How The Masked Singer Became One of The Biggest Hits of the Third Lockdown

A hoop-skirted Harlequin delivers a powerful cover of “Fast Car”. A burly Viking with a gigantic beard provides a surprisingly soft rendition of the Fleetwood Mac ballad “Songbird”. A mystery female singer performs the Dreamgirls classic “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” disguised as a giant cone of sausage and chips. These are not products of a folk singer’s LSD hallucinations, but are instead scenes from The Masked Singer, the latest Saturday night light entertainment phenomenon on British TV. The format of The Masked Singer is pretty simple – celebrities perform disguised as a variety of unusual characters, and a panel of judges (as well as the audience in the studio, and the millions watching at home) have to guess their identity. The audience and judges vote out one or two of the acts, and they must take off their masks and reveal their true identity. However, things get even stranger when the performers are revealed – Instead of the usual heat magazine mainstays and minor soap actors, the line-up includes a former manager of England’s football team, several chart-topping popstars, and even a knight of the realm (You don’t get that on Dancing On Ice!) Why would these celebrities – many of whom are still active and influential – devote several weeks of their time to such a strange show?

The Masked Singer originated in South Korea in 2015. However, it was the American version - which premiered in January 2019 – that caused the franchise to go stratospheric. Since then, it has been exported to over 40 countries, and a dance-themed spin-off (The Masked Dancer) has also been created. The UK version premiered in January 2020, with comedian Joel Dommett hosting and big-name celebrities Johnathan Ross, Davina McCall and Rita Ora on the judging panel. Mo Gilligan joined them for the second series, replacing Masked Singer USA judge Ken Jeong. Although critics were bemused by the first season, it proved a hit with viewers, and the second season has received a very positive reception for being a welcome burst of escapism during the current lockdowns. There are three things that make The Masked Singer such an addictive show – the memorable costumes, the strong celebrity lineup, and the surprisingly clever mystery format.

The Costumes

Every international series of The Masked Singer has a diverse array of costumed competitors, with the UK version keeping things simple and having exactly 12 each season. Most costumes are based on animals, birds and aquatic creatures, with a handful based on foodstuffs. There are also plenty of costumes based on monsters and other undefined fantasy creatures, which allow the designers to go all out and create something totally unique. Additional innovations have included a selection of 2 person costumes for celebrity couples (Snow Owls in America, Meerkats in Germany) and even a puppet costume with a moving mouth. The costumed competitors highlight the hidden depths of the mystery performer beneath them, whilst also standing out as characters on their own terms.

The costumes in the first series of The Masked Singer UK were pretty weak compared to other versions. There were some good ones – Duck was a simple but effectively eccentric design (which proved quite easy to customize), whilst Hedgehog fit the “posh but eccentric” persona adopted by the thoroughly Mancunian comedian and actor Jason Manford. But there were also some disasters – Queen Bee had a creepy doll-style porcelain face, the Monster costume was too bulky to move around in, and the Tree costume was just horrifying. However, the costumes in the second series are FAR superior. Even the weakest costumes, such as Blob, have charm and personality, and Sausage is one of the best Masked Singer costumes of all time. Silly, expressive, unique, it represents everything that makes the show so uniquely enjoyable.

Apart from Sausage, other great costumes from around the world include Bushranger (Australia), Climate Hero (Austria) Falafel (Israel) and Diver (Belgium). The best costumes are usually the ones that play with national symbols/iconography or subvert gender stereotypes (male singers as feminine characters and vice versa). Games where you guess the identity of a mystery person often rely (consciously or unconsciously) on stereotypes of age, gender, race, profession, etc, so it is nice to see these casually challenged every so often. Costumes can also subvert our expectations in a variety of smaller ways. In America, the Serpent looked like a pretty intimidating character, with a giant open mouth and animatronic tentacles, but his cover of “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” was just adorable. Serpent also represented an instance where the costume itself represented a clue to the identity of the celebrity. Serpent was revealed as the medic turned American viral sensation Dr Elvis Francois, and any medical expert will be able to tell you the snake is part of the Rod of Asclepius, a symbol used by doctors and surgeons all over the globe. Getting to see these costumes every week makes it easier to delay the gratification of a celebrity reveal until later on in the series, allowing us to stay consistently engaged with the mysteries of the show.

