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Mario doesn’t consider coming in second place on The Masked Singer a loss.
Season 12 of the hit competition series ended on Wednesday (Dec. 18) with The Buffalos — who were unveiled to be Boyz II Men — taking home bragging rights and the crown. Yet, for Mario a.k.a. The Wasp, it was a win-win.
“Even if I had won, I probably would’ve given them the trophy,” Mario humbly shared with VIBE. “I grew up listening to them. You know, they were the first CD that I stole out of my mom’s CD pack. ‘I’ll Make Love To You,’ all their songs — I was performing at talent shows. It’s full circle moment for me. Losing to them — I feel like it was a win-win for me because of the moment. But them taking a trophy home, it didn’t feel as bad as it was somebody else.”
Funny enough, just like the trio, Mario knew they were the Buffalos right away. “I know Wanya’s voice,” he said confidently. “They were one of my favorite groups [growing up].” Mario was also naturally geeked to be competing with them. “How are they going to choose who’s going to win this?” he questioned after the initial realization.
Adding, “It was one of those moments of I had to really sit still and just soak up the reality at that moment. I was just in shock. Just like, ‘Oh, man, this is about to be crazy.’ I [had] take my performance up 10,000 times in order to be able to do this. But it was a pleasure to be able to be on the set, the same stage as them, especially in that way.”
Admittedly, Mario was asked to do The Masked Singer some years ago, but the timing wasn’t right. This go ’round, they presented Wasp to him and he knew he could bring the character to life. “It allowed me to be a big kid again with Halloween being my favorite holiday. It was like Halloween every day,” the crooner joked.
His biggest (and only) concern, though, was how his voice was going sound behind the oversized mask. “Could I breathe? Could I move right?” he questioned and made sure to rehearse constantly in it in order to “adopt the difficulty of the moment and make it my own.”
In addition to embracing his newfound identity, Mario did attempt to throw off the audience and judges by hiding his voice on certain songs — like Aretha Franklin’s “Ain’t No Way” — but his fans caught on quickly.
“After the first two songs, they were kinda catching onto it. So I was like I gotta do something different on this next song, so I took the challenge of doing that record,” Mario admitted. “A lot of it was definitely ‘how do I make my tone cut through this mask onto the mic.’ It was very difficult, but I tried as best as I could.”
He did successfully throw off the judges off his scent because them guessing he was Taye Diggs had him quite tickled. “That was funny to me. Obviously, we’ve seen Taye Diggs sing and stuff, but there’s no way that I sound like Taye Diggs. Maybe it is the mask making my mic change tones,” Mario quipped.
While switching to a more serious note, the 2000s heartthrob opened up about what being the Wasp taught him.
“Man, I think that just staying in character,” Mario expressed. “If you are doing something creative, it’s almost like doing Broadway without obviously your face. You’re not losing the intention behind the things you are doing and I think the Wasp reminded me that intention is a very important, powerful tool to persuade, to accomplish, to choosing your weapons in battle when you’re competing in something. Making your choices the right way […] Making just all the right choices.”
Speaking on one of the right choices he made this season, he revealed that his favorite performance was his rendition of Demi Lovato’s “Skyscraper” because of the “difficult” vocal choices he had to make.
“I wanted to sound fresh, but I still wanted to keep the essence of what she did on the song. Going from my full voice to my falsetto back-and-forth, in that mask was a little more difficult than one would suspect—but it was also a fun song to do.”
The Masked Singer aside, Mario just dropped his new album, Glad You Came. Compared to who he was when he made his debut, the new LP is a true testament to who he is now.
“The tonality, the song choices, the lyricism, the production and writing that I did on the album, the way that I use metaphors and the music. I’ve always written metaphorically in most of my hits and most of my songs. But I would just say the conversation of this album, the vulnerability, the confidence, the intimacy, the honesty, everything about it I feel like represents a huge part of who I am as a person and also an artist today,” Mario explained.
He spotlighted his new single, “Keep Going,” noting that it “really represents the heart of what I feel like R&B today is. It’s nostalgic, but it’s very fresh at the same time.”
Fans can experience Mario on Mary J. Blige’s upcoming tour. Meanwhile, catch up on The Masked Singer on Tubi, Fox, Hulu, and Disney+.
English (US) ·