ITV Masked Singer viewers say 'forgive us' as musical legend unmasked in opening episode

A musical legend has been unveiled as the first celebrity contestant to be booted off the new series of The Masked Singer UK. The competition kicked off on ITV on Saturday night - and fans had a lot to say about the opening episode.

The Masked Singer sees celebrities try to win over the judging panel while keeping their identities a secret with elaborate character costumes. The judges - Davina McCall, Mo Gilligan and Jonathan Ross, who appeared with guest judge and previous winner Charlie Simpson this week - have to guess who the contestants are as clues are dropped throughout the performances.

The opening episode of the latest series saw six characters go head-to-head - Maypole, Cricket, Big Foot, Dippy Egg, Weather and Rat. But the judges decided it was Weather who would be going home first.

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Despite predicting that a musical legend was hidden underneath the glittering blue gown, the judges opted to send Dippy Egg and Maypole through to the next stage of the competition after they were put at risk alongside Weather.

And after convincing themselves that 83-year-old soul icon Dionne Warwick was the woman behind the performance of Johnny Nash's I Can See Clearly Now, the character whipped off her mask to reveal that their guess was correct.

Viewers were stunned to see such an iconic singer grace the stage and took to social media to share their disappointment that she was already out of the competition.

Posting on X, formerly Twitter, one said: "It's an overused word but Dionne Warwick is actually a legend, impressive from itv." Another commented: "Oh