Masked Singer

RPF Fandom
Name(s):	Masked Singer, King of Mask Singer, Mystery Music Show: King of Mask Singer, The Masked Singer Korea
Scope/Focus:	fandom for the Korean variety show
Date(s):	April 5, 2015 – present
See also:	MBC Entertainment, EXID, f(x), Melody Day, B1A4, Fly to the Sky, K.Will, Super Junior, Winner, Highlight, N.Flying, Kpop
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Masked Singer is an international music reality game show franchise. It originated from the South Korean program The King of Mask Singer, developed by Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation.

Needs Updating: This page is out of date. Editors are encouraged to add more recent information.

Format of the Korean Original

King of masked singer is a show where singers (idols, rappers, comedians, etc.) wear a mask and sing in front of an audience.

Each competition lasts for two episodes called generation, with eight singers competing one-on-one in three elimination rounds. They are given elaborate masks to wear designed by Hwang Jae-keun in order to conceal their identity, thus removing factors such as popularity, career and age that could lead to prejudiced voting. In the first round, two contestants at a time sing a song in a duets, while in the second and third round they each sing a solo song. The winners of each pair are selected by the audience and panel of celebrities through instant live votes. The identities of the singers are not revealed until they have been eliminated. The winner of the third round challenges the previous competition's Mask King and is either eliminated or becomes the new Mask King.

Before and after Covid, the cast with guests and the audience live voted for who moved on and stuff while during the pandemic only the celebrities in the audience voted as their was no other audience there. In the celebrity audience, there are some for example comedians, but there are also legendary singer-songwriters/veterans. These veterans analyze each voice and give comments after every round. In between the voting and the reveal of the results there is also a variety segment to give clues about the identities of the contestants.

South Korea

The King of Mask Singer (Korean: 미스터리 음악쇼 복면가왕; lit. Mystery Music Show: Masked Singer's King) is a South Korean singing competition program presented by Kim Sung-joo. It airs on MBC on Sunday, starting from April 5, 2015 as a part of MBC's Sunday Night programming block.

The current panel of judges in 2024 are: comedians Kim Gura, Lee Yoonseok, and Shin Bongsun; and the music specialists Yoo Youngseok, Yoon Sang, Kim Hyuncheol, Lee Min from As One, and Sandara Park.

The first unofficial winner of the franchise was Solji of the girl group EXID who won in the pilot episode of the original South Korean King of Mask Singer series aired on February 18, 2015. The first official winner of the franchise was Luna of the girl group f(x) who was declared as the winner of the first ever competition in the original South Korean series on April 12, 2015.

Ha Hyun-woo of Guckkasten as "Music Captain of Our Local" is to this day the Masked Kings with the longest streak of 9 consecutive wins in the generations 22–30. Son Seung-yeon as "The East Invincibility" has 8 consecutive wins in the generation 71–78, which is the highest number of consecutive wins ever achieved by a female contestant. Other notable winners for K-pop fans are:

• Solji of EXID in the pilot episode as "Self-Luminous Mosaic" and in the generations 82–86 (5 wins) as "Dongmakgol Girl"
• Luna of f(x) as "Used Two Buckets of Gold Lacquer" in the generations 1 and 2
• Yeoeun of Melody Day as "Give A Taste Of Spicy Miss Pepper" in generation 9
• Sandeul of B1A4 in the Special Live 2016 (between 79 and 80) as "Heart Attack Cupid" and the generations 212-214 (3 wins) as "Incense"
• Hwanhee of Fly to the Sky as "Hoppang Prince" in the generations 47–49 (3 wins)
• K.Will as "The Sea Otter Baby Seahorse" in generation 60
• Haena of Kiss&Cry and at that time Matilda as "Klimt" in the generations 95–97 (3 wins)
• Kyuhyun of Super Junior as "Jinie" in the generations 106–110 (5 wins)
• Seungyoon of Winner as "Chow Yun-fat" in the generations 122–127 (6 wins)
• Yang Yo-seob of Highlight as "Buttumak Cat" in the generations 137–144 (8 wins, the second most consecutive wins)
• Yoo Hwe-seung of N.Flying as "First Place Trophy" in the generations 194-197 (4 wins)
• some SeeYa, SG Wannabe and Big Mama members

Over the years, there were a lot more idols who competed. Fans were wondering why idols didn't win more often. In the end, people thought it came down to the fact that modern idols tend to sing more "wispy" and "clean-cut", and their vocal impact will not be the same with those of R&B/soul singers, musical actors, or rock singers with charismatic high notes. Also even if the idols choose good songs that can showcase their strengths, the other opponent might sing something that grabs more attention as the song choice seems to be quite vital. On top of that, there is a huge range of ability and background on King of Masked Singer. Some contestants are just entertainers who don't have much experience, but the show has also seen some of the top singers in the country like Sohyang and Kim Yeonwoo. There are also a lot of talented musical actors who do well on the show (though some idols are musical actors themselves, including some previous winners). Because of the masks, it is also thought to be less biased of a format. According to fans, there is a key problem in this program as well. Age. Age is notorious in the voice. So almost always a good young vocalist may loose against an elder singer. Because that is Korean society. Nevertheless, there are definitely also a couple of idols who did very well on the show.

