Joost Celebrates His Past, Present, and Future on "Unity"

Graphic by Sofia Giarrusso

by Izzie Claudio

Joost shot further into stardom when he represented the Netherlands in the 2024 Eurovision Song Contest. His social media presence and existing discography made him stand out among the competitors last year. He expertly teased his song submission, “Europapa,” leaving fans—both new and old—on the edges of their seats. Once the single was released, audiences became obsessed, and Joost emerged as a fan favorite. But when Joost was accused of threatening a staff member, he was disqualified from the contest. The charges against him have since been dropped due to a lack of evidence. Still, fans were furious with  Eurovision’s decision, and social media flooded with clips of his energetic semifinal performance, where he shouted, “Europe, let’s come together!” with a beaming smile on his face. He shared that it had been his dream to go to Eurovision since he was a child and that he was competing in honor of his parents, who passed away when he was young. The disqualification led him to step back from social media and music for a while, but after slowly releasing singles over the past six months, Joost is back with his new album Unity. 

The album opens with a powerful spoken line: “Once there was a boy, and he had a dream, / but then one day, his dream was taken away.” This choice effectively calls attention to the contest that robbed him of his chance to win. The first track, “Why Not???,” features a pop-punk sound with dramatic, scratchy vocals, and his signature hardcore electronic beat makes a comeback midway through the song. Joost is reinventing his sound and having fun with it. The following track, “Luchtballon,” was released as a single over the summer. His Europop sound returns with a delightfully cheesy piano melody and a whopping BPM of 176. “Luchtballon” reestablishes his classic sound, offering an upbeat rhythm to dance to, along with lyrics that speak to his experiences and emotions. While the majority of his songs are in Dutch, a translation of “Luchtballon” reveals his feelings on moving forward after Eurovision. Despite his fear of the future, he expresses his readiness to keep flying higher, like a hot air balloon, or a luchtballon. He sings:

“Ben zo hoog in de atmosfeer /

Het liefst kom ik nooit, nooit, nooit meer neer /

Het verleden doet zeer, maar heb er van geleerd /

En dat zeg ik terwijl ik de toekomst negeer /

Door de wolken, langs de steden, ik kom nooit meer naar beneden /

De toekomst is onzeker, wil gewoon m'n leven leven /

Geef me even, geef me effe /

Ik ben op eenzame hoogte en dat moet je wel beseffen.”

which roughly translates to: 

“I'm so high in the atmosphere /

Preferably, I'll never, never, never be coming down /

The past hurts, but I've learned from it /

And that's what I'm saying while ignoring the future /

Through the clouds, across the cities, I'll never come down /

The future is uncertain, I just want live my life /

Give me a second, give me a moment /

I'm lonely at the top and you have to realize that.” 

From these first two tracks alone, it’s clear that this album has a sense of reinvention. The symbolism of the flames on the cover indicates Joost rising from the ashes, reborn. 

Meanwhile, the third track is a straight-up gabber anthem titled “Gabberland.” Joost’s music is heavily inspired by the popular gabber scene in the Netherlands, a subculture within the hardcore electronic music scene. This tune is fast and energetic and makes me want to commit to learning the hakken. The iconic sound of the electronic jabs is a throughline in this album, and you can expect almost every track to build to an explosive beat. 

Joost is exploring a unique blend of rock and electronic music, introducing instruments that aren’t typically heard in upbeat gabber tracks. “Discozwemmen” begins with a casual guitar melody and it continues to ground throughout the song. He finds an awesome balance between the hardcore, head-banging beats of the gabbers and an easy going melody. Again, Joost is reestablishing himself in this album. His love for music is apparent with each track. 

Joost also has some crowd-pleasers on Unity. As I approached the middle of the album, I was greeted with surprise. The iconic “Friensenjung” was initially released by German rapper, Ski Aggu, featuring Joost; it went viral on social media and sparked Joost’s initial climb into the global spotlight. The song is addicting and has a fascinating progression of how it came to be. I encourage you to follow the sample path and you’ll find the original melody comes from a 1987 song by Sting. Releasing this song on Unity feels like an acknowledgement of his past and an appreciation of the boost it gave him in the music world. On that same note, the following track was an even greater surprise. “Kunst und Musik” has been an unreleased Joost track for years. There are countless videos on his TikTok teasing a snippet of the song, and fans flooded the comments, begging for him to release the full version. Our prayers were met with Unity, and this release feels like a thank you to his fans for lifting him up, especially in the midst of the Eurovision madness. 

The second half of the album continues with numerous hardcore tracks, each with elements of Europop heard in the piano melodies. It’s refreshing that Joost has stayed true to his sound. The melodies he locks down are consistently catchy and always leave my head bobbing up and down. “We’ll Meet Again” and “Internetcafe 24/7” are epic tracks; the production is glorious. The influence of the hardcore sound that has existed since the ‘90s is clear, and I greatly appreciate the way Joost fuses that sound with meaningful lyrics. 

As we near the end of this electrifying album, we arrive at a song that holds significant meaning for him and many others around the world: “Europapa.” Forever a classic in my books, it serves as a catalyst for Joost’s reflections. “Europapa” marks a triumphant yet challenging time in his career, which has motivated him to continue pushing forward and reaching new heights. The final track on the album is “Last Man Standing,” a tune rooted in Europop elements. This track is the cool down at the end of an energetic thirty-six minutes, and it’s another moment of emotional reflection for Joost. The bridge of the song is particularly poignant: “Ben ik nu goed genoeg voor jou? (het spijt me, begrijp me) / Ben ik nu ook goed genoeg voor mij? (verleid me, begeleid me) / Ben ik nu degene die ik zei die ik worden zou sinds klein? (het spijt me, begrijp me, verleid me) / Begeleid me,” which roughly translates to, “Am I good enough for you now (I'm sorry, understand me) / Am I also good enough for me now? (seduce me, guide me) / Am I now who I said I would be since I was little? (I'm sorry, understand me, seduce me) / Guide me.” Music plays a huge role in his life and he always aims to make his parents proud. His childhood and his dreams have always been a theme in his music, and he calls back to those feelings in this final track. 

The album finishes with a final soundbite. A crackly voice is heard saying: “To all flight controllers / The boy always said that we should come together / And I ask myself, ‘Why Not?’ / Unity.” The key theme of this album and its namesake is Joost’s call for Unity. Joost is not only fun, but inspiring: He’s simply a boy with dreams.