The Wiwi Jury is reviewing the eight acts who have made it direkt till final at Melodifestivalen 2016. Next is Oscar Zia, who is making a personal statement with his song “Human”. Did we feel his emotion? Read on to find out…
Oscar Zia – “Human”
“Human” reviews
Angus: “Human” packs a real punch of everything that’s good. Moody staging, dark vocal and a performer story that amplifies the power of something that might have been reduced to melodrama otherwise. Oscar is hardly the only act in the history of #Melfest to add in some backing vocals to the mix (HEJ SANNA!), and his emotive delivery has a lot going for it. Calling upon the dark arts delivers results, y’all.
Score: 8/10
Deban: Much of what we love about “Human” is tied in with Oscar Zia’s coming-of-age backstory. Together, they make a compelling performance that stirs deep emotions within. Unfortunately, the layered vocals which make up 65% of the track strip some of the depth, making “Human” another pop factory product.
Score: 6/10
Padraig: Of the three “dark” songs from teen idols at this year’s Melfest, “Human” is easily the best. Unlike Isa and Lisa, Oscar actually manages to inject some emotion into his performance. Granted, his vocals suffer as a result, but in a way that only strengthens the package by humanising it. The camera trickery is sublime, and lends a cinematic feel. Zia is on the cusp of something great, but Eurovision success is a while off.
Score: 7.5/10
Robyn: Here’s the dilemma: “Human” is a pretty average song and Oscar’s vocals aren’t that that great. He’s quite pitchy, especially in the lower notes, and it just doesn’t work as a compelling performance. But the staging itself is amazing, helped by Oscar’s charisma. Perhaps inspired by the music-video style of “Heroes”, “Human” is more like a slickly cut music video than a reactively cut live performance. The song might not be up to scratch, but the staging feels like a giant leap forward.
Score: 6.5/10
Tobias: This will either be a big success or will vanish on Saturday. It is one of the most intense performances this year, with all 208 camera shot making it look like a music video, similar to Måns Zelmerlöw’s performance with “Heroes”. However, I have one big issue about this song: the playback vocals which you can hear during virtually the whole song. In the refrain you can’t miss it. It’s not that I don’t like it, but if this would ever go to Eurovision (unlikely, but still) it wouldn’t be as powerful as it is in Melodifestivalen, since playback isn’t allowed in Eurovision. In general it’s an OK song, but nothing I would have on my Spotify list. I think I actually prefer the performance more rather than the song itself.
Score: 6/10
William: I like Oscar and I think he’s a fantastic performer, but this song does nothing for me. It’s a matter of camera work and special effects attempting to mask a truly empty song. It’s lyrically cliché and musically forgettable — and adding another synth or flash of lightning won’t change that. I understand why people are taken with the presentation, but I feel like I’m going to have an epileptic fit. But at least in that unfortunate scenario I’d feel something.
Score: 5/10
Josh: I’m so torn over “Human”! One side of my brain is saying, “Hey Josh, this song really isn’t that great.” And the other side is saying, “OH. MY. GOD. He’s so hot. And damn, this camera work is good!” I’m loving the performance. The cutting camera angles meshed with the clouds is a visual delight. Oscar himself is also a visual delight. His voice just needs some work.
Score: 7.5/10
Ron: Wow! The direction of shots in this number is just amazing and reminds me a bit of the genius “Euphoria” in a way. It’s that very smart TV direction the swedes are so good at. The song has a very strong message that comes together with the great direction and you can’t resist it — it really touches your heart. It’s one of the best songs in this year’s Melodifestivalen and the musical production sounds quite good as well (I want to see that kind of song and performance on the Eurovision stage). Oscar’s vocals, especially in the verses, are not that good and I hope he will improve this part for the final — that’s the only thing to improve.
Score: 8.5/10
Anthony: “Yes We Can” became a “No He Can’t” two years ago. So it’s hardly a surprise Oscar once again qualified direkt till final, but with a stronger song than his previous attempt. Out goes the visual screen effects and slick dance moves, the attention’s fixed on Oscar himself with added cloud effects and various camera angles. However, it’s the vocals that seems to be Oscar’s Achilles heel at Melfest lately.
