Davina McCall has thrown her support behind Olly Murs after he was given the axe as a judge on The Voice.
Pop star Olly, 39, was given the chop from his long-running role on the ITV singing competition earlier this year.
It was later announced Olly would make an appearance as a guest panellist on The Masked Singer UK to temporarily fill in for regular Rita Ora alongside Davina, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan.
Ahead of Saturday’s launch of the new series of The Masked Singer UK, Davina told the Mirror: ‘I’ve known Olly his entire career so it feels like he’s part of my work DNA. And he’s a brilliant panellist. I really enjoyed having him on the show.
‘He knows so much about music, he’s great at picking out voices and he’s lovely. We didn’t talk about The Voice, but he didn’t seem down – he was absolutely chipper.’
Davina McCall has thrown her support behind Olly Murs after he was given the axe as a judge on The Voice (Davina pictured last month)
Pop star Olly, 39, was given the chop from his long-running role on the ITV singing competition earlier this year (Olly pictured on The Voice last month)
In September, Olly admitted he was left ‘gutted and shocked’ by the decision for him to leave The Voice and vowed not to ‘bulls***’ fans by saying the choice was his (The Voice judges will.i.am, Anne-Marie, Sir Tom Jones and Olly pictured on the show last week)
She added: ‘I was surprised about [The Voice decision] because I often look at Olly and think he’s as good a TV presenter as he is a singer, and it’s very difficult to get those two things right.’
In September, Olly revealed he had been dropped from the The Voice after six years on the star-studded panel.
The star admitted he was left ‘gutted and shocked’ by the decision and vowed not to ‘bulls***’ fans by saying the choice was his.
He told The Sun: ‘I’m gutted. I got the call last week to say I won’t be back on the show, and it’s a bit of a shock, to be honest. I didn’t really expect that to come…
‘I don’t want to bulls**t my fans or bulls**t people who watch the show, and say, “Oh, it was an amicable decision to leave — I’ve got lots of things on next year, I can’t do it any more”.
He added: ‘Did I want to leave? No. Will I still watch the show? Of course, but it’ll be sore thinking that could have been me.’
During his stint on the show, Olly won the competition twice after successfully mentoring his chosen artists.
Since joining in 2017 he appeared on the panel alongside Will.I.Am, Sir Tom Jones, Jennifer Hudson, Meghan Trainor and Anne-Marie.
Olly is to make an appearance as a guest panellist on The Masked Singer UK to temporarily fill in for regular Rita Ora (pictured) alongside Davina, Jonathan Ross and Mo Gilligan
Olly will appear on The Masked Singer UK panel later in the series (panellists Mo Gilligan, Davina, guest panellist Charlie Simpson, and Jonathan Ross seen on the show on Saturday)
Meanwhile, Dionne Warwick was the first contestant to leave The Masked Singer UK on Saturday.
The 83-year-old star – who is one of the most-charted vocalists of all time – was unmasked as Weather on the ITV show.
Weather dropped a number of hints about her identity during the episode.
She teased: ‘Sun, wind and rain are key parts of my core, but one of the panellists has seen me before.’
The music icon also described herself as being ‘very unpredictable’ before the series.
Dionne Warwick (pictured) was the first contestant to leave The Masked Singer UK on Saturday after she was unmasked as Weather
The 83-year-old star – who is one of the most-charted vocalists of all time – dropped a number of hints about her identity during the episode (Dionne, right, seen inn her Weather costume alongside host Joel Dommett on The Masked Singer UK on Saturday)
Dionne explained: ‘You know, the weather is very unpredictable.’
Dionne also starred on The Masked Singer in the US back in 2020, when she appeared as a mouse.
At the time, the award-winning singer admitted that she struggled to keep her identity a secret.
She said: ‘It’s kind of hard to disguise my voice, unfortunately, in this case, and they recognised my voice, there’s nothing I can do about that.’
