discuss Winning Season 12 Of The Masked Singer

While interviewing Boyz II Men for The Philadelphia Tribune, Mina SayWhat and the group talked about them winning Season 12 of The Masked Singer. Read the article HERE or below and check out clips as well.

Full Interview is below

For the first time, a group has won “The Masked Singer” and the trio is from right here in Philadelphia. Congratulations to Boyz II Men, disguised as the Buffaloes, who are the Season 12 winners of the FOX show!

It was revealed during the season finale that the three Buffaloes stealing hearts week after week on the singing competition were indeed Philadelphia’s favorite sons, Wanya Morris, Nathan Morris and Shawn Stockman. They beat out singer Mario, who was The Wasp. The gag is, they initially wanted to lose!

“We were asked to do the show for at least three, four years. And we weren’t able to do it because of our schedule,” Wanya says. “The one time that they asked us to do it, I caught COVID. And the last time we were like, ‘OK, it’s obvious they’re going to keep asking us. So let’s just do it. Let’s go on.’”

What the group did not realize was how demanding and stiff the competition is.

“When they put us in the schedule, the schedule that we had was so rigorous that we had two weeks off and they threw it in our two weeks,” Wanya shares. “So we were like, look, let’s just go there. Let’s lose. After the first couple of shows, let’s lose, let’s go home and get our two weeks [off].”

Well that didn’t happen. The trio were so amazed by the energy of the show and the other vocalists and performances that they changed their mind and prepared for battle. Somehow, they managed to fit the rehearsals and tapings into their 80 show a year schedule.

Week after week, viewers began to slowly fall in love with the harmonies of The Buffaloes. It was clear that what they have is a long-standing partnership and they had been performing together for a long time. The group went out of their way to confuse the viewers, changing their vocal tones and promising to “not sing like Boyz II Men at all.”

They even performed songs no one would expect them to perform: “Africa” by Toto, “I Just Died In Your Arms Tonight” by Cutting Crew, “You’re Still The One” by Shania Twain, and the two songs in the finale episode Goyte’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” and Sam Smith’s “Too Good At Goodbyes.” No matter what they sang, they stampeded over their opponents

The buffalo costumes gave Boyz II Men the freedom to do something different, something no one would expect. But why did they pick buffaloes?

“That was their idea, and we kind of fell in love with it because it symbolizes who we are,” Nathan says. “As a group, as people, the herd, the sticking together, sticking up for each other.

“Everybody got their own part. Everybody supports different things. We rock together. That’s just who we are,” he adds. “Through thick and thin, we are buffaloes.”

The Buffaloes won over The Wasp in the final showdown. A legend in his own right, Mario had some incredible performances as well. His vocal runs are very distinctive and hard to hide. It was clear he was their opponent.

“One of the baddest vocalists the world has seen,” Stockman said of Mario, “which made us step our game up even more. We knew after hearing him who it was.

“He’s one of the ones that we did figure out. Everybody else, we were like, ah, but we figured him out, because his voice is so distinct,” Stockman continues. “So when we knew that we were up against him, we were like, yo, we got to make sure that we have our vocals and everything on point. Because he is who he is. He’s a great singer. And he could have won just as easy.”

During their last performance on the show, after singing Sam Smith, Stockman became emotional. “As we were singing, as I was looking into the crowd, people were really moved. And it really just dawned on me that this is why we do what we do. No one knows who we are.

“Everybody’s just being moved not by who we are, but what they hear,” he adds. “And that’s what music should always be about.”