Heather Small says her mum instantly knew it was her on The Masked Singer despite changing her voice

M People star Heather Small has said her mum instantly knew it was her on The Masked Singer – despite her completely changing a voice.

The singer, 56, trained for six weeks to change her distinctive voice, which fooled the judges as she sang as Chandelier – but meant she was the first to leave the competition.

But while the panel and viewers had no idea who it was – her mum was on to her straight away.

Speaking on today’s This Morning, Heather told Dermot O’Leary and Alison Hammond: “It’s not easy being someone else and trying to hide it from the rest of your family . I think that is the difficult thing because my mother and I live together and she is like a snoop dog.

“Apparently she was watching with my sister and as soon as I came on and started singing she said ‘ I know that voice’. So you may be able to hide from the nation and even the panel, but not from your mum!”

She previously said she felt like she had still won as she took at pop at her rival Doughnut.

She said: “From some of the vocals that have come out, it’s not a singing show, it’s a guessing game.

“Now, if it was singing — and Doughnuts went through — I’d have something to say.”

The studio audience voted for Doughnuts’ energetic performance of Eye of the Tiger over Chandelier’s rendition of Patsy Cline’s Crazy.

Then the panel — Jonathan Ross, 61, Davina McCall, 54, Rita Ora, 31, and Mo Gilligan, 33 — chose to save Firework and Mushroom over Heather’s character.

Heather added: “For me, it wasn’t about winning, but I thought I won because nobody had a clue who I was. And that was the aim.

“It was very satisfying when I saw the panel’s face. They were clueless.”