However, being dressed to impress always has a downside, as our celebrities have to perform under bright lights whilst wearing very hot and stuffy costumes. The Oscar-nominated tough guy Mickey Rourke (Who younger audiences will know for his roles in Sin City, The Wrestler and Iron Man 2) withdrew from the American version after one performance because he felt too hot in his furry Gremlin costume, and many other contestants have probably entertained this possibility at some point in the competition. The show takes its commitment to secrecy so seriously that whenever the celebrities enter or leave the studio – or simply get out of their costume for a toilet break – the contestants have to wear gloves and an opaque visor to conceal their identity, with shirts saying “Do Not Speak to Me”. Despite this, the sheer fun of taking part in the show is well worth all the difficulty.

The Celebrities

Like most celebrity talent shows, The Masked Singer generally relies on celebrities who are past their peak of popularity, as true megastars like Beyonce or Adele would not have the time or inclination to commit to them. However, the line-up is incredibly strong by celebrity talent show standards, discarding the traditional comedians, daytime TV personalities and TOWIE/Geordie Shore/Love Island alumni to focus on musicians and actors who were big names in the 1990s and 2000s. The first season of The Masked Singer UK featured three chart-topping musicians (Nicola Roberts of Girls Aloud, Cee-Lo Green, Jake Shears of Scissor Sisters), two who had come agonizingly close to the top spot on multiple occasions (Kelis, Justin Hawkins of The Darkness), and two who have enjoyed less chart success but been consistently acclaimed award winners with a distinctive musical style (Skin, Katherine Jenkins). The second season has already featured four musicians who have reached number one in the British charts (Sophie Ellis-Bextor as Alien, Mel B as Seahorse, Martine McCutcheon as Swan and A-Ha frontman Morton Harket as Viking), with further chart-toppers waiting to be unmasked. This focus on nostalgia-inducing musicians provides a pleasing blast from the past for the millennial audiences who engage with the show online, which further enhances the comfort factor.

In addition to the numerous singers, The Masked Singer features celebrities from other areas, but most of them have some level of musical experience (This includes appearing in stage musicals or recording one-off singles and albums). On any other singing show, the use of professional singers would be a major problem. One of the worst flaws with the 2019 Celebrity version of The X Factor was the fact that most of the lineup had a history of singing experience. Glee Star Kevin McHale and former Love Actually child star Olivia Olson are both most famous for showing off their formidable vocals, and The Only Way is Essex star Megan McKenna had previously competed on The X Factor and Britain’s Got Talent – she used the series to promote self-penned songs from her album 'Story Of Me', and won resoundingly. Even the notorious football hardman/movie star Vinnie Jones – who took on the Jedward/Wagner role of the talentless but enjoyable novelty act - had demonstrated his “singing ability” on the madcap musical comedy series Galavant. In these cases, the musical experience took away any element of surprise, ensuring that (painfully bad judges’ decisions aside) X Factor: Celebrity was one of the most boring seasons of The X Factor. However, in The Masked Singer, the use of famous musicians is actually one of its greatest strengths. Although many of them have distinctive voices and styles that we should all seemingly recognize, it can be surprisingly hard to recognize people by their voices alone when the songs and costumes are providing such a distraction. In addition, a lot of contestants mix things up by disguising their voice or singing songs from different genres. Even if this doesn’t prevent you from guessing their identity, it is still a fun way of doing something unusual and showing the extent of their vocal range.

Many of the early reveals are a genuine surprise, especially in the earlier weeks, when there aren’t enough clues for the average viewer to nail down someone’s identity. As demonstrated by the larger American version, the early reveals can often be some of the most famous and/or unusual contestants in the series. The anonymity means that genuine musical icons can lose out to less experienced performers, which often happens on The Masked Singer USA. It was disappointing to see the legendary rapper Busta Rhymes become the first performer to be unmasked in their fourth season, and soul legend Dionne Warwick was voted out of their third season after just two performances. However, this focus on keeping celebs secret also has some positive side effects. The notorious Republican Vice-Presidential candidate Sarah Palin - who played a key role in turning the Republican Party from conventional right wingers with a veneer of respectability and responsibility into the monstrous cesspit we know today - competed on the third season of The Masked Singer USA in the costume of a cuddly purple bear. If her identity had been known beforehand, then the fanbase which bent over backwards to keep her daughter Bristol in Dancing with the Stars (Despite her lack of dancing ability) would have allowed her to make a deep run, but the anonymity meant that the competitors were judged mostly on talent, which meant that Palin was eliminated at the earliest opportunity.

The cultural dominance of America means that most international audiences will be familiar with a good proportion of the names on the American version. The Masked Singer USA lineup has included 90s and noughties pop icons (LeAnne Rimes, Seal), hip-hop stars (T-Pain, Busta Rhymes), soul legends (Gladys Knight, Patti Labelle, Dionne Warwick) and even a few classic crooners (Donny Osmond, Paul Anka). However, variations in other countries focus on domestic celebrities who are usually relatively unknown outside state borders – although European versions often feature former contestants from that other enjoyably trashy singing competition – The Eurovision Song Contest. Fortunately, like most major talent show/reality TV franchises, the format of The Masked Singer is fairly consistent in all international versions, and this makes it easy to enjoy versions of the show anywhere in the world. It is worth following for the costumes and performances alone, with the prospect of seeing unmasked celebs you MAY have heard of being a bonus.

