The Wiwi Jury — our in-house panel of music unprofessionals — continues to rate and review the songs competing in the grand final of Sweden’s Melodifestivalen 2019. Next up, we listen to Instagram singing sensation Bishara and his Mello debut “On My Own”. Do we see a bright future for him? Read on to find out!
Bishara – “On My Own”
“On My Own” reviews
Anthony: If you weren’t familiar with Bishara and watched him for the very first time, you could have easily mistaken it for a performance at Lilla Melodifestivalen. Sure, he has the voice of an angel but it’s like he’s ended up with a song that’s just been plonked in, especially when it’s co-written by last year’s winner. And the lyrics do sound a tad awkward for a young teenager. One to watch for the future.
Score: 6/10
Bernardo: There is something very interesting about Bishara’s fragile vocals, but you need to bring your A-game in every aspect to win Melfest. “On My Own” won’t do it but it’s a nice first effort. I feel Bishara will be conformable in the finals and will bring life to this mid-tempo ballad.
Score: 5.5/10
Deban: “On My Own” sounds like a Ne-Yo B-side. Unlike Ne-Yo who is 40 years of age, Bishara is barely 16! Even despite his grovelling, he remains a kid in character. Bishara should return next year with a more age-appropriate song.
Score: 6/10
Lucy: This is a singer born in 2003 singing about waking up in his bed all alone. Sorry for being a grump, but yeah, should hope so! Giving Bishara this song was… a choice. He is far too young for most of the lyrics, and a 15/16-year-old singing something which sounds like it was written in his birth year isn’t going to get him far in Eurovision should he win Melfest. I get he’s cute and the teens and kids will love him but in such a strong heat it’s really unfortunate this made it direkt till final.
Score: 3.5/10
Robyn: Where did Bishara come from? Instagram, I know, but he appears to have emerged as a fully-formed pop star. The young singer delivers “On My Own” with strength and confidence and can effortlessly work around his vocal limits. The song isn’t my cup of tea, but I can’t help admire Bishara and everything he’s put into the performance.
Score: 7/10
Tobias: I do understand the hype about Bishara, an unknown charming boy that used to sing in the school cafeteria, became “famous” from Instagram and then became an artist overnight. I get it, people are amazed that a 15-year-old boy has the capability of the voice he has. But setting his voice aside I think the song itself is very weak and forgettable and I am surprised it actually went straight to final. I do believe people only voted on it because of the fact that he is 15 years and posses the voice he has and not the song itself. Also, the lyrics don’t make sense for a young boy like him, I mean can you even be that heartbroken at that age? It just doesn’t feel real and the whole message of the song disappears. However, I know he has a bright future for sure and will develop more the older he gets.
Score: 4/10
In our Melodifestivalen Wiwi Jury, we have 12 jurors but only room for 6 reviews. The rest of our scores can be found below:
| Angus: 5/10
Antranig: 4/10 Cinan: 5/10 |
Florian: 4/10
Luis: 5/10 Ron: 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 3.5 and a high of 7.
Catholic priests will have their wet dreams again
Idiot
I can not understand that this blog accept this kind of comments towards a child!
Have uk no law that make the pubisher responsible for what is written about children?
We who read this blog has a responsibility to act so the publicher take actions. This is not ok.
The lyrics in general are fine, the song is fine. The problem is that the voice doesn’t match the song and Bishara sounds much younger than he really is, this is the route of problem with the lyrics. Sounds like a 10-12 year old singing this song. Even though he can sing, this is not a good choice if this goes to Eurovision. I can see this staying in the semi final.
Finally some taste in the wiwi jury, glad you guys have finally come to your senses.. about time. Unfortunately I think Bishara will win. There is a lot of hype around him and I hear regular people talk a lot about him. He has big chances of winning the televote. I have a free bet that I will place on him. Hopefully I am wrong though..
