A Kanga-rude awakening: 'The Masked Singer' sends hopping hopeful home

Spoiler alert! This story contains details from the April 8 episode of "The Masked Singer," including the identity of the eliminated celebrity.

The gloves were on, and one more mask came off.

Wednesday, "The Masked Singer" entered the first of the Face-offs, where pairs of contestants throw down for a spot in the "Battle of the Sixes." At the top of the show, eight singers remained in the competition, and four fought it out (in sets of two) in front of panelists Ken Jeong, Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger and Robin Thicke, as well as guest panelist Yvette Nicole Brown, who co-starred with Jeong on the NBC comedy "Community."

Those who lost their challenge were sent to the Smack-down to duke it out for one more opportunity to remain in the game.

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Night Angel vs. Kangaroo

Night Angel was ready to go (girls)! The winged singer fired up the crowd with Shania Twain's "Man! I Feel Like a Woman."

Wednesday, clues about the challengers were revealed through the contents of their luggage. Night Angel packed a crown, ostrich, snow globe and bee. Likely giving further insight into her identity, her luggage tags read, "The bag is mine" and "Boss."

Night Angel revealed to the panel: "I usually fly right over security, but not here. I present to you these heavenly clues so that you can stop winging it with your guesses."

Guesses: Jeong thought of "Empire" star Taraji P. Henson and Scherzinger, picking up on the bee and crown (a possible nod to "Scream Queens"), guessed Keke Palmer. Brown went with actress/singer Vanessa Williams.

Kangaroo's performance of Jordin Sparks' "No Air" packed quite a punch, especially considering what an amateur she is at singing, as she revealed to the judges.

She came toting quite the assortment, including London's Big Ben, a ship in a bottle, a record player and lipstick. Her luggage tag read, "First."

And then Kangaroo shocked the panel. "This show is the first time I've ever sung in front of anyone," she said. "I'm totally new to this."

Guesses: Thicke considered Kangaroo could be actress La La Anthony, and Jeong threw another actress into the mix: Keira Knightley. Scherzinger suspected model Blac Chyna, while Brown envisioned cookbook author Ayesha Curry.

Night Angel floated above the competition and was revealed to be the victor over Kangaroo.

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Astronaut vs. Turtle

Astronaut rocked Scherzinger's world with Shawn Mendes' "If I Can't Have You."

His bag contained the White House, a light bulb, an accordion and a plane, and his luggage tag displayed a message of caution: "Warning do not open!"

Astronaut told the panel: "I'm an open book. Now it's your mission to unearth who I am."

Guesses: McCarthy felt Astronaut had commonalities with actor Ben Platt. Jeong suggested actor Seth Green and Scherzinger made a case for singer Austin Mahone.

Turtle earned cheers from the crowd for crooning James Bay's "Let It Go" before the contents of his bag were shown. Packed inside were an arrow, a gavel, cologne, a baseball glove and what appeared to be a passport with a crown on it. Thicke thought the tag was a reference to the band New Kids on the Block, as the first letter of each word in "Never keep open this bag" spelled out NKOTB.

Turtle thought the items represented him to a T. "It's not easy going through security when you're covered in metal spikes, but what should be easy is figuring out these clues," he said. "So, panel, take it slow like a turtle, and I promise they'll all fit like a glove."

Guesses: McCarthy, who's married to New Kids member Donnie Wahlberg, picked singer Adam Lambert. Brown turned her focus to the boy band and guessed member Joey McIntyre. Jeong chose "Slow Hands" artist Niall Horan.

Astronaut failed to launch directly into the Battle of the Sixes. He lost the good fight to Turtle.

The Smack-down and elimination

Kangaroo tried to bring the fire singing "Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer. But it wasn't a match for Astronaut's performance of *NSYNC's "Bye Bye Bye."

For their final guesses, Jeong went with host Cat Deeley, and Thicke and Scherzinger doubled down on their original guesses of La La Anthony and Blac Chyna, respectively. Brown also kept betting on Curry. McCarthy chose model Jordyn Woods, former best friend of Kylie Jenner. And McCarthy was correct.

Host Nick Cannon asked the contestant about her time on the show, given her lack of experience.

"I was extremely nervous every performance, but honestly, the words from you guys made me just more confident every single show," she said.

Woods said she was a fan of the singing series and also wanted to embrace the challenge of the competition. "I felt like this was an opportunity for people to see a different side of me that not even I knew existed," she said. "It's been so much fun."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'The Masked Singer' Face-offs recap: Kangaroo is sent hopping