Wigald Boning was the frog – the surprise was limited. Olli Dittrich even sent "quacky greetings" in advance.
TV veteran Wigald Boning (53) was under the frog costume in the ProSieben show "The Masked Singer" – not surprising for many. "That didn't do my self-confidence as a voice adjuster," he explains in an interview with the news agency spot on news and reveals which stars had already exposed him.
How are you after the reveal?
Wigald Boning: I slept for three hours and am still very excited. The unmasking gives a real adrenaline rush. At this moment you can see the studio for the first time. Under this mask you have a very limited view. You can only see a few points of light. After the unveiling, I was able to really take a look at it all.
How did you manage to keep your glasses on under the mask?
Boning: I can't explain that exactly, it somehow worked. In between I thought about what would actually happen if the thing slipped off my nose under the mask. You can't help yourself because you can't get in with your hand and it's difficult to get the mask off – as you saw when you unmasked. But luckily everything worked with the glasses.
You could be seen very clearly this season. Is that why you wrote to a lot of friends?
Boning: I was worried beforehand that I would have to lie a lot. But that wasn't the case at all. Olli Dittrich, for example, wrote me an email and it ended with the greeting: "With quacky greetings". I wasn't asked at all if I was the frog. That was simply assumed from the start. That didn't do my self-confidence as a voice adjuster good.
Was there anyone who was particularly pushy?
Boning: No, not really. I only had to lie really blatantly once. A ZDF editor asked me if I was the frog. And I said, "What kind of show? The Masked Singer? Yeah, I've heard a couple of times that there is someone who sounds like me." And while I was saying that, I blushed completely, which was extremely uncomfortable.
Bülent Ceylan had previously sent you a message asking whether you were hiding under the frog. What did you answer him?
Boning: I didn't answer anything. I thought if I send holiday pictures from the Seychelles or something, that would be silly too. Especially since he wrote: "You are the frog. I know it. You don't even have to answer now." And that's why I didn't answer at all.
Most recently, over 70 percent in the ProSieben app suspected you to be under the frog costume. What do you think: what betrayed you?
Boning: I think a mix of body language and voice. I always made up my mind to make the voice unrecognizable. But the frog's voice was probably not enough. That wasn't radical enough. And body language. My mother saw a show and I supposedly hadn't opened my mouth yet, when she knew from my walk that it was me.
Have you tasted blood again from singing? Can we expect a reunion of the band Die Doofen soon?
Boning: I don't want to rule that out. But I don't even have to lick blood – I sing a lot and I like to sing. It's just part of my life. But of course it was a very special challenge to sing under such a mask.
Do you have any guess who is among the other costumes?
Boning: Yes, I already have. However, only vague guesses, because I feel in the dark, like most television viewers. That's the crazy thing about always being in disguise and not talking to colleagues. In the case of the hippopotamus, I still think I can recognize Nelson Müller, for example by the color of the voice. Or Teddy Teclebrhan is behind it. The skeleton could be Sarah Lombardi. At first, however, I thought that Helene Fischer was behind it. And with the meerkats, I think that the big one is the woman and the smaller one is the man. You don't know which voice comes from which.