Score: 8/10
Steinunn: I have mixed feelings about this song. Oscar’s voice sounds very shaky in the beginning and the verse sounds a bit like it was written just as a filler. But then this amazing chorus shows up, and Oscar’s vocals suddenly become really enjoyable. Fortunately for Oscar, the strong chorus will help this song to go rather far in the final. I also quite like his staging. It has just enough darkness to support the message of the song, without being unnecessarily dramatic. It’s a rather good entry, although it’s far from being my favourite. I will not cry myself to sleep if it comes last, but at the same time I will not jump naked around town with joy if it wins.
Score: 7/10
In the Swedish Wiwi Jury we have 26 jurors but only have room for 10 reviews. The remaining 16 scores are below!
Bogdan: 8/10
Denise: 8.5/10
Marek: 8.5/10
Maria: 6.5/10
Patrick: 9/10
Rezo: 8/10
Sinan: 8/10
Sami: 9.5/10
Edd: 7.5/10
Antranig: 10/10
Bernardo: 9.5/10
Luis: 5/10
Chris: 8/10
Max: 7.5/10
Ramadan: 6.5/10
Mikhail: 6.5/10
The highest and lowest scores are dropped prior to calculating the average score. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 5 and a high of 10.
It’s interesting how this song and performer have split opinions. All valid of course. 🙂 My view is that on stage, I can feel the presence and charisma that he has more than his musical talent. His vocals come across, so far, as being disappointingly weak, and it gets in the way of the song’s message. Now onto the song itself: It’s well-structured and has a strong melody line in the chorus. The lyrics are somewhat ambiguous as to their meaning, which actually makes the song more endearing and interesting. Choreographically the clouds etc. in the background don’t distract from… Read more »
UNDERRATED. I dont like these comments from wiwi jury. It’s much better than they were saying.
Oscar is my favorite in this year’s Melodifestivalen. His voice is not really bad and without the visual show, I love everything about the song itself. I hope he will be in top 3.
Definitely one of my favorites, which it is even without the staging and presentation btw. 🙂
I like it and I think it will at least be top 5.
I could dismiss this if Melfest was not so full of poor songs this year.
It has quickly become the lesser of so many evils. There are truly awful songs that really should be stopped from representing Sweden.
Ace Wilder’s song a 8.06, but this only a 7.56? A bit underrated. Oscar, Frans, Robin or Boris have to win the Melfest. This year the girls are weaker than the boys.
I think it has a lot of good things but at the end of the performance I have the feeling that I’ve watched 3 minutes of trying too hard.anyway it would be a good winner, but I prefer Frans, Robin or Molly, whose performances I can enjoy much more.
i don’t understand…in video for semi final 3 in melodifestivalen (results) william was soooo happy with Oscar and said like 653362 possitive thing about it and now this comment?
btw amazing song and singer, he’s one of my favourites for Sweden
Very underrated.
Oscar Zia’s offering and current Israeli song are basically the same
I don’t like it one bit it’s just way to dramatic and over the top it makes me feel uncomfortable. You are in melfest and if he does win then he will in in eurovision HAVE FUN! He’s a young man it’s not even like he has a killer voice either because if that was the case I would let him off it’s just too dramatic
@EugeneESCUK, I’m afraid if Mans had a number one or two slot in the ESC final, Russia would have won
Such mediocre song.
I would love this song to win. It’s edgy, different and fresh. I like some other MF entries, but this one is awesome!
I disagree totally with Eugene. I think this song is actually interesting and quite clever lyrically because it’s never totally clear who the “we” in “are we human” refers to – either the subjugated minority or the totality of everyone – and that’s part of the point. And the vocabulary is simple, but the words are used in a clever way. This is the best song in Melfest for me, but I agree with Deban’s comment. This is more a fault of audio mixing than anything, and it’s true for almost all the entries. The backup vocals are too damn… Read more »
Eugene.. Måns performed 6th last year. Oscar only one spot earlier. If people like Oscar, which I think they do, that won’t be a problem. Don’t be so obsessed about Björkman and what he wants and thinks. Oscar’s voice in the verses need some improvement, yes, but I like that dodgy voice as well because it somehow fits the song in a strange way. Well.. my opinion.
love the song but not the performance… all those camera angles and light strobes are giving me epilepsy.
Song is OK but he is lacking likeability, he will not win.
My favourite. Good luck Oscar<3
I don’t like it at all. Won’t work in ESC because of the auto-tuned backing vocals and normal backing vocals. Top 5 in the final for sure, but not a winner.
He has got to win.