ESC Etc.

Country: Belgium
Artist: Mustii
Title: Before the Party’s Over
Songwriter(s): Benoit Leclerq, Mustii, Pierre Dumoulin, Arianna D’amato, Charlotte Clark, Nina Sampermans
Tempo: 93 BPM Mode: Minor Key: D Duration: 3:00

Mustii was one of the very first acts announced for this 2024 ESC season, in keeping with the fact that the Wallonian broadcaster, which alternates yearly in the Belgian selection process with the Flemish one, has historically avoided national finals in favor of internal selections. This approach has paid off handsomely in some cases (2015 and 2017 obviously come to mind) and left us a bit baffled in others. In any case, that announcement immediately generated a lot of buzz around both the artist and their song. In discussing (guessing, more accurately) what each country would bring us in 2024 in a much older post, I had said that I would be happy if Belgium gave us “a moody electronica piece with some drama and a hook,” and it was not an unthinkable proposition – Wallonia does love to send dark, moody pop. Now that the song is out, I can confidently say we got the drama. As for the electronica and the hook…unfortunately, I am not so sure.

The video does deliver on the visuals: I do like the interplay between light and shadows quite a bit, make-up and styling are on point, and there is a sense of foreboding throughout the whole thing that seems to build up nicely to a dramatic finale. I just wish the song matched it in a way that feels more eventful or fulfilling. The lyrics rhapsodize about the importance of living in the moment and taking chances, but the arrangement (which I would describe as instrumental pop/rock) and the overall composition just don’t feel as exiciting or dangerous or compelling. For a midtempo that lacks a clear hook or any real production flourishes, that’s just a bit hard to overcome. The main issue, however, is that the climax of the song devolves into Mustii crooning the title for the literal last 50 seconds of the song (that’s basically 1/3 of the track, in the section where you would expect a real injection of energy and some kind of a switchup) interwoven with the backup track he asked the fandom to record repeating “I got a soul on fire” over and over again, in a way that in context almost ends up coming across as gimmicky. This is not a bad or poorly produced track, but it lacks any real oomph and it sorta falls apart in the end, which makes me question just how competitive it might be especially if it is staged more along the lines of a concert performance. People seem to like it more than I do, so I guess that’s something!

Jury Potential: I could see juries throwing points at this, but I don’t think it’s necessarily better than any of its direct competion, and I’m pretty sure that by large Norway will syphon the vast majority of votes from juries who like dark rock/pop, which is kind of bad news.
Televote Potential: A lot depends on how staging will able to bring this to life and ideally elevate it. It lacks the local flavor, the energy, and the foreign language that voters from home usually favor, so there’s that.