‘The Masked Singer’ Season 12 Runner-up Interview: Who Is Wasp?

(Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for The Masked Singer Season 12 finale.)

On the way in The Masked Singer Season 12 finale, there were only two contestants left in the competition: Buffalos and Wasp.

Both performed twice more for the panelists before it was time to choose a winner. That honor went to the Buffalos, but second place is also impressive. And under the Wasp mask was R&B singer Mario.

Below, he opens up about his time in the competition. (Read our interview with Buffalos here.)

Congratulations on reaching the final and coming second!

Mario: I appreciate you. Many thanks. It was a fun time.

What made you agree to do it The Masked Singer? Did you have any hesitation?

No, I didn’t hesitate to do it. They actually reached out to me a few years ago, the timing just didn’t seem right. So honestly, I definitely think it was a full circle moment, and once I saw the Wasp costume, I was all in. I knew it would be fun and I was excited to bring the wasp to life.

What went into your song choices, especially in the semi-finals and finals?

Choosing the songs was very deliberate. I also think I choose where I perform them because at each show they would sometimes switch who would go first or who would go middle or last. So that would affect which song we chose and why. Just give Wasp a lot of dimension because I didn’t want to just do slow songs. Sometimes I wanted to dance, sometimes I wanted to make people cry. Sometimes I wanted to tell a story. So yes, it was all very deliberate.

You had some incredible performances during the season. Which one stood out to you?

I would say “Skyscraper”, the intention of the song, the difficulty of performing that song with the mask because my jaw was very limited. So finding new ways to get the notes out without breaking or getting the notes out without going off the notes was a challenge for me, but also the song, I could have changed it but I chose not to because of the meaning behind the song . I felt it was something that a lot of people needed to hear at home at the time and I felt it was a very strong meaning behind the song, just trust yourself, believe in yourself no matter what’s going on . And I felt that both I and the wasp could relate to that. So just merging all the worlds.

“Rock Your Body”, because it was one of the first performances as the introduction, performance.

And “Beautiful Things”, I love performing that record because I got to perform by walking through the audience and doing it in a moment, like getting on stage and I just wanted the wasp to have people to to feel very connected. I didn’t want to do performances from the same place every show and I wanted to make sure the performances matched the intention of the song. And I think we did a great job collectively from the production to the choreographers, to the camera, everyone involved in bringing the Wasp closer and closer to the audience, but also the judges and letting them be in his world, very aware of, okay, let’s start right next to the judges. Let’s let them feel this moment and make them a part of this moment, and maybe even give them a little more of a hint of who I was, really, who the wasp was. So just the whole thing. There was a lot of thought that went into it to make it an overall great experience.

Talk about the panelists’ guesses. Rita Ora found out about you. Did you come into this expecting someone to know it was you?

I expected Robin (Thicke) to know because we’ve toured together. We have known each other for a long time. Makes sense that Rita would find out because she’s a singer so she listens differently. But I still try to make it a little difficult by switching up songs and maybe changing the way I move to kind of throw them out. But I guess being a panelist and also being a singer is kind of like a cheat code because you already understand voice and tone. So I just had to keep trying to turn them off.

What will you take away from the whole experience?

Imagination is one of the greatest gifts we could ever have as humans, and it can take you places where doubt and fear and all these other things can’t.

What surprised you the most about being on the show?

How big were some of those costumes and how would people move around in them, because okay, it’s one thing not being able to see and your feet, but not being able to move your head at all? Like Goo’s costume was huge. It was crazy. I didn’t expect to see such big costumes. But also when you have the buffalo, right, their costume is big, but it’s really cool and it fits their personality. So I think how they choose the costumes and how the costumes actually fit everyone’s personality and voices and everything.

Are there any songs you wish you had performed at some point?

I honestly wanted to perform “Lose Control,” but Goo already had that song so it was on the list, and then when I picked it, they came back and it was like, oh man, Goo already picked this song. So yeah, he did a good job, but I feel like I could have given it a little more. I just love that record. So that would have been one of my favorite songs to sing.

And congratulations on your new album.

Many thanks. I appreciate you. It’s finally out. I was actually finishing up some of the mixing and mastering while finishing the show, so I went from being the Wasp back to Mario. The album is called Glad you camedefinitely one of my favorite albums. I feel like it shows and shows my growth as an artist, as a writer, as a creative. Many of the songs are very imaginative, intimate, vulnerable, confident, a little bit of everything you could want from a male R&B artist.

And I feel like it continues to put R&B in a great space as well. If you love R&B, love the nostalgia of R&B but also the fresh version of it, I think this is an album for you. I feel like it’s timeless, and I love working on the album with James Fauntleroy, who produced it, and I can’t wait to just keep pushing forward and touring it, making more videos. My new single “Keep Going” is out right now. “Keep Going” is about keeping your love going even when things feel like it could possibly end, but it’s just another chapter in our exploration of each other. So again, just going back to the whole idea of ​​imagination and creativity, using R&B as a medium for that.

The Masked SingerSeason 13 Premiere, Wednesday, February 12, 8/7c, Fox