The “I Don’t Want to Wait” singer also dished on the everlasting popularity of the Dawson’s Creek theme song, and its resurgence on the charts after trending on TikTok.
2024 has been the year of yes for Paula Cole.
And that manta rang true when the “I Don’t Want to Wait” singer got a call from The Masked Singer.
Cole, who exited the show Wednesday night following a double elimination for Group A, spoke to TooFab about her experience performing on the singing competition series, and why, in the end, she was relieved to be eliminated when she was.
“It caused me to kind of get over myself, my seriousness and my snobbery, and just embrace having fun and lightening up,” Cole said when asked why she decided to compete on the show.
“So it was a really healthy lesson in lightening up and taking in some joy,” she continued. “And it’s been joyful also watching it, watching it with my family, my kids, and giving my old folks something to watch because they’re elderly and they’re in their La-Z-Boys watching a lot of television. So it’s been such a joyful, fun, unexpected ride. I never expected that I would have done something like this.”
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“But 2024 has just been full of surprises,” she added.
While Cole said during Wednesday night’s episode that she wanted to make it to the quarter-finals, when she was ultimately unmasked, she told TooFab she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved.
“It’s okay. I don’t think I really needed to win at all. I kept my Buddhist sense of unattachment and stoicism. I really enjoyed the process. I enjoyed the dancing. I enjoyed the team behind me. Everyone was fantastic to work with,” Cole gushed. “In fact, it got more anxiety-provoking the deeper I got. I really hated the Battle Royale. I don’t like it a sing-off, like a music competition like that. It’s so antithetical to what music is for me, which is a unifier. Music is unifying. So I didn’t like it getting so competitive.”
“And I was honestly kind of relieved when it was over,” she admitted. “Like, I’m so glad last night is over. It was nerve wracking. I hated the Battle Royale.”
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But after being unmasked, Cole said, there was a part of her that was sad to leave, especially after growing a bond with the team on the show.
“After losing and being unmasked, I went back to my team that kind of builds me every night, puts on my mask and everything, and I like cried a little tear because I was going to miss them so much. It was sad to leave the bubble. It was a lot of fun,” the “Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?” singer added. “So I was sad to leave that, but I’m okay with, I don’t need to win The Masked Singer or awards. That’s not why I do this. It was just good for me to have fun.”
Cole, who performed as The Ship on the series, also shared what it was like to sing and dance in that top-heavy costume — which saw her maneuvering and even ducking through doorways to get around TMS set.
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“It was top-heavy. I couldn’t make some move where I’m putting my head forward, it would have been flying off of me… and brilliant costume. I actually had a lot more mobility than the giant furry and feathered creatures. I loved ship. She occupies a place in my heart. I miss her,” Cole shared. “I loved my anonymity. It gave me some freedom and agency. I loved her grandeur and her queenliness. That was all good.”
“I needed to like duck every time I went through doorways because I was very tall and I had kind of a wide berth,” she went on to explained. “So my shoulders, like they had these ships on my shoulders. So I’d kind of tend to walk sideways through doorways and duck down, but singing inside was no problem. Singing, I had a lot of freedom. I felt lucky to have my costume.”
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As far as the reaction she’s received following her performance, Cole said there’s been “lots of love” online after her unmasking.
“And I loved that people thought I was Annie Lennox. That amused me because — and those were the fans. They had better ears than most of the judges, I thought, with that suggestion of Annie Lennox, because she was a huge influence to me. Her voice, she’s part of the reason why I started doing what I do. So, that made sense to me.”
She continued, “But some of the other suggestions by the judges didn’t make sense at all. Alanis or Cyndi Lauper, their voices don’t sound like anybody but their own. Definitely not like mine. I don’t know. It’s just a lot of love. And some people say, ‘I’m so disappointed you left.’ It’s all okay. It’s all just an entertainment show. It’s fun. That’s all it’s meant to be. And I’m back at doing what I do, which is making my music and writing and touring.”
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Cole, who released her latest album, Lo, earlier this year, also spoke to TooFab about the everlasting popularity of one of her biggest hits, “I Don’t Want to Wait,” a.k.a. the original theme song of the beloved late ’90s drama, Dawson’s Creek.
Now streaming on Netflix, the show has not only gained a new audience, it’s theme song has made its way to TikTok, bringing the track, which was released in 1996, back on the music charts nearly two decades later.
“It’s incredible. You know, that song is so much bigger than me and the association is bigger than just me. It’s the song of my life, really. I mean, I wrote it for my grandfather and what he went through being in World War II, coming home from the Battle of Okinawa and with PTSD and how it affected our family, which was deep. And me thinking about what I want to do in my life and how I want to overcome generational trauma, like all of that is in this song and it has a meaning to me,” Cole explained.
“However, it has radically different meaning to other people. And it’s been incredible to see how it’s been cross-generational,” she continued. “It started as a success in its own right on charts, what have you, and parents playing it for children. But then Dawson’s Creek and the whole association, which was so much bigger than me, brought it to new audiences and it just doesn’t stop.”
She continued, “It’s been very moving and kind of humbling to me to see it have life on TikTok and also to see other people cover the songs. That’s very touching to me. It even charted again this year because it got life on TikTok and then it charted on the iTunes chart. So it’s just a beautiful evergreen — it really is an anthemic melody, like I’m proud of the melody. People want to sing it. I’m very moved by it and moved that it means so much to people. It’s special.”
The Masked Singer shifts to Group B for a “Sports Night” theme next Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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