There was also a parody of the show made in the Korean television entertainment program "Infinite Challenge". The most memorable performance is that of G-Dragon and Taeyang of BIGBANG as fans thought it was hilarious how they tried to disguise their voices as they have some of the most recognizeable voices in the Korean entertainment industry only to still be recognized by IU who is a big fan.

Memorable performances

The list includes mostly idols even though the general public in South Korea seems to love other performers more.

• Ryan Reynolds' "Tomorrow" was a special performance at the beginning of the Episode 153 of the 77th generation which was broadcasted on May 13, 2018. After his reveal he stated that he was there to promote Deadpool 2. Everyone was excited and to this day fans think that this performance is a hilarious and legendary move.
• Up10tion's Sunyoul's "Tears" in the 21st generation broadcasted on January 10 and January 17, 2016. This song originally by So Chan-whee is known as being really hard even for females to sing because of the high notes. Because of that and his ambiguous name "Most Beauty Uhwudong" athe time the episodes aired the panel of celebrities and the general audience thought that it was performed by a girl. His reveal is known as one of the biggest plot twists in K-pop history just after K.Wills "Please Don't". Everyone was genuinely shocked. Fans love it to this day. He would go on to perform the song with So Chan-whee in March 2016 because his performance was that iconic to people.
• EXO's Chen's "Drunken Truth" in the 11th generation broadcasted on August 23 and August 30, 2015. Fans love the performance because he was able to show off his vocal range. This performance takes place in round 3. He would go on to lose the final against Hong Ji-min. Fans love his performance of "Stained" as well. Other than that EXO-Ls could only see Suho as a member of the panel.
• Super Junior's Kyuhyun had a bunch of memorable performances. He also was the first male idol to become King. The one that stands out the most to fans is his "Y Si Fuera Ella" performance of SHINee's Jonghyun's version in Episode 222 broadcasted on September 29, 2019 of the 111th generation. Fans hearts were broken after he sent a message to Jonghyun after his reveal. He stated that this song was Jonghyun's first song as a solo artist which is why he wanted to perform it in memory of him. The two were good friends and Jonghyun passed away when Kyuhyun was in the military. He expressed his regrets and guilt about the suicide. He stated that he wanted to tell him: "I sang your song to the best of my abilities, Jonghyun. Did you hear it?" As Kyuhyun isn't someone who cries easily fans felt for him. Fans would also notice how he purposefully didn't sing some of the lyrics more specifically "I don't want to live". Another memorable performance of him is "Breathe" originally performed by Lee Hi and written by Jonghyun which was probably also a tribute as lyrics state "It's alright, I'll hold you, you really did a good job" and the song was also performed by Lee Hi as a tribute after his death. Fans were really touched by his performance and said that his performances made them cry. Fans also love "Memory of the Wind" (August 18, 2019), "Energetic" (September 1, 2019) and "Wild Flower" of first run in the 15th generation broadcasted on October 18 and October 25, 2015.
• F.T. Island's Hongki participated twice leaving fans with amazing performances. His first performance "Love Sick" was in the 2nd generation broadcasted on April 19, 2015. The panel at that time stated that they would eliminate him because his voice was too recognizeable and took away from the concept of the show. Fans were saddened, but understood the reasoning as everyone immediately knew it was him. The same thing arguably happened to him his second time around. Nevertheless, fans love his performance of "Western Sky" (full version) in the 53rd generation broadcasted on April 2 and April 9, 2017 just as much and are happy he gifted those performances to them. Hongki is loved by fans and the Korean public for his amazing voice and singing ability.
• BTS's Jungkook's performance of "If You" in the 36th generation broadcasted on August 7 and August 14, 2016 is insanely popular as he is to this day the only BTS member which has participated in the show. Army being the huge fandom that it is made it very popular. Also the panelists really like Jungkook's singing technique which is why Armys would point to that when other people would criticize BTS' singing ability. On top of that, he performed a BIGBANG song who are known to be BTS' inspirations and another very popular boygroup. Other than that only Jimin appeared in the panel of the show.
• Stray Kids' fans were amazed when JYP Entertainment sent their two main rappers to the show (instead of sending their vocalists). Fans loved HAN's duet "Me After You" with Alex of Clazziquai in Episode 197 broadcasted on March 31, 2019 and Changbin's duet "Tic Tac Toe" with Yang Dong-geun in Episode 261 broadcasted on June 28, 2020.
• Fans were equally astonished when Monsta X's Jooheon participated. Fans loved his performance "Look At Me" in the 129th generation on Episode 257 broadcasted on May 31, 2020. Afterwards, they would claim that Jooheon is one of the most talented people in the industry.
• Red Velvet's Wendy's performance of "Amazing You" and "Love over a thousand years" in the 113th generation broadcasted on October 20 and October 27, 2019.
• BtoB's Sungjae's performance of "One Day Long Ago" and "Thanks" in the 3rd generation broadcasted on May 3 and May 10, 2015 really amazed fans because he is just a vocal (no main or lead vocal) to BtoB. Once again fans were amazed at the vocal talent of the band, but also of Sungjae.
• Blackpink's Rosé's performance of "If It Is You" in the 52nd generation broadcasted on March 19 and March 26, 2017.
• Girls' Generation's Tiffany's performance of "Rose of Betrayal" in the 110th generation broadcast on September 8 and September 15, 2019.
