The Masked Singer's Night Owl reveals which famous friend she's calling first after her elimination

Warning: This article contains spoilers from Wednesday's episode of The Masked Singer.

Mamma Mia, here The Masked Singer goes again.

The second episode of season 9 was a tribute to all things ABBA, and fittingly kicked off with host Nick Cannon and panelists Robin Thicke, Nicole Scherzinger, Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg, and Ken Jeong being introduced on stage to "Mamma Mia."

The ABBA-travaganza continued from there, with this week's new costumes Night Owl and Rock Lobster performing "Fernando" and "SOS," respectively, and last week's winner, Medusa, tackling "Dancing Queen."

After quite possibly the most amusing performance in nine seasons of the show, Rock Lobster was sent back to sea first. Final guesses from the judges included Steve-O (Thicke), Martin Short (McCarthy-Wahlberg and Scherzinger), and Howie Mandel (Jeong). Much to Jeong's delight, the rock & roll crustacean was revealed to be TV host, comedian, and actor Howie Mandel.

This meant Night Owl and Medusa were sent to this week's Battle Royale, where they were tasked with singing — what else? — "The Winner Takes It All." Ultimately, Night Owl was defeated and Medusa won the war, and therefore moves on to next week. The judges debated using this season's new "Ding Dong Keep It On" bell, but decided against it in the end.

This meant the beautiful bird had to take it off, and under all that snowy plumage was singer-songwriter and Broadway star Debbie Gibson. Only McCarthy-Wahlberg got this one right. Other guesses for Night Owl included Sarah Jessica Parker (Jeong, naturally), Belinda Carlisle (Scherzinger), and Kylie Minogue (Thicke).

Here, EW talks with Gibson, who reveals her whirlwind Masked Singer journey, which she believes is a gift from her late mother, and which famous friend and fellow TMS alum she's going to call first now that she's no longer bound by an NDA.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: In the spirit of your costume, tell me, are you a night owl or an early bird?

DEBBIE GIBSON: So, when I'm touring and performing, I'm a night owl. And otherwise, I'm an early bird. So it really fit my life because I spent a lot of time on the road last year, and I'm hitting the road again coming up. So the costume definitely plays to my rock 'n roll spirit, nocturnal side.

Tell me about your The Body Remembers Encore tour, which was just announced, and what you're most excited for.

Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. I love the craft of making an album in the studio, which I did with The Body Remembers — it's a double album — and I love doing all that. But the ultimate purpose of making an album, in my opinion, is to get it out in front of people and to perform it live. And it's been an exciting chapter because I did The Body Remembers tour last summer, I did dates for Out of the Blue's 35th anniversary later in the summer in New York, and then I did my first-ever holiday tour, and there's been a demand for even more. So it's really exciting. I always look forward to communing with people really. I love people. I love the energy of music. I love that it's attracted people of all generations. I have fans who were not even born yet [when I started making music] who have kind of hopped on board with this album, because it's got a more modern sound. And, of course, fans who have been with me for over three decades. I don't know what generation you are, but I've really noticed that, my generation, the children of the '80s, are kind of having their own resurgence and their own, like wanting to feel all the feels from the past but not wanting to live in the past, wanting to move forward and wanting to be out at shows and be vibrant and vital and happy and joyful. My shows are very raw and very joyful, and very interactive. I take requests, and you know, I have my dancers and my vocalists, and we do all the bells and whistles choreography and stuff, but then we drop all that and go totally in the moment. So it's a real mix of a lot of elements.

To answer your question, I'm a '90s baby. Which I also feel like is really having its moment in pop culture again.

I'm doing a show with Joey Fatone in like a week and a half or something at SeaWorld. So he's your '90s boy. But, I was gonna say, speaking of in the moment: I don't know if you know how my whole Masked Singer journey came about, but I was not scheduled to be on this season. I got a call the day before I performed because somebody dropped out. So my whole experience was like, okay, I just want to get through the day. I wasn't thinking about winning. I mean, we put my character together literally overnight and in that costume room that morning. The team was unbelievable. And "Fernando" came up as the song for me to sing, literally, I was on a plane heading from New York to Vegas, where I live, the day before. And the call came as I was sitting down on the plane, and then it got confirmed when I landed. So I came to my house, unpacked, repacked, got driven to L.A., got there at 10 p.m., and was on the set at 8 in the morning. It was such a crazy experience. But I decided to say yes. It had been presented to me to do the show before, and I thought, "Oh, maybe someday I'll do it. And I'll take like three months and really get physically conditioned and vocally stretch and do all the things…" because I've been told by friends, Donny Osmond, and people who have done it, that it's hard. And then this came up and I'm like, "You know what, who knows when I'm going to be able to do it that way. So why don't I just do it this way?" It came up and I was feeling very rock and roll and in the mood to say yes. And I said yes. It was so surreal, and so much fun.

