"I really hope that the rumours I'm hearing about you guys getting arrogant and letting all the attention get to your heads are simply not true," said Ragheb Alama, staring down the five young men who make up the Middle East's favourite new Arab boy band The 5. His pointed comments came after their performance of the Rami Ayash hit Khalini Ma'ak on Saturday night's live episode of The X Factor.
Alama, along with fellow Lebanese judge and singer Elissa, admitted he was impressed by the group’s improvement on the reality show, as well as their united front on stage.
But Elissa said: “We want to warn you early on – regardless of all the fame you are already getting and the craziness of what is happening on social media – that ego, vanity, arrogance can destroy everything and will take away any chance at success.”
The 5 – Egyptian Ahmed Hassan, Moroccan Adil Echbiy, Lebanese Kazem Chamas and the Algerian duo Said Karmouz and BMD (Mohamed Bouhezza) – have begun to hit their stride and the fan adoration has not let up. If anything, it is reaching unprecedented proportions in the region and the boys are well aware of it: they actively repost fan pictures and comments on their social media accounts, which probably takes a lot of time out of rehearsal. Still, their most recent performance was one of their best yet, and included, for the first time, choreographed dance moves – simple and subtle, but successful in presenting them as a united front.
As the contest heats up, they are one of only two groups left to go head-to-head on the television talent contest. The Jordanian-Syrian four-piece band GuitaNai, who, like The 5, are also being mentored by Egyptian judge Donia Samir Ghanem, are the only other group that remain, after the elimination of the Egyptian group Mounib Band on Saturday.
A total of seven contestants remain. Besides Ghanem’s groups, Elissa has two in the running: the Arabic soloist Majdi Sharif from Syria and Hind Ziadi from Morocco. Alama has three proteges in the international singers category: Latoya from Lebanon, French-Algerian Nedjim Mahtallah, and show favourite Hamza Hawsawi from Saudi Arabia.
All are strong contenders for the title, but perhaps none more so than the Jeddah-born Hawsawi, who a few weeks ago pulled his Saudi passport out of his back pocket at the end of his live performance. The unexpected prideful flourish was in answer to Elissa’s repeated outbursts that she could not believe he was from Saudi Arabia.
“You’re an international star,” she said to him. “I am Saudi and I am proud of it,” he replied.
So far, every one of Hawsawi's performances on The X Factor – whether he is singing Michael Jackson's Beat It, James Brown's I Feel Good, the Usher and David Guetta hit Without You or Saturday night's impressive performance of the hit Say Something by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera – have been flawless. His soulful voice is perfectly suited to R&B songs and he is able to dance and move on stage without letting it affect his singing, which is something of a challenge for the rest of the contestants.
At the end of Saturday’s performance, Ghanem asked Hawsawi to sing something in Arabic: “You’re just so perfect singing in English, and yet so Arab, I’m curious to hear you sing something from the Gulf.”
Hawsawi apologised and said he had nothing memorised, but that he would prepare something and surprise the judges with it next week.
Alama’s words to Hawsawi were brief: “I have a feeling that you will be standing on this stage during the very last episode of the programme.”
But will The 5 be standing next to him? That remains to be seen.
• The X Factor Middle East is broadcast live on Saturday at 10pm on MBC4
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