• All of So Chan-whee's performances are iconic to fans as she is one of the most popular singers in South Korea.
• f(x)'s Luna's performance of "Sad Fate" in the 3rd generation broadcasted on May 3 and May 10, 2015 and "I'll Write You A Letter" in the 1st generation broadcasted on April 5 and April 12, 2015. Fans of f(x) feel to this day that she is a very underappreciated vocalist.
• EXID's Solji's of "Maria" in the 1st generation in Episode 1 broadcasted on April 5, 2015 called celebration stage because she was the winner of the pilot and therefore, the first winner of the show. Fans also love her "The Reason I Became a Singer" of the pilot episode and Ailee's "I Will Show You" in the 85th generation broadcasted on September 16 and September 23, 2018.
• EXID's Hani's performance of JYP's "Honey" in the 24th generation broadcasted on February 21 and February 28, 2016. Fans couldn't recognize her because she used a lower register than she uses in the EXID songs and were amazed by her overall singing ability which was better than expected. Even at the height of her popularity people still didn't know of her musical talents, everyone knew of her as the very sexy girl group member whose fancam saved the group and who turned out to be super funny and entertaining in variety shows. Everyone loved her talent.
• Seventeen's Seungkwan's performance of "Forsake" in the 68th generation broadcasted on January 7 and January 14, 2018 (full version) was very memorable of his fans. They adore it because he was only 19 years old in this performance and his voice was that good, but it improved even further. Apparently, he was also sick during this performance which makes it more impressive to fans. And this song was what made him an idol. He talked about how he sang this song at a festival when he was younger and how his teacher recorded it, then Pledis saw it and casted him. Fans stated that you can tell that it has a lot of emotional meaning for him.
• Seventeen's Hoshi's performance of "Bad Guy" in the 77th generation broadcasted on May 13 and May 20, 2018.
• Lovelyz' Kei's performance of "Fate" in the 138th generation broadcasted on October 4 and October 11, 2020 was adored by fans as they loved her dreamy voice and felt like she really fit the concept of OSTs.
• Basically all of Sohyang's performances are loved by fans as she is a really good singer, but fans love especially her “Hug Me” performance in the 55th generation broadcasted on April 30 and May 7, 2017.
• Akmu's Lee Su-hyun's performance of "First Impressions" in the 50th generation broadcasted on February 19 and February 26, 2017.
• Fly to the Sky's Hwanhee's performance of "Distant Memories of You" in the 47th generation broadcasted on January 8 and January 15, 2017.
• Winner's Seungyoon's performance of "Family Portrait" in the 122nd generation broadcasted on February 23 and March 1, 2020.
• Basically all of Guckkasten's Ha Hyunwoo's performances are loved. There is a reason why he had the most consecutive wins. Examples would be "Lazenca, Save Us" which he performed in the 22nd generation broadcasted on January 24 and January 31, 2016, BIGBANG's "Fantastic Baby" broadcasted in Episode 48 on February 28, 2016 and "Don't Cry" broadcasted in Episode 50 on March 13, 2016.
• Monsta X's Kihyun's performance of "Moon of Seoul" in the 20th generation broadcasted on December 27, 2015 and January 3, 2016.
• Highlight's Yoseob's performance of "Adult" in the 141st generation broadcasted on November 15 and November 22, 2020. Fans love all of his performances though as he is the contestant with the second most wins in the show next to Son Seung-yeon.
• Super Junior's Ryeowook's performance of "Do You Know" in the 21st generation broadcasted on January 10 and January 17, 2016.
• Han Dong Geun's performance of “Downpour” by I.O.I in the 79th generation broadcasted on June 10 and June 17, 2018 really touched fans hearts as they were missing I.O.I a lot.
• As she had a lot of performances due to her having the second highest win streak fans love a lot of her performances. Especially Son Seungyeon SHINee's "Sherlock" (Episode 158, June 17, 2018), “A Winter Story” (Episode 144, March 11, 2018), Ailee's U&I (Episode 142, February 25, 2018) and "Y Si Fuera Ella" (Episode 146, March 25, 2018) stood out though. Fans feel like she is underrated/underappreciated. Fans also believed that she seems to like SHINee a lot.
• NCT’s Doyoung's performance of “Time Spent Walking Through Memories” in the 105th generation broadcasted on June 23 and June 30, 2019.
• Ailee's performance of "For You" in the 4th generation broadcasted on May 17 and May 24, 2015.
• B1A4's Sandeul's performance of "Emergency Room" in the 1st generation broadcasted on April 5 and April 12, 2015.
• Wanna One/NU'EST's Minhyun's performance of "Comes And Goes" in the 72nd generation broadcast on March 4 and March 11, 2018.
• 2NE1's Minzy's performance of "Painful And Painful Name" in the 53rd generation in Episode 105 was broadcast on April 2, 2017 as people were stating that they didn't know she could sing like that.
• N.Flying's Hwe-seung's performance of "Oort Cloud (오르트구름)" in the 197th generation broadcasted on April 2 and April 9, 2023.
• Some of the most memorable duets are "I believe" by Youjin of KNK and Baek A-yeon (Episode 83, October 30, 2016, full version), "Perhaps Love" by Shownu of Monsta X and Lucia (Episode 137, January 21, 2018), "Wi Ing Wi Ing" by Junggigo and Kang Seung-yoon of Winner (Episode 109, April 30, 2017, full version), "Genie" by Seulgi of Red Velvet and Ali (Episode 79, October 2, 2016), "Round and Round" by Akmu (Episode 99, February 19, 2017), "Ugly" by Soyeon of (G)-Idle and Kim Ha-young (Episode 353, May 1, 2022), "Billie Jean" by Henry of Super Junior and Sanchez of Phantom (Episode 115, June 11, 2017), "City of Stars" by Kwon Jin-ah and Seo Tae-hoon (Episode 191, February 17, 2019) and “If I Leave” by Kim Sejeong of gugudan/I.O.I and U Sung-eun (Episode 95, January 22, 2017).

