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The deluxe album cover perfectly encapsulates the intimate but simple lyrics of Tewari’s EP.

I am only slightly exaggerating when I say that I am Conan Gray’s number one hater.

If I completely ignored some of his more acoustic tracks, I could say that I hate the entirety of his synth-pop discography. I want to like his music so very desperately, but his most popular songs, with unthinkably high belting notes and polished pop production, feel overproduced, almost sterile.

Still, I can’t deny the magnetism of his brand. The costumes and aesthetics are the perfect mix of ostentatious and refined, and I adore his concert tradition of choosing a random audience member to break a wishbone with. Because of this, I find it hard to skip past any of Wishbone Tour TikToks that pop on my feed—including those of the opening act.

In Gray’s 2026 Wishbone World Tour, only one artist appears as a special guest opener: Esha Tewari. The 19-year-old alternative singer-songwriter began releasing a series of singles in early 2025, with her claim to fame being “you were mine,” an indie bedroom ballad with a captivating chorus. Only recently, in Dec. 2025, did Tewari release an EP: What Makes a Girl. After watching a TikTok of Tewari performing “About Me,” I became completely enamored with the EP and, subsequently, the deluxe version: What Makes a Girl a Girl.

“About Me” was my first favorite on the EP, likely due to my misinterpretation of the lyrics. Unfortunately, music’s inability to convey a comma led me to perceive the lyric as “What is it about me?” rather than “What, is it about me?” Still, the message of blaming oneself for a flippant lover’s oscillating actions was adequately relatable. I found the second pre-chorus particularly appealing, as Tewari makes an unexpected shift in musical tone—from a melancholic counter-melody to an eerie silence, then to an artfully placed beat drop. The following 30-second section of music made for a perfect Instagram post song, making it the ideal accompaniment to my most recent photo dump.

I found this EP to be fairly simplistic when it came to lyricism, which makes it all the more surprising how much I liked it, as I usually find myself more drawn towards more intuitive lyrics. My favorite song, “The Winner,” is an outlier in this regard. Though its lyrics aren’t the deepest prose I’ve read, the symmetry of the first two choruses offers a riveting parallel, especially when sung with such sorrowful longing: “That ‘I am not a girl / I’m not anyone’ / do I have to make a choice? Do I have to lose my innocence again?” vs. “But I am not a girl / And I am not your angel / I am not what you need / I am not what you pray for.”

The other two main titles—”In Twos” and “Muse”—were just as good as the other two songs, with sweet, dynamic vocals, resonant acoustics, and sometimes full orchestration, keeping me enthralled throughout the full 21 minutes. I found the two songs added in the deluxe to be pretty underwhelming, although “Where Our Streets Meet” has begun to grow on me a little and made me appreciate Tewari more as a vocalist. I might even spend $75 on a Conan Gray Wishbone Tour ticket, just so I can hear these beautiful melodies live.