:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/john-oates-the-masked-singer-082625-f78f0f5d5b694709ba8ccbdeb984eeb7.jpg "How The Masked Singer inspired a song on John Oates' new album: 'So weird'")
The singer performed on the show's 10th season as the Anteater, a cheeky reference to Hall & Oates' hit 1982 single &34;Maneater.&34; How The Masked Singer insp
The singer performed on the show's 10th season as the Anteater, a cheeky reference to Hall & Oates' hit 1982 single "Maneater."
How The Masked Singer inspired a song on John Oates' new album: 'So weird'
The singer performed on the show's 10th season as the Anteater, a cheeky reference to Hall & Oates' hit 1982 single "Maneater."
By Emlyn Travis
Emlyn Travis is a news writer at* *with over five years of experience covering the latest in entertainment. A proud Kingston University alum, Emlyn has written about music, fandom, film, television, and awards for multiple outlets including MTV News, *Teen Vogue*, Bustle, BuzzFeed, *Paper Magazine*, Dazed, and NME. She joined EW in August 2022.
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September 1, 2025 11:00 a.m. ET
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John Oates performs in April 2024; Anteater on 'The Masked Singer' in 2023. Credit:
Paras Griffin/Getty; Michael Becker/FOX
With his new album, John Oates is paying homage to his time on *The Masked Singer*.**
The singer-songwriter and former member of the rock and pop duo Hall & Oates tells* * that he was inspired to include a cover of Marc Cohn's 1991 hit "Walking in Memphis" on his new album, *Oates*, after performing the track on the reality singing competition. **
"About two years ago, I was asked to be on *The Masked Singer*," Oates says. "So the first song I sang was 'Walking in Memphis.'"
He adds, "That whole *Masked Singer *experience was so weird."
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John Oates is unmasked on 'The Masked Singer'.
Michael Becker/FOX
Oates competed in season 10 of *The Masked Singer *as the Anteater, a cheeky reference to Hall & Oates' 1982 hit single "Maneater." He made it all the way to the semifinals for Group C before he was unmasked. **
The Nashville resident explains that it was pivotal that he put his own spin on "Walking in Memphis" for the show and not just play it straight, which is why he chose to transform it from a soft-rock anthem into a feel-good pop-infused track. **
"The Mark Cohn song is so great," Oates says, "but I wanted to give it a more up-tempo feel."
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In addition to his pop-fueled reimagining of the song, Oates' new album includes an EDM remix of the track helmed by electronic music producer and DJ Grabbitz. **
"It's really cool — much more extreme," Oates says of the remix of *his* remix. "After having done *The Masked Singer *and surviving that weird experience, I just said, 'Well, got to record it now and put it on the record.'"
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Oates previously opened up about why he chose to join the cast of *The Masked Singer* in an interview with EW after his season 10 elimination.
"I'm in a point in my career where I can do anything I want, and it's fun to do something different," he said at the time. "It happened to fall into a really good slot where I wasn't touring … So it worked, and I thought it would be a great way for me to do something different where I could sing and not have my voice and my personality connected to my past, which … I'm really making an effort to kind of leave my past in the past and move forward."**
He added that the anonymity provided by the extravagant costumes also factored into his decision-making process.
"It was kind of a motivation to say, 'Hey, you know what? I'm going to sing. No one's going to know who I am, and we'll see what happens. We'll see what they think,'" he said. "And I was really flattered when they started comparing me to some really great vocalists. People like John Cougar Mellencamp and Bryan Adams and Billy Joel and Bob Seger, all great singers who I really, really like. So that was flattering and fun."
*Oates* is available now.
Source: "AOL TV"
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