The Clues

In order to guess the identity of the costumed competitors, we are all are given a set of clues before every performance, with a couple of bonus clues afterwards. As you can expect, these range from the subtle (A crime scene being shown in Alien’s intro) to the blatant (Viking repeatedly saying “A-Ha” during a phone call). Most of them require a fairly substantial knowledge of celebrity trivia, which can be a bit alienating for those who don’t enjoy that sort of thing, but this still represents an unusual degree of audience investment that goes deeper than “Which singer is your favourite?”. The Masked Singer format is perfect for social media, as people are able to share their guesses online, but if you don’t want to participate in online discussion, then its best to steer clear of social media and tabloid newsites during the weekend…

One of the joys of the mystery section is looking for the “knockout clues” that could confirm the identity of the celebrity beyond all doubt. For instance, the knockout clue for the identity of Grandfather Clock (Revealed to be the former football player and manager Glenn Hoddle) were the use of a postcard with the postcode for Swindon on it (Hoddle begun his managerial career at Swindon) and a reference to seeing the late Diego Maradona - who was still alive when Season 2 was filmed in September - performing his infamous “Hand Of God” (Hoddle played for England during the 1986 World Cup). However, things aren’t quite as simple as this. The UK version of The Masked Singer has a round where the contestants provide three potential clues, with only one of them being a real clue. This can be quite an effective piece of misdirection, as these clues can confirm different theories depending on which one you think is the truth.

Sometimes, all the hard work put into the clues can be undermined by the fact the celebrities are too recognizable. When “Scary Spice” Mel B competed as Seahorse, the show provided some relatively fiendish clues, focusing on her experience as the host of the obscure Channel 5 gameshow Lip Sync Battle UK. Despite this, judge Mo Gilligan was able to recognize her instantly based on her distinctive Yorkshire accent. Despite this, knowing the celebrity early can actually benefit the show. It quickly became clear to many viewers that the performer in the Blob costume was none other than comedy icon and Comic Relief co-founder Sir Lenny Henry. It is well worth waiting for a contestant to be unmasked near the end of the series when for when you know they will be revealed as a household name who has been a fixture of British entertainment for decades. There was also the additional fun of waiting for the judges to catch up and recognize his distinctive voice (which Davina McCall eventually did). In fact, their inability to identify most of the celebrities make us feel superior to the judges, and that is a pretty entertaining dynamic.

This is the perfect opportunity to talk about the judges. For the most part, they are totally pointless. Although recent seasons of the American version have rewarded the judges who get the most correct guesses, their rivalries and competitions are trivial in the context of the wider show. Johnathan Ross claimed that Alien was Vera’s Brenda Blethyn, even though it was clear immediately that it was someone younger and posher. However, Rita Ora (whose reputation has taken a nosedive due to her high-profile violations of COVID-19 restrictions) has proven to be the least effective guesser - her guesses this season have included Steve Coogan’s infamous fictional character Alan Partridge and a flock of ravens, which would be ludicrous even by the standards of this show.

The judges can be ridiculous, but they never undermine the integrity of the show. In The Masked Singer UK, the judges have the power to choose which of the bottom 2 or 3 acts get unmasked in the early rounds, but their choices are usually pretty sensible. Even if you think that Grandfather Clock was a better singer than Viking, or Alien was a better singer than Swan, the level of talent is fairly consistent, and the judge’s choices never generate much real outrage. Whilst the judges in The X Factor regard themselves as supreme experts in what the public wants to see – leading to some INCREDIBLY questionable decisions - the judges in The Masked Singer have no such pretentions, and that is why their presence adds to the fun.

Conclusion

Like many of the most popular TV franchises, The Masked Singer takes familiar concepts and combines them in an unusual and memorable way which feels perfectly suited to the age of social media. On one hand, part of the appeal of The Masked Singer is the sheer weirdness of its imagery and costumes, and the fact that people are putting this much time and effort into something so silly. However, the other reasons for its success are based on things which are pretty easy to understand. Everyone loves a guessing game. Everyone loves seeing celebrities doing something new and unexpected. And people love positive, upbeat entertainment. Like many of the most successful television formats, and that is fundamentally why The Masked Singer has been such a source of much-needed joy over the last year.