ElRubius, one of the streamers and youtubers with the most millions of followers worldwide, had one of his few television appearances on Wednesday night. It was under the mask of Tigre, one of the characters who competed in the third season of the hit competition Antena 3 Mask Singer: Guess Who’s Singing. His elimination came in the second round of the competition. “I’m basically here because my mom was excited,” he commented after being spotted.
After the appearance of international stars such as the American actress Tori Spelling (“Sensation of Living”) or the British singer Mel B (member of the Spice Girls) a few weeks ago, the show produced by Fremantle has specialized in attracting his game for characters whose Fame has come from areas far from television and who are mostly allergic to it. Not only do they dare to sing in public, but they also do so hidden under the most outlandish costumes in a space that is an original idea of South Korean television.
For Carmen Ferreiro, director of entertainment at Atresmedia, the presence of characters like ElRubius is one of Mask Singer’s great achievements. “The influencers and stars of the virtual world are an added value to attract young audiences to the show. Because, as in the rest of the chain’s spaces, one of the main keys in filling is to bring together profiles that interest all generations,” he comments on the phone.
Rubén Doblas, known as ElRubius, surpasses any Spanish TV in terms of reputation. He has 40 million subscribers on YouTube and is the third most followed Twitch user worldwide at 14 million. In one of the few TV appearances of his life, Mask Singer, debuted the version of the rock classic Beggin composed by Italian band Måneskin a few years ago. In his second and last participation, he dared the great success of Rauw Alejandro with Todo de ti. The streamer had previously appeared on Antena 3 in Al rincón de pensar, Risto Mejide’s talk show, similar to Mediaset’s Chester in 2015. And in 2020 he presented his own program, Top Gamers Academy, at Neox – also from Atresmedia – a kind of video game Operation Triumph.
Since its inception, those responsible for the competition’s line-up have tried to maintain the ability to surprise audiences with unexpected signings, such as the queen of tabloids Isabel Preysler, politician Esperanza Aguirre and Instagram star María Pombo last season. or a radio icon like José Ramón de la Morena in the current one. Already in their first program in 2020 they did this with Georgina Rodríguez, whose voice was hardly known (neither spoken nor sung) until then. Since then, she’s also become a TV star, with her own reality show on Netflix.
Mask Singer arrived in Spain in the middle of a pandemic. It was a balm of pop surrealism imported from South Korea that helped the viewer escape the tragedy. With its third season currently on the air, it has established itself as one of the most successful programs on Spanish television, with ratings of around 18%, similar to those of giants such as Tu cara me suena or Survivientes.
Esperanza Aguirre, in “Mask Singer”.
Mario Briongos, Content Director of Fremantle Spain, the production company responsible for the competition, assures, even at the risk of falling into cliché, that this is the season that will surprise the most, with names that will create a lot of conversation become . Only three episodes have currently aired and six of the 16 contestants in that series have been spotted. “There is still a lot of artillery left in the coming weeks,” he also announced by telephone. To compensate for not being able to move freely around Madrid while the show is being taped, international celebrities are offered very luxurious hotels. In this way they ensure a place so comfortable that they do not want to leave, surrounded by a staff used to maintaining the discretion of their customers.
“Apart from the economic motivation with a corresponding seal of approval and the idea of participating in a space with international success, another aspect that convinces this type of profile outside of Spanish television is the feeling of being protected under a mask.” That’s something , which they would never do with an uncovered face,” comments the producer. In a way, Mask Singer, one of the many celebrity formats in Spain, reverses the celebrity status of its participants. “And it puts the celebrities on the same level, [y a diferencia de otros concursos o realities con famosos]no one is more than anyone else in this competition.
Mask Singer Season 4 is currently being cast. “We strive for the impossible. “We have very high goals,” explains Ferreiro. Both Atresmedia and Fremantle boards prefer not to name a famous person who has declined to be on the show. “I don’t say names because I never lose hope. “Some people said no to us the first time and then we convinced them,” says Ferreiro. “Two of the contestants in this third season have been telling us no for years and now here they are,” notes Briongos.
The Notes of ElRubius
One of the clues that helped the show’s investigators and the audience figure out the identity of ElRubius was, “I’m pure fire and when I light it I start walking and I’m going to tell you how my appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Both he and another YouTuber, Mangel, briefly appeared in a photo on American Late Night in 2017 during an interview with actress Jennifer Lawrence, who previously visited the Spaniard’s YouTube channel to film for one of his films advertise. Antonio Banderas, Enrique Iglesias, Saúl Craviotto, Luis Fonsi, Ricky Rubio and Carlos Bardem were some names that space detectives have mistakenly suggested: Javis, Ana Obregón and Mónica Naranjo. They couldn’t figure out who was behind Tigre’s disguise.
Another clue asserted that “the secret is in the fruit,” referring to the record Doblas set on networks in 2016 by posting a message as simple as an eight-letter word (lemonade). reached more than a million “likes” in 48 hours ) and an emoticon that demonstrates its enormous power in the virtual community. One of the tricks of the trade was to raffle off a dozen video consoles among those who shared the message. In another title he claimed to be 7,000 million years old when in reality he was referring to the number of reproductions his videos have produced.
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