News24.com | The Masked Singer SA coming to screens in June: 'This is not a singing competition like any other'

Skhumba Hlophe, Sithelo Shozi, Somizi Mhlongo and J Something are the panelists in The Masked Singer South Africa.

• The Masked Singer South Africa will premiere on S3 (formerly SABC 3) in June.
• Channel head Pat van Heerden said they were "excited" to bring the globally successful show to South African screens through Rose and Oaks Media's collaboration with the SABC and Primedia.
  
• Show panellists Somizi Mhlongo and J Something say it is unlike any other singing competition.

Singing competition guessing game, The Masked Singer South Africa, will premiere on S3 (formerly SABC3) in June, the channel said in a statement.

Launched at an exclusive event in Johannesburg last week, The Masked Singer South Africa will premiere on Saturday, 3 June, at 18:30.

"S3 is so excited to bring a great, big and globally successful talent show to South Africa in a local version," channel head Pat van Heerden said in the statement. "Our Saturday night slot, at 18:30, bring citizens talent shows each week from around the world, but now we stage our own South African talents. The natural home for a show like this is S3 which aims at a local citizen who is simultaneously a global citizen. The tagline for S3 is Open Up – to new worlds, new thinking, new ways of living!"

The Masked Singer South Africa will see 16 celebrities sing well-known songs in bejewelled full-body costumes and masks that hide their identities. As the celebrities perform, the star-studded panel of detectives, namely J Something, Somizi Mhlongo, Sithelo Shozi and Skhumba Hlophe, will try to guess their identities.

Comedian and actor Mpho Popps will host the show, which is executive produced by Anele Mdoda and made possible by her production company Rose and Oaks Media.

"I'm super excited to be the host of the show," Popps said. "Honestly speaking, this is the biggest adventure I've ever embarked on, and I'm excited to see how South Africa is going to enjoy it, but most importantly, I'm excited that I get to work with these amazing people."

Speaking about filming the show, Hlope said: "It's wild, man."

"You feel like you're in jail, but you are enjoying this jail time," he said. "We don't know who's there, and every time the mask goes off when they take off their mask, we're like, 'How did we miss this person?'"

Shozi, meanwhile, said keeping the show a secret was hard.

"Other than my three pregnancies, this had been the hardest secret. It's been so hard keeping a secret but so worth it," she said. "The experience has been surreal. I still get chills when we go on stage and record the shows."

Veteran entertainer Mhlongo said viewers are in for a "pleasant surprise" when they see him on the panel of detectives. He noted The Masked Singer South Africa was unlike any other singing competition.

"People are going to say 'Ah, Somizi again judging', you know, but we are not judging," he said. "They [the viewers] will get a pleasant surprise to understand this is not a singing competition like any other.

"What makes it so different is that everybody can be a kid. We are all going to find that kid in us."

READ MORE | 'Take it off! Take it off!' - After a 'deal with the devil' The Masked Singer SA is ready to entertain

J Something echoed a sentiment similar to Mhlongo's, saying the show was unlike other popular South African singing competition, IdolsSouth Africa.

"I thought it was – had a lot to do with the singing and the performing, but it's so much more," he said. "You see that some of the masks that are doing really well just know how to play the game – engaging with the audience and hiding your identity really well, so it's actually a detective game."

Last week, Mdoda shared the "the key" to winning the show.

"If you're not the favourite, if you're at the bottom of the favourites, you get unmasked," she said.