Last season on The Masked Singer, the winner was unmasked and fans were shocked to see Jewel winning the prize.
It was surprising because mostly The Masked Singer has older stars that are not as prominent, but Jewel is not only still an active performer, but she had a new album in the works.
In a recent interview, Jewel admitted that her appearance on The Masked Singer actually inspired her new album.
Jewel said The Masked Singer influenced new music
Jewel is one of the top-selling female music singers working today, with over 20 million albums sold.
Despite that, she still put on a giant costume and performed on a reality television singing competition show. She then won The Masked Singer and proved that she was still someone that fans could get behind.
She said that she did The Masked Singer because it “checked a lot of boxes.”
“I’m a mom and I’m 47, and you never hear women talking about kids and learning how to tour with a child who has nap times and school times,” Jewel said. “This business is notoriously unkind to women as they get older.
She also took advantage of the show because she released and sold an EP with her singing songs from all of her performances on the show.
Then, she released her new album, titled Freewheelin’ Woman, which was her first new release in seven years. There are 12 songs on it and she released it under her own label.
Jewel posted an Instagram post that said she wanted to prove that she was more than a genre, and The Masked Singer helped give her the confidence to do so.
“If I had to pick one word that represented this creative urge, I’d call it Folk. Music for the folk,” Jewel wrote. “That is the heart from which flowed my lyrics and melodies.”
“Whether I was writing pop, country, dance, alternative – didn’t matter – that was just the clothes a song was wrapped in… to me it was all the same … asking one question: how are people?”
“Follow your heart, your intuition, it will lead you in the right direction.”
Jewel’s new album
Jewel released Freewheelin’ Woman on April 15 on her independent label.
The album features songs that touch on independence, hope, womanhood, and heartbreak.
It has hit 72nd in the U.K. Digital Albums charts, but it has yet to hit the Billboard charts in the United States.
The Masked Singer airs on Wednesday nights at 8/7c on Fox.