You do know that 15-16 is not too young to have had somebody else in their beds. It’s an absolutely dumb reason to dislike the song. There are tons of reasons to dislike it but that’s not one of them.
and Xanax addiction
Pleace, all fantasic escfans. <3 Don’t forget Bishara only is 16 years old. If you don’t like the song or his voice. Write about that in a respecfull tone. Think that some have mange to do that. Thank you for that. <3
I don’t mean that you shouldn’t have opinions. But be extra carefull when you choose your worlds when you write about all the young artists from diffrent countries.
I hope he dosen’t win. I don’t want him to face the same hate that Frans received 2016.
Thoughts from a mother
People here are idiots they won’t understand
Bishara is a great singer and he is only 16. His covers in Instagram sound really good. In this particular case, “On My Own” is a bit bland and boring and the lyrics are a bit creepy for a 16-year-old teenager who looks even younger and still has his child voice. The staging doesn’t help neither. However, Bishara delivers the song confidently (during the first verse he seems to be nervous though). As talented as he is + the cuteness, I think Bishara will place top 5 in this edition and he would be most probably representing Sweden in less… Read more »
Blanche and Kristian looked and/or sounded more mature, whereas Bishara’s problem is indeed that he looks younger than 15/16.
Exactly ESCFan2009. If Kristin would sing the same song. Would anyone be talking about teedybears then in a disrespectful way? Probably not.
A question! How many artists hasn’t been to young for the lyrics that they has participated whith in ESC? I think honestly that you focus is how he looks and sounds. If he was 16 and looked older then he was, no one would have the same arguments against the song. It’s not his age, it’s the fact that he looks younger then he is that make people to react. But I think the age limit should be 18 year to protect children from social media. Not to protect the audience from young artists. Frans was 17 year. When you… Read more »
Yes, it’s not the same. Eurovision is so big and children should not risk to read so much negative things about them. Just look at all the comments about Frans 2016 here on this blog. Think those who are responsible for the blog should take actions to protect all children that participate in national selections or esc when the hate and negative comments gets out of control on this blog. I don’t think Bichara has revived that much, but if he would win I thing this blog would he full of hate, bullying and negative comments that those who are… Read more »
I think that the writers of this blog are focusing on the fact that he looks and sounds young. They would not have the same problem if a young artist looked and sounded older. Like Blanch and many other artists that has participated earlier years.
Una, I think that they wouldn’t mention the age if he looked older and still was 16. He wish probably that he looked older than he does. It’s a hard time for kids in school when they look younger then they are. But he could me much more mature than someone else that is sixteen but looks like an adult.
This song has “Benjamin Ingrosso” written all over it, which makes sense since he actually partly wrote it. Bishara is a very capable vocalist who delivers the song very confidently, and people are falling for his likeability. However, he looks and sounds too young to sing this song. In reality he is 16, so the song is only just “age appropriate” in that regard, but the creepy factor here is that he looks and sounds 13 ish. Of course, there are three obvious solutions here: 1. Raise the age limit to 18. 2. Re-stage the song so that he’s singing… Read more »
I’d raise the age limit to 18, but then I’d let 16 and 17 year olds participate in JESC. Also, it’s about a material. I didn’t mind Blanche and I wouldn’t mind Malou, because their songs are more age appropriate (I’d argue that City Lights is a song a person of any age or gender could sing, while I Do Me is really silly and teen-ish).
Also, as you mentioned, appearance can mean a lot and Bishara looks even younger than 16.
Why? Kristian Kostov was 17 during Eurovision, pretty sure Isaiah and Blanche were as well
Nadav Guedj was 16
We don’t need to raise the age limit to 18, there are great young artista at the ages of 16 and 17
I think the age limit should be to protect young artists from hate etc from social media. Not to protect us from kids singing songs we don’t think are appropriate for them
I love Malou
I think the age limit should be 18. It’s not ok that this young kids get this attention. Fras were depressed after mello and esc. It’s not the same as it was 1983 when Carola participated. But I think he is really good and I think that many overlook whith the lyric. And some of us that doesn’t have that super good english – does not notice that part about weak up alone in my bed first times that we listen to the song. I think Benjamin is a better songwriter than singer. He has not the voice, so if… Read more »
Guess he better get looking for that teddy bear…
Would you have the same argument if he was 16 and looked like an adult? Or if Blanche or Kristian would have participated which the same song?
