Veiled Cup (), formerly named Global Veiled Musician () was the third edition of the South Korean singing competition series Veiled Musician, and the first edition of the international version of the series that took place in South Korea, with the final held on February 1, 2026. Nine countries participated, with the preliminary round and semi-final results being decided by a professional judging panel, while the winner was decided by votes from both the professional judging panel and the viewing public. The show was hosted by Lee Da-hee.
Organized by the Seoul Broadcasting System (SBS) and produced by Prism Studios, the show was split into four episodes and broadcast on SBS TV from January 11 to February 1, 2026, with the preliminary and semi-final rounds being pre-recorded and the final being broadcast live.
The winner was Laguna Diva from the Philippines, whose identity was revealed to be Arabelle Dela Cruz.
The show was first launched in 2018, under the name ', but was rebranded as Veiled Musician for its second season in 2023. It is a web series that was released on YouTube, as well as on V Live, Naver TV and Wavve.
On May 9, 2025, it was announced that the show would expand outside of South Korea, under the brand Global Veiled Musician (later retitled Veiled Cup), and would feature representatives from Asian countries. Several media outlets, including The Korea Herald and the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU), have described the project as the "Asian version of the Eurovision Song Contest", mainly due to its similar concept of nations competing in a music competition.
Veiled Cup was directed by Lee Hong-hee and produced by Prism Studios, SBS's in-house non-fiction production company. It was filmed at the SBS Prism Tower in Sangam-dong, Mapo District, Seoul, South Korea.
The show was set around the premise of stripping contestants of all their personal identifiers, apart from the voice, and finding the best singer, with more identifiers being revealed as the show progressed. Contestants would perform their songs behind a white circular veil, with their only known identifiers being their hometown and their nickname.
Apart from a trophy, the winner of Veiled Cup would also be given numerous opportunities, including participation in a pan-Asia tour, an appearance on SBS's music program Inkigayo and a contribution to the original soundtrack (OST) of a Korean drama.
During the preliminary round, the judging panel was given a "fail" button, which the judges would press to determine a contestant's fate in the show. The criterion for the preliminary round was as follows:
Participants who advanced in all pre-final rounds may only answer one question from behind the veil following their performance, while participants who were eliminated would be asked to go on stage outside of the veil to reveal their identities. Meanwhile, participants who were put on hold from advancing in the semi-finals would wait without their information being disclosed. Should the number of semi-finalists be less than fifteen, the judging panel would discuss and select additional semi-finalists among the participants put on hold. However, should the number of semi-finalists exceeded fifteen, an additional elimination round would be held, where the judging panel would discuss and make additional eliminations in order to reach the fifteen semi-finalists limit. Once fifteen semi-finalists are selected, the participants on hold are eliminated.
The format for the semi-finals was a "Veiled Triple Match", where five "mission songs" (specifically selected English-language songs) would be performed by the semi-finalists, who would be randomly placed in teams of three to perform the song together. Only one participant in each team would advance to the finals, which would be decided by the judging panel.
For the finals, the overall winner of Veiled Cup was decided by a combination of a vote from the judging panel and a public vote, wherein audiences would vote for their winner through the LiNC app or through the voting section of the show's official playlist on Spotify, which featured original songs recorded by the participants credited under their respective stage names in the show. The criterion for voting in the grand final is as follows:
South Korean actor and radio personality Choi Daniel was initially announced as the show's presenter on July 12, 2025. On January 5, 2026, it was announced that actress and model Lee Da-hee would be the new host of Veiled Cup. Choi would instead host Veiled Musician, the South Korean national selection show for Veiled Cup released on Netflix from November 12 to December 31, 2025.
The show also featured a judging panel composed of well-known performers. On July 12, 2025, the first round of members of the judging panel were announced, which included singers Paul Kim, Shin Yong-jae, Ahn Ji-young (the sole member of the South Korean musical act BOL4), and Belle of Kiss of Life. The second round of judges were announced on July 23, 2025, which included Kwon Jung-yeol (the sole member of the musical act 10cm), American singer-songwriters Tiffany Young and Ailee, and Canadian singer-songwriter Henry. On October 24, 2025, it was announced that singer Miyeon of I-dle would be added to the judging panel of Veiled Cup.
On January 5, 2026, the final judging panel for Veiled Cup was announced, with Miyeon, Paul Kim, Tiffany Young, 10cm, Ailee and Henry completing the panel. Shin Yong-jae, Ahn Ji-young and Belle would instead become part of the judging panel for Veiled Musician, along with Paul Kim, Ailee, and Kihyun of Monsta X.
Nine countries participated in Veiled Cup. Audition rounds were held in each participating country from August to December 2025. Three contestants were selected from each country to proceed to the preliminary round of the contest in South Korea, with the exception of Indonesia, which only sent two contestants.
In June 2025, Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Taiwan were initially announced as participating countries. However, on November 11, 2025, the aforementioned countries did not appear in promotional materials, while China was added to the list of participants.
