Young Maltese singer Isaac Mercieca has divided people after a video of him covering Ed Sheeran’s Supermarket Flowers was uploaded on YouTube last month. Mercieca was performing at 2017’s Ultimate Artists.

Every year, Ultimate Artists organises a 360-degree artist development programme of singing, songwriting, musical theatre, production and performance. The whole thing involves mentoring by music industry professionals, and runs under the mission statement of championing “vision, discipline and the freedom to make mistakes.” The culmination of the intensive nine-day artist development course sees the selected participants showcase their talent in a song of their choice.

Mercieca’s Ed Sheeran cover was heartfelt, albeit at times a bit challenging. While the song was well-received with the live audience, but online, people were seriously divided.

Dozens of people praised Mercieca for his rendition, with one comment going so far as to say that the performance was “worthy of an Oscar.” Others congratulated the young singer’s effort, saying it was “outstanding”, “sublime” and even “angelic.”

On the other hand, other people weren’t so generous with their feedback.

“He looks really cute,” one comment said, echoed a couple of others. “But the vocals. I don’t know, he wasn’t on point all the time, weak vocals.” And that wasn’t the end of it; one person said “it gave me depression”, while another tried to dissect the reason behind Isaac’s performance.

“He looked really tired and the emotions took over him I guess,” the comment read. “This song is really emotional, maybe it reminded him of someone he lost or loves.”

What did you think of Isaac’s performance? Let us know in the comments below!

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David Grech Urpani

Lovin Malta's Head of Content, Dave has been in journalism for the better half of the last decade. Prefers Instagram, but has been known to doomscroll on TikTok. Loves chicken, women's clothes and Kanye West (most of the time).