Leopard was one of the six remaining masked celebrities who competed for a spot in the semifinals last night on The Masked Singer.
He was the second masked celebrity who performed on the show after Fox. He did a cover of We Are Young by Fun and got a standing ovation for his smooth rendition of the song.
Leopard presented his clue video before his performance. The video featured tantalizing references to tennis and a motorcycle crash that left the panelists and fans at home asking questions.
He appeared in the video holding a tennis racket.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Leopard presents the Grand Slam Open brought to you by Tofu,” Leopard said.
Two men wearing tennis shorts and carrying tennis rackets appeared. A man dressed as a referee blew the whistle and the men began playing
“I am the Leopard, aka the Menace of Tennis,” Leopard continued.”Let me tell you, this competition is really heating up.”
The video also featured a check for $20 million and a motorcycle crash.
When Leopard was asked to say what he shared in common with the panelists, he said he once presented an award at an award show that included one of the panelists and that he wore a custom leather outfit at the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWQ-o1YRz1o
The panelists guess
Robin Thicke thought Leopard was the British musician Seal, while Jenny McCarthy suggested he was the R&B singer Eric Benet, but Ken Jeong thought he was the singer Enrique Iglesias.
Many fans who took to Twitter after the show agreed with Robin Thicke that Leopard was most likely the singer Seal.
Leopard + Seal =
— Josh Anderson (@JuiceMan411) December 11, 2019
https://twitter.com/TweetyB51272669/status/1204571681332838400
https://twitter.com/TinBridges/status/1204571435894738944
Does Seal play tennis?
Fans who believed that Leopard was Seal began asking whether the singer plays tennis.
Seal is a tennis enthusiast who spends a lot of his time when he is not making music playing matches with his friends. Among his friends are the tennis legend Chris Evert and Novak Djokovic.
He was one of the celebrities invited by Chris Evert to the 29th Annual Chris Evert/Raymond James Pro-Celebrity Tennis Classic, a charity event to raise money to fight drug abuse. The event took place in November 2018 at the center court of the Delray Beach Tennis Center.
Seal paired with the tennis legend Martina Navratilova to play against actor Shawn Hatosy and the former tennis professional Jesse Levine.
When the tennis star Novak Djokovic attended Seal’s concert in Spain in 2016, the singer went out of his way to shout out his friend (see video below). He paused his concert to eulogize Djokovic and dedicated his rendition of Kiss From a Rose to the tennis player.
“It was a pleasure watching you practice today, it’s something that I’ll tell my children, and it’s an honor to have you at my show. Thank you so much,” Seal said.
Was Seal in a motorcycle accident?
Seal was once involved in a “life-altering” motorcycle accident, according to his IMDb page. However, the details of the incident are unknown.
What did Leopard mean by “The Menace of Tennis”?
It is not clear what Leopard meant when he described himself in his clue video as “Menace of Tennis,” but some fans speculate that the phrase could have been an allusion to The Simpsons Season 12, Episode 12, titled Tennis the Menace, in which Homer built a tennis court in his backyard and everyone mocked him because of his poor tennis skills.
Homer later entered himself and Marge in a tennis tournament and chaos followed. The episode featured top tennis players such as Venus and Serena Williams, Andre Agassi, and Pete Sampras.
The Leopard might have been comparing his amateur enthusiasm for tennis with Homer’s.
The Masked Singer airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Fox.