The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the songs competing in the andra chansen round of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2019. Next up, we listen to Idol star Rebecka Karlsson with “Who I Am”. Did we hear her message?
Rebecka Karlsson – “Who I Am”
“Who I Am” reviews
Angus: “Who I Am” has a melody and message anyone can get behind. Equal parts Greatest Showman, Megan Trainor and Molly Sandén, this really should be a compelling Melfest package. But something was off at the semi-final: Rebecka oversang the song, the staging feels random because it isn’t explained that each dancer is a stage of her life, and the black dress looked funeral rather than final-ready. Moderation at andra chansen will make all the difference here.
Score: 5/10
Antranig: This is an anthemic pop banger performed by a talented young singer. “Who I Am” has all the ingredients to be the clear winner of Melfest 2019. However, the performance is incredibly stale. I don’t know what is happening on stage with a ballerina, boxer and who knows what else — it feels like every Barbie doll with a job came to life and invaded the stage. They need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to staging because this has potential to be immaculate. Right now, it’s anything but.
Score: 6.5/10
Cinan: This is a beautiful song. Loved the way the song is uplifting after every line. Though I expected a more powerful song from Rebecka when I heard that she would take part at this year’s Melodifestivalen. The song gets a little bit boring after one minute, but I think she will qualify to the final from andra chansen.
Score: 6/10
Florian: Rebecka’s entry has great potential. However, the live vocals didn’t convince me just yet. There’s something missing and personally, I don’t understand why the performance is this monotonous. We’re talking about an uptempo track not a lullaby entry, so bring on some dancing!
Score: 5/10
Luis: Is Rebecka’s entry Disney Channel’s answer to Adrijana’s “Amare“? “Who I am” is a song we’ve all heard before. The message is well appreciated and encouraging, but its package falls very short for a Melfest final. Rebecka delivers with passion, and that derivates in loss of vocal control, and makes the song feel loud, louder, loudest. It’s a no for me.
Score: 4/10
Ron: This act has so much more potential than what we’ve seen (and heard) in the semi-final, both vocally and in terms of staging and direction. The clothes and the lights are way too dark for such a song. Rebecka brings a great message in her powerful and catchy song, yet the song is far from being an easy one to sing live. Rebecka struggled quite a bit during the verses and at the climax — and that’s a shame. I hope she’ll manage to improve the act and her vocals, as this one could get a nice result at the final once improved.
Score: 7/10
In our Melodifestivalen Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Anthony: 7/10
Bernardo: 5/10 Deban: 5/10 |
Lucy: 9/10
Robyn: 6/10 Tobias: 5/10 |
Before calculating the average score, the highest and lowest scores are dropped. This is to remove outliers and reduce potential bias. We have removed a low of 4 and a high of 9.
Who I Am – It’s certainly an intimate song and you can feel that Rebecka feels it. I does feel very Disney-ish, but since when is that a negative? I mean, Disney’s songs are usually known for their high quality. But I agree that this turns pitchy and the performance totally disconnects one from the content. It’s just not a strong entry overall. Rebecka comes off as very likable, though. – 5.5/10
Off-topic: Wiwibloggs is constantly deleting one simple and harmless question in the comment section of the article on Saara Aalto. Can you stop that, please?
I like the song, but her vocals really sounds a bit pitchy or oversung for me.
The way she was dressed and the way her hair and make-up were done, made her look really old-fashioned
The thought that Dolly Style lost to this makes me sad.
4/10
This is such a weak, flat popsong.
Vocally not okay and the staging is bad.
She was lucky that she was in one of the worst semi’s of MF2019, otherwise she would’ve been out.
the song is wayyy overproduced n very 2016 instrumental wise. it’s not just a problem of vocals or staging as some pointed out…. it’s the song that isn’t good enough to start with
It definitely wasn’t good and was lucky that it wasn’t a complete non-qualifier. She didn’t sing well and the song itself is a bit of a Disney knockoff. There are much better options.
The live was not good, and the stage show was messy. The song is not incredible either. Unless something happens up… we are having dansband in the final.
Worst Melfest song for me this year.
She was out of tone.