Why have months to prepare when you can fly by the seat of your pants, right?

Exactly. There was a little bird pun in there with flying by the seat of your pants. [Laughs] Yeah, I mean, it's really true. I just felt like nobody else in nine seasons got to have the experience that I had. Like, it hasn't ever happened. And so I was like, "Okay, I think the universe is sending me this as my unique moment and my unique experience." And actually, the call came on the one year anniversary of my mom's passing. And my mom managed me for 25 years. And I thought, "Oh, my mom is managing me today and sending me a cute, fun little gig." Because something about it, you can even hear it in my voice now, the whole thing has just put me in a great mood. I think people love this show so much because it's wholesome. We've had such a hard three, four years. And there's a lot of cynicism in the world. I'm always diving into like, animal rescue and animal abuse, like you can be so weighed down by the realities of the world. And this is pure escapism, and it's grown ups in these crazy, giant costumes. [Laughs] It's so absurdly fantastic and whimsical. And so I just felt like yes, please, I want this right now even going for just a day. Because I knew in not preparing, there was a chance that I was not going to do more than a day. And when I saw Medusa, I was like, "Oh, she's been preparing for a long time." And I loved her for that, whoever she is, I don't know who she is. But she was so gracious. And it felt like she was rooting for me as well. So it was a very, very fun girl power camaraderie and energy as well.

Did you personally try and guess who she is?

Oh my gosh, I've run the gamut. One of my initial guesses was Janelle Monáe, because something about her elegance and the avant garde nature of her voice. But then here's what happened when I watched it the other night. Now I'm completely stumped and I want to just leave it to social media nation to be guessing and I don't want to guess. But what threw me is, when I heard her singing "Dancing Queen" I had a lot of guesses. And they were a little more in the R&B, even older soul singers were coming to mind. But then when I saw the first episode, she had that like super modern Kate McRae-like enunciation in the verses. So I was like, huh, okay, now I think I might be wrong on the generation, and I might be wrong on the genre of artist that she is. So whoever it is, is very crafty, because I think she's purposely throwing us and sending everybody in different directions, only in the course of two performances, so I can't wait to see how it unfolds and what she does coming up.

That makes two of us. You mentioned Donny Osmond, who of course was a finalist in season 1 as the Peacock, and other past contestants that you know. Are you going to call any of them up now that you've done the show to compare notes?

Oh totally! Donny will probably be my first call. I've taken the NDA very seriously. So I've not called anybody. But Donny's my friend here in Vegas down the street, so I'm definitely going to call him because I'm always gushing to him anyway, because he's such a powerhouse, ageless performer. He admittedly has had surgeries, hips and knees and all kinds of crazy things, so for him to be in the crazy costumes — those costumes are heavy! They're hot. Just singing live on TV, I don't care how long you've been doing it, it's got its own set of nerve-wracking qualities to it always, for me, anyway. And so you pile all the other elements on that... But it was a lot of fun. I'm so glad I got to be part of this family and experience and legacy, and yes, I definitely would love to talk about it [with others]. Again, I'm seeing Joey Fatone [season 1's Rabbit] next week. I want to hear about his experience. He sounded so great. And like Cheyenne Jackson [season 7's The Prince] is a fellow Broadway person, his Sam Smith song was so stunning. Certain performances stand out. Of course LeAnn Rimes [season 4's Sun] had such an incredible whole journey.

And can we just talk about Dick Van Dyke, I just realized I haven't talked about him yet all day. That blew my mind. I was crying right along with Nicole because I'm a theater baby. And she is too. See, I love that so many legendary people want to do the show because it is such a unique experience. And the fact that he graced that stage with his presence was just awe-inspiring.

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