The guest artist must attempt to guess mystery singers who are "real" and "tone-deaf" without hearing them sing. Mystery singers must partake on every round, at which they can receive help and advice from the celebrity panelists. After eliminating one to two mystery singers on each round, at which they do perform using real voice at the stage of truth. The last mystery singer will do duet-perform by guest artist. ;Rewards The winning condition is depending on the winning mystery singer chosen by guest artist. They would receive a special reward if it is a "real singer"; or a cash prize if it is a "tone-deaf singer", but it also includes eliminated mystery singers.
Formats
;Original format Under the original format, the guest artist can simply eliminate mystery singers after every round concluded; and the last mystery singer will do duet-perform with. ;Versus format Under the versus format, there are different elimination twists:
Both guest artists can eliminate one mystery singer each in the first two rounds, and then both can choose one mystery singer each to duet-perform with in the third round.
Both guest artists can save one mystery singer each as a reserve with in the first round, and then the guest artist have the most correctly predicted a bad singer can freely to retain a reserve, or to switch mystery singer to duet-perform with in the third round.
The winning condition implies to each mystery singer chosen by guest artist that has been duet-performed separately, if:
One guest artist had chosen a "real singer" and another one had chosen a "tone-deaf singer"; or
Both two guest artists had chosen a "real singer" or a "tone-deaf singer".
;Star wars format Under the star wars format, ten former mystery singers were separated into two teams. For each round, a mystery singer is chosen for a "showdown". After this, the voting is done through audience majority, and the votes are accumulated for the winning team.
Rounds
This game is consisting of three rounds with different mechanics, at which point is depending on any ICSYV counterpart.
Singer's visual
Singer's lip-sync
Singer's evidence
Cast
Tone-deaf detective team
The tone-deaf detective team are a diversed group of celebrity panelists to give comments and predictions throughout the show.
Mystery singers
The mystery singers are individual or a groups who are pretending to be "real singers". They are standing on a chamber with its aliases to keep their identities concealed until its initial performance. It is classified into two—the good singer can sing well while the bad singer can sing badly. However, there are groups that could possibly mixed of good and bad singers.
Stage of truth
The stage of truth is a centerstage behind the chamber, at which eliminated mystery singers perform as well as revealing their real voices. They introduce their selves and other pertinent information afterwards. As the show concludes, the winning mystery singer and a guest artist can do duet-perform, or otherwise they can perform freely without them.
In August 2015, CJ ENM was accused two Chinese programs, God of Songs by SZTV and X-Singer by Beijing TV of plagiarism, which both shows imitated its gameplay similar to ICSYV, but they were denied of its allegations. It was proved that as both broadcasters were failed to purchase into ICSYV franchise and both of them were unlicensed Chinese counterparts. Despite this, God of Songs would have became successful in due to higher ratings and even trending on social media such as Sina Weibo. JSTV later adopted its official Chinese counterpart and debuted its broadcast on March 27, 2016. During an interview with CJ ENM head of formats Diane Min in June 2020, there was a dispute with Is That Really Your Voice?, another mystery music game show originated by Turkey-based Global Agency in 2013, which ICSYV imitated of their format. Despite this, it was adopted in China via iQiyi which has also recorded the most-watched online show, and France via TF1.
Accolades
ICSYV gains worldwide recognition as it nominated for "Best Non-Scripted Entertainment Program" category at the 44th International Emmy Awards.
International versions
Due to its popularity in South Korea, it went to become a television game show franchise, which was distributed worldwide by CJ ENM and several television productions. Currently, it has spawned fourteen editions in thirteen countries, which includes the Vietnamese spin-off programGiọng ải giọng ai, which created the versus format that later adopted into ICSYV counterparts.
