Maskis Laulja is an Estonian 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 TV3 on 15 March 2020.^[1]

A group of celebrities compete anonymously on stage, singing in full costumes over a series of episodes. Each episode, a portion of the competitors are paired off into face-off competitions, in which each will perform a song of his or her choice. From each face-off, the panelists and live audience vote: the winner's safe for the week, while the loser is put up for elimination. At the end of the episode, the losers of the face-offs are then subjected to new votes of the panelists to determine who will not continue; the eliminated singer then enters a special room backstage where it turns its back to the camera, takes off its mask, then turns around to reveal his/her identity.

In addition to the singing competition, hints to each masked singer's identity are offered during the show. Pre-taped interviews are given as hints and feature the celebrities' distorted voices. The panelists are given time to speculate the identity of the singer after the performance and ask them a single question to try and determine their identity.

The costumes of Season 1 and Season 2 were designed by Liisi Eesmaa^[2] and partly feature baltic and national motives such as Vanapagan, a devil-like creature from the Estonian mythology as well as Jonnipunni, an infant-like looking Doll that is one of the most-common-baby-articles of the countries or Kalevipoeg, the protagonist of National Epic. They are partly also used on the Latvian counterpart of the show.

The 10 costumes of Season 3 were designed by Grete Laus-Evestus ^[3] Liisi Eesmaa- dark artist Grete Laus-Evestus (Artist name Grete Stitch Laus) designed 5 costumes- Lumehelbeke (Snowflake), Ronk (Raven), Tort (Cake), Ööliblikas (Night Butterfly/ Moth) and Jänes (Rabbit). Liisi Eesmaa designed the other 5 costumes- Hirv (Deer), Ükssarvik (Unicorn), Kaheksajalg (Octopus), Sinine Ahv (Blue Monkey) and Malekuningas (Chess King).

Ženja Fokin

Mart Juur

Mart Sander

The panelists and host for season one were announced on 3 March 2020. It featured TV host Krista Lensin, journalist, radio host and actress Brigitte Susanne Hunt, fashion artist Ženja Fokin and comedian Mart Juur.^[4] For the second season, Fokin was replaced by Kristjan Jõekalda.^[5] Entertainer Mart Sander is the presenter of the show.

The first season was announced on 7 February 2020 and started airing on 15 March 2020^[6] and concluded on 3 May 2020. It featured 10 celebrities from the field of entertainment, music, film and theatre, journalism and politics and was won by Stefan Airapetjan.

Some of the celebrities who competed in the first season of Maskis Laulja, pictured in order of elimination (l-r):
Laine Randjärv ("Rat"), Getter Jaani ("Jonnipunni"), Kärt Anvelt ("Lion"), Mart Mardisalu ("Insect"), Kaire Vilgats ("Flower").

Season 2 was confirmed on 17 August 2020 and started to be taped in the same week.^[7] The first episode was aired on 18 October 2020. An additional programme called Maski taga (Behind the Mask) was launched that featured interviews with unmasked contestants and panelists as well as further speculations and theories about the main show.

Some of the celebrities who competed in the second season of Maskis Laulja, pictured in order of elimination (l-r):
Peeter Oja ("Alien"), Sven Mikser ("Saturn"), Elina Born ("Lynx"), Tomi Rahula ("Zebra"), Luisa Rõivas ("Fly Agaric"), Elina Nechayeva ("Phoenix").

In this episode, the contestants performed duets with famous singers.

• Official website
• Maskis Laulja at IMDb