Excluded. “I fainted”: Adeline Toniutti (the Alien in Mask Singer) makes revelations about her participation in the show

The Alien was unveiled this Friday, May 12 on TF1! For several weeks, TF1 has been offering the fifth season of Mask Singer, with each issue the unmasking of two personalities. This May 12, 2023, before the witch – Zaho, it was the Alien who finally had to remove his mask and reveal his identity. Under her very colorful clothes, under the character from elsewhere, was hiding the singer and singing teacher Adeline Toniutti, who has just released an EP, entitled redheadon which appears the tube Hey Manwell known to fans of the Star Academy class of 2022 where she officiated. Pour Tele-Leisure, she agreed to come back to this unique experience.

“I received hundreds of messages from all the people who had seen Star Ac’ and had recognized me”

Tele-Leisure: What made you want to participate in Mask Singer?

Adeline Toniutti : The idea of ​​going on stage, of being able to sing, of being as a singer, but of being masked, that also made me smile a lot. It’s a great challenge. I said to myself “Will people like me even if they don’t see my face, they don’t know who I am?” I find it very interesting as a concept and it really highlights my whole job as a singing teacher too, that is to say the magic of the voice and the magic of energy..

Did anyone close to you know you were on the show?

Only my manager knew about it. We both kept that, and it was hard because in your schedule, when you run a school, and you’re a singer, you have a producer… We marked code names in the schedule so as not to say ‘Adeline is filming, we don’t know where she is, she’s making movies, we don’t know what she’s doing’. It was pretty hard to hide.

How did your loved ones react when they found out that you were on the show?
My dad was really proud. He told me “Adeline, it’s crazy”. He was very proud, my mother too. All my singing students were proud. Then I get a lot of messages on social networks and all that. It was the surprise. They treated me secretive all the same, I say it.

Did they recognize you during your visit?

Yes, there are some who recognized me at the first bonus… Frankly, I received hundreds of messages from all the people who had seen the Star Ac’ and had recognized me. My relatives had recognized me and I said ‘no, no, I don’t know. It’s not my style of…’ I try to keep it a mystery, but frankly, it was hard. I received a lot of messages. It was funny.

“The first time I tried the mask, I passed out”

Who did you watch Friday night with?

Friday night I watched it with my best friend and associate and with a friend of mine who is a masseuse, who has been treating me for years. So we watched it together at my house and I was quite moved. We were moved because these are people who were with me when I had my vocal cord accident and who followed me. And so there was emotion to see me on TV and sing Do not leave mewhich in my interpretation refers to my vocal cord accident, as if to say “Don’t leave me my voice. Don’t leave me my joy.“It was a lot of emotion at home.

Why did you choose the Alien costume? How did you participate in its design?

Imagine that I did not choose it. It was offered to me directly and I immediately said yes. The production, she found that it corresponded to me phew. It was quite funny. The first time I tried it, I passed out. Marie-Christelle (Oglaend, the artistic producer, Ed.) who was with us, said “You have to sit the alien right away and bring him some water. We’re going to take the mask off. I think it’s wrong.” The fittings were pretty epic. And yes, I got into it a lot. I think you must have recognized the shoes. They are the ones I usually wear in white version that we customized. It made me smile keep the same heel and the same shoes that I love and that I wear on stage in my show Tel est mon destin It’s my favorite model of shoes.

“What awaited you, if I had gone to the end, it was Freddie Mercury, and Madonna on a disco ball”

Were you able to choose the songs you performed? And why this choice ?

