After Loreen’s victory back in May, the hype surrounding the Eurovision Song Contest has calmed down significantly and the fandom has fallen mostly dormant. However, Belgium unexpectedly rang in the start of the 2024 season last week by announcing that artist Mustii will represent them at the contest in Malmö next year. This Brussels-born artist is no stranger to the music scene, having two albums and nearly 35,000 monthly listeners on Spotify.
Last year, Belgium selected their Eurovision entry via a national selection called Eurosong (which I had the incredible honor of attending live in the front row!). The winner, Gustaph, ended up in 7th place at the Grand Final in Liverpool, which was Belgium’s best result since 2017 when they came in 4th. After two years of failing to qualify for the Grand Final and then two more years of coming in exactly 19th place, it’s a bit odd that Belgium would abandon the artist selection method that delivered them to a top 10 placement. However, there were talks of the Eurosong voting being rigged and that televotes for fan favorite Chérine were not counted, so perhaps this discourse led the country to steer away from the national selection process altogether.
Although it is very rare for a country to announce its participant this early, it isn’t unprecedented. In fact, last year Israel revealed Noa Kirel as their chosen artist on August 10, and for the 2011 and 2013 contests respectively, Germany and San Marino revealed their artists (2010 winner Lena for Germany and 2012 participant Valentina Monetta for San Marino) as early as June, which was 11 whole months before the show. Noa Kirel came in 3rd place at Eurovision 2023, and Lena came in 10th at Eurovision 2011, so perhaps an early announcement increases the odds of placing in the top 10… But poor Valentina competed at Eurovision four times and her best result ever was 24th place, so maybe not.
The Eurovision 2024 Grand Final will take place on May 11 at the Malmö Arena in Sweden.
