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Grayson Perry flips the bird at art world snobbery with Masked Singer appearance

The Turner prize winning potter stunned viewers and hosts of the popular TV show after revealing himself as the voice behind the kingfisher costume

The Art Newspaper
17 March 2025
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Surprise, surprise! Grayson Perry in a designed-by-someone-else kingfisher outfit (apparently) reveals he’s not Harry Hill at all

ITV

Surprise, surprise! Grayson Perry in a designed-by-someone-else kingfisher outfit (apparently) reveals he’s not Harry Hill at all

ITV

The Turner prize-winning potter Grayson Perry has long been a familiar face, but now he seems to be popping up everywhere—even on Saturday night TV.

There were gasps on the UK celebrity singing competition, The Masked Singer, last month when Perry was revealed to be the face behind the kingfisher costume. His unmasking foxed the popular TV show's judges Jonathan Ross and Davina McCall, who had guessed that comedians Harry Hill or Joe Lycett were in the birdy outfit.

Perry told The Sunday Times: “It was a fun thing to do. I didn’t hesitate. A, because I like singing and B, because I’m interested in the various snobberies that float around culture...the art world claims to be unshockable. So it’s interesting what does shock it. I said it in my speech when I won the Turner prize—they’re perfectly accepting of me being dressed up in a dress… but the pottery?!”

Perry will be unveiling 40 new works in a show at the Wallace Collection in London this month in the aptly titled Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur (28 March-26 October).

DiaryGrayson PerryWallace CollectionLondon
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