Controversies

MBC's 'King of the Masked Singer' to take legal action against Chinese producers who refuse to pay after licensing the show's format (bought the license rights to remake the series). The case ultimately went to China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission and the MBC won. Seriously facing plagiarism of South Korean TV show "The Masked Singer"

MBC apologizes for featuring controversial singer Horan (DUI)

‘Actual hell’: Ryan Reynolds recalls experience on South Korea’s ‘Masked Singer’

MBC's 'King of Mask Singer' under fire after inviting another guest previously embroiled in a controversy

‘The Masked Singer’ Creator Wonwoo Park Developing ‘Eurovision Song Contest’-Style Format In U.S.; Addresses Rudy Giuliani Controversy: “It Can’t Always Be Pleasant When The Mask Comes Off”

South Korean singer Crush accused of racism

“King Of Masked Singer” PD Responds To Criticism Over Panelists’ Comments On TWICE’s Jihyo

International Versions

The first adaptation of the South Korean show to be launched outside South Korea with a seasonal format was the Chinese version (even though it was first not part of the franchise). The Thai series was the first version of the franchise with annual seasons. It aired from October 6, 2016 until September 3, 2020. The Masked Singer concept would soon become a huge franchise with shows in 57 other countries other than South Korea. There are slight differences to the format in some broadcasts. In Germany and Italy, votes are open to all viewers because the show is live. The Swedish format provides simulated live voting without the ability to actually affect the pre-recorded show, which was criticised as deceptive when it was noted after the show's second week. The Korean version is also the only one which is continuous without seasons and thus focuses on how long the one can defend the champion title instead of how to become the King. In comparison, most of the other international versions have been following the seasonal format in which the winner is declared after a single season tournament that lasts from few months to about a year. The international programs consequently focus on who the champion is after the months to year-long tournament. The most important part of the format however, the masks, are kept everywhere.

The Thai series went viral in 2017 as the clip of the Oyster Mask by singer Pandavaram Prasarnmitr of the Thai rock band, Cocktail of THE MASK SINGER 2 in Thailand was YouTube's most viral clip as YouTube shared in his list called the “top trending” videos of the year 2017. This shed focus on the show's format and helped starting the franchise in Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar, Australia, France and Germany among others which followed. The developers of the United States would also claim to be inspired by the Thai version seeing it in October 2017 at a Thai restaurant in Los Angeles.

A lot of the successors were really well received in their respecitve countries. People loved the show for the crazy masks, its over the top securtiy measures and everything that came with it. Some people though would claim that the successors are no match for the Korean original though.

Own controversies: Masks steal the show in US version of Korean contest