Of course, it was me who chose these songs. For example, Diva Dance (taken from 5th element, which the Alien sang on April 14, Ed.), the producer asked me to. I said to Marie-Christelle: ‘But you want me to do Diva Dance? I am no longer an opera singer, I no longer have an opera voice.’ She said, ‘Listen, I’m sure you’ll find us something alien’. And in fact, suddenly, I thought of the singer Nina Hagen whom I like very much. Suddenly, I transformed it, I alienated my voice. I got involved a lot in the musical arrangements because I wanted something a bit rock, a bit from outer space, etc. And then, for example, Lady Gaga (Paparazzi, taken up by the Alien on April 14, Ed.) because I love it. Mylène Farmer (Provided they are soft, resumed on April 28, editor’s note.) because I like it a lot too. Gala, Freed from Desire (resumed on May 5, editor’s note.) because it’s a party song and I really wanted to bring joy to the show and to bring a festive spirit and an ode to freedom. And the Brel (Do not leave me, May 12, Ed.), obviously. You saw a very refined arrangement, as I like, with a serious sound, a bass like that, because I wanted to reveal myself in my pure emotion in relation to what I experienced in my life.
And then, what awaited you, if I had gone to the end, it was Freddie Mercury, it was Madonna on a disco ball, but unfortunately, we didn’t get it this time.

Are you not too disappointed to have been eliminated?

Yes. Of course I’m disappointed. I’m too sad because it’s too good to do these performances. We have incredible dancers, we have crazy stagings. Finding the public, I love it. Of course, I would have even wanted to do that all year. No problem. It’s very physical though, because the costumes are heavy. So physically, it’s really hard, but I liked it too much. It’s still a show that is very unpredictable and that’s also what’s great. This is not a song contest, Mask Singer. It’s a mask contest.

How did it feel to see your performances?

I find it hard to believe it’s me. It’s weird. I listen and I say to myself, it sings well and everything. And then I say to myself ‘Adeline, is that you?’ But it’s weird, actually. When we are masked, our eyes are really hidden, we have a blindfold. Moreover, we are held to go on the set, because we really see nothing. So I dance and I don’t see anything, I’m even afraid of falling. So when I see the result, I discover a lot of things on the screens, and I say to myself ‘This is crazy stuff’. Did you see the paintings behind me, the dancers? It’s an American thing. That’s wonderful.

“I come out of the Alien, I lost three kilos of water”

What was the hardest thing for you in Mask Singer?

What is very hard, already, is to keep the secret, not to share with those around you. That is one hell of an ordeal. And what’s really hard is being masked, because you don’t breathe very well. Me, my suit was really heavy. And then not being able to share. You know when you are at Star Ac’, for example, I speak with the managers, I speak with everyone. And so we laugh together and everything. There, they were laughing with the Alien, but I couldn’t tell who I was. Besides, I couldn’t see anything. I was always afraid of falling when I walked, it was horrible. I bumped into the hallway. I swear, I kept bumping into myself. I even thought I had broken my costume. Mask singer is a real test. It’s almost like Fort Boyard, I say. I come out of the Alien, I lost three kilos of water. I lost weight during the show. I was melting.

What did you enjoy most about this experience?

I liked everything. I am in great gratitude for doing this show. It’s like when I got out of Star ac. I lived an adventure, once again, out of the ordinary, which has no comparison with anything we experience in life. And I am in great gratitude for life because a few years ago, I didn’t think I would set foot on a stage, even less that I could sing all this repertoire. I didn’t think I could come back as a singer, etc. So, I can tell you that for me, it’s still a miracle. The Star Ac’ is a miracle and here is a second miracle.

Have you read social media?

Yes, for once, I got permission to watch Twitter. Because when I was doing the Star Ac’, I was told ‘You shouldn’t watch the networks because you shouldn’t be afraid’. And there everyone said to me ‘ Adeline, look, the networks are great, you have to look. So I looked a little bit and it made me smile. All the references to the Alien, that made me happy. It seemed like people were happy to find me from Star Ac’. Frankly, it touched me.

What is your news?

There are lots of things. The EP was released two days ago, it’s called redhead with the song Hey Man inside. It did well because the day it came out it went way up in the iTunes Store, so I was very happy. We have a last date of my show This is my destiny at L’Européen, June 11, where I will meet my audience one last time. I wrote an autobiographical book and then a singing method too, I’m on it. And then we will see me appear in the cinema with Michèle Laroque and Claudia Tagbo next year. I shot this at the same time as Mask Singer, so it was not very practical. And I was the voice coach for the actresses for this movie called Karaoke.