Auditions in each country took place from August to December 2025, held through nationally televised competitions. Three contestants from each country would advance to the preliminary round of Veiled Cup in South Korea.
On August 29, 2025, Cambodian public broadcaster National Television of Cambodia (TVK) announced that it would organize Veiled Musician Cambodia, which would select the Cambodian contestants for Veiled Cup. The program was not materialized and Cambodia was not included in the show's official list of participating countries.
The preliminary round was broadcast on January 11 and 18, 2026. All twenty-six selected participants participated, fifteen of whom would advance to the semi-final round. However, only eighteen performances were broadcast.
As the judging panel had selected seventeen contestants to advance to the semi-finals (exceeding the limit of fifteen semi-finalists), an additional elimination round was held where two contestants would be eliminated. The contestants were divided into three groups based on their ranking in their respective national selection shows, with one being eliminated from each group. Ultimately, two contestants under the Top 3 group were eliminated, while no contestant in the Top 1 and Top 2 groups were removed.
Thailand was named as the MVP Country after all three of its participants qualified for the semi-finals. Initially, Thailand tied with South Korea for the distinction as all three participants from the latter nation also qualified. However, Thailand was selected after considering the number of "fail" votes between the Thai participants and the South Korean participants, wherein Thailand received no "fail" votes.
The performances of the following participants were not included in the main broadcast of Veiled Cup. It is assumed that they were either put on hold or eliminated from the show. The songs performed by some of the eliminated contestants were mentioned during the first half of the preliminary round broadcast on January 11, 2026.
As their performances were not broadcast, most of their identities remained unknown, except for some contestants whose identities were revealed by local media.
The semi-final round was broadcast on January 18 and 25, 2026. Fifteen contestants participated, five of whom would advance to the finals. South Korean singer-songwriter Jinyoung joined the judging panel as a guest judge.
The semi-finals consisted of a "Veiled Triple Match", where five "mission songs" would be performed by the participants, who were randomly placed in teams of three to perform the song together, with only one member of each team advancing to the finals. As Thailand was awarded the MVP Country at the preliminary round, the Thai participants were given the opportunity to select which of the five "mission songs" they want to perform.
After being eliminated, Zambales Beast (Garrett Bolden) and Jakarta Freedom (Saniya) performed an encore performance of their mission song "Alone" on stage along with their fellow teammate and finalist Bangkok Soul Man, who performed from behind the veil.
The final took place on February 1, 2026. Five contestants participated, and the winner was decided by a combination of votes from the judging panel and the audience. Unlike the preliminary and semi-final rounds, which were pre-recorded, the final was broadcast live. Henry did not appear in the judging panel for unknown reasons.
Instead of performing from behind the veil, the finalists performed their songs on stage with only their silhouettes visible. After performing, all of the finalists revealed their respective identities one by one on stage and performed "Mama" by Jung Key featuring Gu Yoon-hoe, Han Ye-seul, Shin Jong-wook and Kim Na-young.
Laguna Diva from the Philippines, whose identity was revealed as Arabelle Dela Cruz, won the competition with a total score of 7,137 points, also winning the judging panel vote, live broadcast vote and music vote. Phang Nga Bay Fighter from Thailand, whose identity was revealed as Naratcha Dokkating, came second with a total of 6,064 points and won the cumulative global online vote.
In addition to the main winner's trophy and prize opportunities, two awards were contested during the show, namely the MVP Country and Best Listeners' Choice.
The award for MVP Country is given to the country with the most participants who qualified to the semi-finals in the preliminary round. Participants from the MVP Country would receive a benefit that would grant them an advantage in the semi-finals, which is later revealed to being able to select amongst the five "mission songs" they want to perform in the semi-finals. In the event of a tie where more than one country have the most participants, the country whose qualified participants received the fewest "fail" buttons pushed by the judging panel would be selected for the award. Thailand was selected as the MVP Country after a tie-breaker with South Korea as all three participants from both nations qualified for the semi-finals.
The award for Best Listeners' Choice was decided by the audience through a vote conducted via the voting section of the show's official Spotify playlist from January 11 to 29, 2026. The winner for the award was never revealed.
The show was broadcast in South Korea on SBS TV from January 11 to February 1, 2026, where the show was split into four episodes. The first three episodes were pre-recorded and broadcast at 16:30 KST, with the first episode focusing entirely of the first half of the preliminary round and the second episode focusing on the second half of the preliminary round (including the preliminary elimination round) and the first half of the semi-finals. Meanwhile, the third episode focused entirely on the second half of the semi-finals. The final round, which served as the fourth and final episode, was broadcast live at 16:10 KST, twenty minutes earlier than its original scheduled time.
In the Philippines, GMA Network (which produced and aired the Philippine national selection show for Veiled Cup) broadcast the final on a delayed basis on March 7, 2026 at 16:45 PHT as part of a documentary television special titled The Veiled Cup: Galing ng Pinoy, wherein it was edited for time, broadcast with English subtitles and interspersed with clips of Arabelle Dela Cruz describing her experience before, during and after the show.