The season had a first in the Belgian series and featured for the first time a masked guest singer, multiple-time cyclocross world champion Wout Van Aert.[2][3] Also for the first time in this Belgian series, a fictional character participated. This was the television dog Samson who participated with his fictional owner Marie.[4][5] For the second time, an international artist participated, Ruslana, who was unmasked just before the semifinals.[6] The winner of the season was Francisco Schuster as 'Labradoodle'.[7]
Production
After three successful seasons, it was quickly apparent that The Masked Singer would return for a fourth season.[8] For the first time, a contest was organized to create a costume for the new series.[9] The winning design, Mister Withlove, was designed by an eleven-year-old girl named Fiona, and featured in the first episode of the series.[10]
The filming took place in May 2024. The jury was presented in August 2024, and consisted mainly of a mix of contestants from the previous three seasons.[11]
Some costumes were revealed through actions during the first weeks of September.[13][14][15] On September 10, 2024, the first 12 contestants were presented.[16] Additional characters Poppemie and Labradoodle participated for the first time in the third and fourth episodes, respectively. One-time guest participant Squirrel appeared in the fifth episode.[17][18][19]
Once again a duo participated, this time best friends Joris Hessels and Dominique Van Malder.[20] During Space Babe's first appearance in the second episode, it was made surprisingly clear that she is a duo with her spacecraft, Scooter, so there were two duos participating this season.[21][22]
The participants again started in two groups of which unmasking happened in turn in group one. In the seventh episode, the remaining four contestants from each group in the Big Bang were merged into a group of eight masked singers.[23]The bell of truth (bel van de waarheid) appeared in the ninth episode. As a result, a video of a prime suspect of a masked singer appeared, allowing it to be removed from the list of possible candidates.[24]
There was a one-off appearance by a masked singer. This celebrity was unable to make more time due to his schedule. Between the two episodes of his participation, the identity of this singer was much discussed on social media.[25][26] This was Wout Van Aert, multiple world cyclocross champion, which got a lot of attention in the press.[27]
Each contestant performed two songs. Two contestants were saved from elimination by the judges, one contestant was saved by the audience. The remaining contestant was unmasked.
After each contestant performed two songs, two of them were saved by the audience and the third one was unmasked. The remaining two contestants went up against each other in a sing-off. The audience chose the winner, after which both the runner-up and the winner were unmasked.