Joss Stone "in shock" at winning The Masked Singer and fans stunned that Sheridan Smith and Stacey Solomon weren't Sausage

The singer-songwriter was unmasked as Sausage in yesterday's episode – which scored an average of 8.6 million viewers, with a peak of 10.6m – after winning the competition with her renditions of Whitney Houston's I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Andra Day's Rise Up.

"I honestly am still in shock," Stone said "Every night I thought I was going to be unmasked. I even got my roots and lashes done at the very beginning to be ready.

"If I am honest I didn’t really know the rules of the game before I got there. I thought it was if the panel guess you correctly then you have to be unmasked but no, it was the audience that voted for who they liked. Eek!

"That made it even more nerve-racking! I just can’t believe I got so lucky to get so far. I think it was the costume that they liked rather than the singing. But hey ho as long as they were smiling and laughing we all did our jobs well."

The BRIT Award-winner added that it was "very hard" to keep her involvement in the show a secret.

"People around me were constantly trying to guess what I was doing in these weeks. Some people even got mad because I wouldn’t tell them. It’s really been quite funny how crazy people get when you keep secrets from them. Madness!"

While some viewers guessed Sausage's identity correctly, Loose Women's Stacy Solomon and Cilla star Sheridan Smith were popular suggestions in the run-up to the final, with 55 per cent of RadioTimes.com readers saying Smith was the celebrity behind Sausage, while 36 per cent voted for Solomon.

Fans reacted on Twitter after Sausage's unmasking by posting a series of memes, with one viewer writing: "FOR THE WHOLE SERIES I THOUGHT SAUSAGE WAS SHERIDAN SMITH."

While another admitted they had spent the whole competition convinced that Sausage was "a toss up" between Solomon and Smith "just to be baffled that it was actually Joss Stone".

Smith addressed the rumours after last night's final, tweeting: "Well there you have it! I am very flattered that for eight weeks some of you thought it was me, although I do very much love eating chips & sausage with gravy. Well done Joss Stone!"

She also thanked panellist Jonathan Ross for "thinking I could sing anywhere near as well as Joss Stone" and revealed that those close to her thought she could be Sausage during the competition.

Responding to a fan who thought Sausage was Smith, the Mrs Biggs actress tweeted: "If it makes you feel better, even my fella and my manager thought it might be me at one point and that I'd done it on the sly."

The identities of finalists Badger and Robin were also revealed last night, with Ne-Yo and JLS's Aston Merrygold taking off the masks respectively.

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