The lyrics are really inappropriate 0/10
Objectively right, but that YOU are talking about the word “inappropriate”, after you made a “joke” on our German blog calling a user “Na*i”, is ridiculous. Please, Cedric, be more appropriate for yourself before judging other people. This is embarrassing…
He’s extremely talented. You can be sure he’ll win Melfest at some point! It feels like this song should’ve been performed by someone like Anton Hagman, who ironically was in the same heat – someone the teen fangirls will support who is old enough to deliver some of those lyrics… and who probably shouldn’t be alone in bed.
Haha. This. Totally. 🙂
You all got it wrong. Clearly he’s singing about his teddy bear that his parents took away from him!
They still have time to stage it that way.
Actually, when I saw the title of the song and saw the singer, I was sure it was going to be about child’s abandonment issues.
I know I seem to be in the minority but I actually like this as a song. There’s a nice old-school out MJ vibe to it. Yes, it’s creepy having a 16 year old sing this, but the audio track is actually top-notch. I think the song itself is miles better than Wiktoria’s or Lisa’s–it just lacks the maturity of the singer and a bit of a more memorable staging. Too many ballads at melfest this year–I know Christer said there would be, but you’re telling me they couldnt find decent uptempo songs to put in the contest?!?
this is embarrassing in every sense….. the helium vocals, the lyrics, the 00s disney theme song production
I feel like a song like this needs more of a female voice. Its my least favourite for the final. Sounds like kids bop, its so generic and boring.
On my way on my way my darling~Oops! Wrong song.
Hard pass.
Musically, there’s no reason that this is still in the contest. If Swedish tween continue to vote for this (and on the off chance, that it DOES win), they are only doing a disservice to Sweden’s actual chances at ESC. This would have less than zero chance of qualification.
The only Melfest song so bad that there would be zero chances of qualification was No Drama. Not even being Sweden could saved that one. Everything else, including this, could be elevated by staging to be borderline. However, this would possibly miss out by a smidge or barely pass and be between 20th and 26th spot in the finals, which is still very weak by Swedish standards.
The tweens. That’s why I’m worried. In my opinon, sometimes I feel like there should be a age restriction for the voting. Because they usually don’t vote for the song. They vote for the looks. It’s usually how it is when it comes to young guys .
Either it’s them or people who get parental instincts.
I think people should leave that behind and use their brains. Think really through about their choices.
He has a nice voice and I’m sure teen fangirls will love him, but this song is clearly written about a grown-up relationship. It just feels odd (at best… creepy at worst) hearing a 16-year-old whine about being “alone in [his] bed.”
On My Own – Bishara is a really good singer and the song is pretty decent on itself, yet this package totally doesn’t work. A teen singing about love is one thing, but having lyrics like “waking up alone in my bed” makes the whole thing really age-inappropriate. This is probably something Ingrosso should have sing himself. Bishara gives his best and people responded to his energy, but is this the act Sweden should send to ESC? For me, it’s a no, but I appreciate his effort. – 4.5/10
Well he does have a bit of the Ingrosso-look to him and Ingrosso does have something pretty close to a 15 year old’s voice. Maybe DNA tests are in order?
Bishara is his Mini-Me, so they could pass as brothers, lol. 😉
Now I’m imagining Benjamin singing Nano’s song and Bishara being his child version. 😀
Benjamin Ingrosso singing Nano just became my new favourite daydream…
I’m just like nope. This song ain’t it, and he ain’t it for that song. The staging is awkward and he has no or awkward choreo. This ain’t it. Good for Swedish exposure for his talents, but not a candidate.