Masked Singer Season 10 Winner NE-YO Shares Why He Decided to Perform as a ‘Busty’ Female Cow (Exclusive)

He may be fed up with love songs, but NE-YO doesn’t mind the ones that helped him win Masked singer season 10 as a cow.

NE-YO, 44, tackled Janet Jackson’s “Rhythm Nation” and Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” on Wednesday Masked singer finals to defeat fellow finalists Donut (John Schneider), Gazelle (Janel Parrish) and Sea Queen (Macy Gray).

How ‘The Masked Singer’ Works: All About Fox’s Celebrity Singing Competition

“We chose songs that were a little out of my wheelhouse, songs that you wouldn’t expect to hear me sing on a regular basis,” NE-YO tells PEOPLE. “I was very, very adamant about, ‘Listen guys, I don’t want to be found out too quickly. Let’s figure out ways to throw them off.’ ”

The three-time Grammy winner considers host Nick Cannon and judges Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke his friends, so he wanted to go to extra lengths to hide his identity. Scherzinger, 45, and Thicke, 46, hit NE-YO early, but it didn’t affect their experience on the show.

NE-YO performs as Cow in the 10th season of ‘Masked Singer’.

Michael Becker/FOX

“It was, in a word, fun,” says NE-YO. “I had an absolute ball with it. It was a lot of fun to step out of the NE-YO box for a moment and be someone else. I genuinely enjoyed the experience and would do it again if I felt I could get away with it.”

The father of seven children explained why he decided to wear a female cow outfit, which song choice was his biggest challenge and why he doesn’t mind being a little out of the spotlight.

PEOPLE: What attracted you Masked singer?

NO-YO: Literally just fun. It’s a lot of fun to watch, to sit and try to figure out who’s behind that costume, to pick your favorites. I pride myself on how good I am at guessing who is who. I’ve definitely been scammed a few times. And it’s something you can do with every generation of your family. Me and my mom would sit and watch, me and my kids used to watch it. Everyone can sit down at the same time and watch this show and enjoy it, which is a rarity these days. I’ve kind of prided myself throughout my career on making music that everyone can listen to at once if they want to. This just puts a magnifying glass on something I’ve been trying to do my whole career.

Since you’ve been in the industry for a while, what are you most recognized for these days?

I have always considered myself a people’s champion. I’m the kind of guy you could catch yourself at Target and I think my fans have come to know and appreciate that about me. They approach, ask for pictures and then continue on their way. My days of running around the mall are long gone, which I have no problem with at all. I don’t feel like running. What I get more than anything when I get noticed is people coming up to me and saying, “Hey, you know what? If you were a little taller, you’d look like NE-YO.” And I’m like, “Who is this six foot NE-YO running around stealing my shine?” I don’t understand that.”

NE-YO and Crystal Renay with their children.

Ne-Yo’s Instagram

Who knew you were working Masked singer?

My mom and my kids understood it immediately at the first performance. They said: “Oh, when you were filming Masked singer?” I said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I tried to set it up as best I could, but they caught it right away. They knew.

Why did you decide to dress up as a cow?

I have a personal relationship with Robin Thicke, a personal relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, a personal relationship with Nick Cannon. I knew that if anyone was going to guess who I was, it would be one of those three, if not all three, especially when I started singing. My singing voice is somewhat characteristic. So I was trying to think of any possible way to throw them that far away from my scent. When the producers came to me with the costume, they said, “We want you to be a cow, but we’re going to give you a choice. You can be a male cow or potentially, maybe, if you want, a female cow.” I immediately said, “Oh, cow, let’s go. We’re doing cow, all day.”

How did playing the role of a female cow differentiate your approach?

It gave me a chance to get out of the wheelhouse a bit. As a man cow, I could probably still dance like me. I will definitely sound like me. And I said, yes, I’ll catch me that fast. But as a cow I have huge breasts and hips and the whole nine, so I can’t move the way NE-YO would normally move. And that gave me the opportunity to do a bit of acting. I grew up in a house full of women – my mother, my sister, my grandmother, five aunts and myself until I was 16 – so female manners were not a difficult thing at all.

NE-YO and his mom Loraine Smith.

Paras Griffin/WireImage

Was it difficult for you to move as a Cow?

Challenging, but in the most fun way possible. She’s a busty girl, so I put on this huge padded bra. I have padded hips. But it actually helped because I couldn’t dance the way I normally would. And it was very, very hot, super hot. They were on standby with the fans the entire time. And I could hardly see at all. Where the mouth is on the Cow is mostly my eyes, so I could see through the mouth a little bit, and then the black spots on the mask’s cheeks, I could see through them a little bit. But for the most part, your vision is almost completely blocked.

There were a few shows that involved stairs and I said, “You must want me to break my neck. I cant see. How are we going to pull this off?” But we did it. That was honestly the hardest part, just seeing where I was going.

Which song you performed do you consider the biggest challenge?

Some had a harder time than others. Some were more fun than others. Disco Night was one song that I kind of liked. “Ring my Bell” is one of my mom’s favorite songs. I honestly remember watching her and my aunt dance to that song in the kitchen as a kid, so that song was one of those songs that I liked. There was an Imagine Dragons song that I did that was a little harder to perform. None of the songs are really difficult, they just weren’t songs that I could flex my NE-YO muscles on. I enjoyed stepping out of my typical box a bit. It was a lot of fun.

Celebrities who won ‘The Masked Singer’

Where will you store the Golden Mask trophy?

The Golden Mask trophy will live in the same place my Grammys and every other award I’ve ever won has lived, which is at my mother’s house. My mom has this big cabinet full of my accomplishments, and we moved things around and made room for that big, beautiful gold one Masked singer trophy, next to the Grammy.

What’s next for you after winning? Masked singer?

I have an international tour coming up that starts in March, it’s the Champagne and Roses Tour. I’m putting together a new album as we speak. It doesn’t have a name yet, but I’m literally in the studio every other day working on it. And as I always say, keep your eyes on the sky, ears on the ground. You will hear me, see me. I’ll just be there doing what I love.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Masked singer can be streamed on Hulu.

Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education