Gabrielle felt like she had a “cheesegrater on [her] brain” when she had coronavirus.
The ‘Out of Reach’ hitmaker caught the virus just before Christmas last year and it left her “bedbound” for several weeks and it took some time before she felt back to full health again.
She told Closer magazine: “It’s a horrific virus. I was bedbound with severe headaches, I felt like I had a cheesegrater on my brain and no painkillers on the planet seemed to work.
“My heart goes out to all those who had to be hospitalised.
“I know quite a few people who went down around the same time I did and a lot of them made quite a speedy recovery, but I was still suffering.
“It was bad, it took about a good month to no longer be bedbound.”
And the 51-year-old singer admitted she will be “rushing” to get vaccinated to avoid falling seriously ill in the future because she knows just how bad the virus can be.
She added: “I will most definitely be getting the vaccine although I had the virus over Christmas, I know I can still get it – I just haven’t been called yet.
“I will be one of those people rushing to get the vaccine and not looking back because until you’ve had COVID… well, it’s horrific.”
Meanwhile, Gabrielle admitted the first UK lockdown saw her pile on the pounds after becoming an “absolute couch potato”, but she worked hard to lose 20lbs before appearing on ‘The Masked Singer’.
She said: “Like many people, I was fully enjoying bottles of alcoholic beverages, overindulging in food and being an absolute couch potato.
“I’d put on too much weight and it had to stop. I dropped 20lbs in September in preparation for ‘The Masked Singer’ – although, in hindsight, I could have kept it on because I was so hidden under the costume!
“All I did to lose the extra pounds was cut out alcohol and takeaways and replace it with eating some porridge in the morning with blueberries, and then having protein and salad.
“I didn’t even really go walking or running – it was just my intake, so that shows the power of food.”