The Masked Singer (Belgian TV series)
The Masked Singer is a Belgian reality singing competition television series based on the "Masked Singer" franchise which originated from the South Korean version of the show "King of Mask Singer". It premiered on VTM on 18 September 2020, and is hosted by Niels Destadsbader. The winner of the first series was Sandra Kim. The winner of the second series was . The second series premiered the 14th of January 2022 and ended on the 18th of March 2022. Format. The Belgian series followed the format of the South Korean version it was based on . The series was a singing competition. Contestants had to sing and perform songs, and compete in duels against each other. The studio audience could vote for the best performance, giving this singer a pass for the next round. Singers who lost the duels had to face the jury and the studio audience again, until one singer remained. That singer had to leave the competition. The singers were masked. The singers didn't wear masks only but specially made costumes that hide their faces and bodies completely. The real identity of the singer was masked and the singer received a new  identity of the costume he was wearing. The singers looked like the character, behaved like the character and were named as the character. The voice of the singer was changed into the characters voice by using a voice changer. Only during the singing performance, the true voice of the singer could be heard. The series was a guessing game. The judges and the home audience had to guess the true identity of the masked singers. Throughout the series, they got clues of the identity by the hints the singer gave during the pretaped mini-movies or after his performance. Sometimes  there were clues hidden in the costumes. Production. Recording. In January 2020, VTM announced that they would be producing a local series of the franchise. Normally, the series would have been recorded in March 2020, but recording was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Recording started in June but with a limited audience. The judges were in the same group they could meet during the social restrictions because of COVID-19. After the final of the first season at 6 November 2020, VTM confirmed a second season. This season was recorded during the summer of 2022. Design. Lightning expert Michiel Milbou, executive  producer Olivier Deprez, director Maryse Van den Wyngaert and set designer Koen Verbrugghe designed the set. The only certainty were two giant masks, left and right, as entrances to the stage. The production was commended by The Economic Times for the set design and the clever use of lighting to give the impression there was a bigger audience. It was named one of the best and most beautiful productions of the international The Masked Singer editions. There was meant to be an audience of 300 people but because of COVID-19 measures, there was only an audience of 80 people possible . It took 1 hour to get the audience according to the measures and social restrictions safely into the studio. A home audience of 100 families was added. Selection. Potential contestants for the first season were invited for a meeting. The format was explained and videos shown of international editions. Non-professional singers had to sing for 10 minutes for the singing coach of the series. Some contestants weren't withhold because of the limited capacity of their voice. After being selected the contestants received singing and dancing training. Costumes. Emmy Award-winning costume designer Marina Toybina created the costumes for  the first two seasons. The process of creating a costume took three months. It started with the Belgian production pitching what characters they want. Toybina made concepts based on those wishes. The concepts were then used by the belgian team to make the costume. Every candidate needed half or a full hour to get into the costume. Bathroom breaks were carefully planned. After only 10 minutes it became 35 degrees behind the masks. The costume of Queen was the heaviest with 12 kg. The costume of Dragonfly was the widest with 2,5 meters. The costumes of Diver and Monkey were  modified during the season according to the songs they performed. The costume of Wolf had to be adjusted because the candidate got backproblems due to the weight of the tail. The helmet of Diver had so much condensation after three minutes, the contestant had to sing and perform blinded. Contestant Kathleen Aerts had to be overcome her claustrophobia to be able to wear the mask. During season two the temperature of the costume of Cyclops was measured 56 degrees. To remove the smell from the costumes, the dressmakers used vodka. Contestants of the second season were again subjected to extreme  conditions. The temperature inside the costume of Cyclops was measured 56 degrees Celsius one time and the head only of Red Deer weighed 10 kg. Contestants had a special designed armor to divide the heaviness of their costumes. The costume of Radish was made to have two arms outside but because of a weak shoulder of the contestant, the character had only one moving arm. Security. The series had a codename during the production of the first season, "Meloenenjacht". The series is prerecorded so there are less people aware that the series beind recorded. The first two series were recorded  during summer, at a time where the contestants had more free time at their shedules and it wouldn't be obvious to their relatives they would be away during the recording days. The series had a codename during the production of the first season, "Meloenenjacht". Only 8 people knew the identity of the participants in advance: the executives of "VTM", the singing and dancing coaches and directors of the series. The contestants also knew the identity of the other contestants. No other people were informed. Contestants had to get permission of the production team if they needed to inform their  partner, family or children. "VTM" also asked the press not to leak any information about the identity of the participants if something was discovered. During their arrival and exit at the recording studios the singers wear concealing black clothes, including the hoodie with the message "Don't talk to me" and masks. The contestants were brought with anonymous cars to the recording studios and had to put their personal belongings in a black bag. During rehearsals contestants had to use sign language or a chalk board to communicate with the crew because it was forbidden to use their real talking  voice. For the second season the departure of the singers was strictly organised since people already knew the show and were more attentive.<ref name="Contestant Security">