AND we are in. Jessica Mauboy has advanced Australia into the Eurovision 2018 grand final for the fourth consecutive year.

The We Got Love pop princess made the cut in the second semi-final in Lisbon with a confident and crowd-engaging performance, managing to fill the cavernous stage with her force of personality and undisputed vocal power.

The 10 countries to make the cut in the second semi final were Serbia, Moldova, Hungary, Australia, Ukraine, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Slovenia and The Netherlands.

At the post semi press conference, Mauboy credited the audience for lifting her performance. Instead of a slickly choreographed television act, she busted out We Got Love like it was her own headlining concert.

The Fallin’ chart star is one of those live artists who feeds off the energy of a crowd with many commentators remarking she owned the room and scored the biggest participation and cheers of her semi.

Her experience as a special guest at the 2014 Eurovision contest in Copenhagen has also factored in Mauboy successfully interacting with the audience and helping to quell her nerves.

“It felt nerve racking but at the same time, with the that kind of crowd, it’s really undeniable; there’s so much love and what my song represents is that,” she said.

“The people in the crowd, and the people watching at home feeling this electricity, this synergy ... I obviously felt that back.”

When all her official duties were done, Mauboy spoke to Australian media backstage about achieving her long held goal of making the Eurovision grand final.

“Wildest dreams have come true right now,” she said.

“I was trying to process it as I was sitting at the press conference amongst amazing performers who have gotten into the grand final and thinking I’m sitting up here, I’m here.

“I just whacked out a really great performance, it felt really damn good.”

Mauboy has shared her Eurovision experience with her partner of nine years Themeli Magripilis who was also by her side when she performed at Eurovision 2014 in Copenhagen.

She laughed when she told how he has been assisting her campaign at the musical Olympics.

“I mean, he’s throwing shoes in the bag, throwing my hair (extensions) in the bag, he’s really helping out,” she said.

“It’s been amazing to share this with him ... he’s my partner.”

The singer, who also made a grateful shout out to fans back home for all their messages of support, now turns her focus to her grand final quest which involves four performances of We Get Love over Saturday and Sunday.

Along with the other 25 grand finalists, she has a full dress rehearsal and then the jury show, which will account for 50 per cent of the points on Saturday.

On Sunday, there is a “family and friends” rehearsal ahead of the grand final show.

“Nothing can compare to this moment ... to what just happened tonight.,” she said.

“I’m looking forward to that grand final and I know it’s going to be a whole other level again to beat.

“I’m just gonna stay focused, remain calm and just be amongst everyone.”

Mauboy faces a monumental challenge to win the contest with Cyprus’s fiery Eleni Foureira, Norway’s polished pop prince Alexander Rybak and Israel’s quirky loop queen Netta the popular frontrunners.

Rivalling Rybak for the young female vote is Sweden’s Benjamin Ingrosso, who cites the Bee Gees as the inspiration for his falsetto disco number Dance You Off.

Other strong contenders from Mauboy’s second semi included Denmark’s Viking hipster Rasmussen and his hairy men with the rousing Higher Ground and Moldova’s DoReDos with their hyper Eurovision moment which combined window props and comedic cheekiness.

Already in the grand final from the first semi were Cyprus, Israel, Austria, Lithuania, Finland, Albania, Ireland, Bulgaria, Estonia and Czech Republic.

The 20 semi-finalists who made the cut join the Big Five — Germany, Italy, Spain, France and the U.K. — along with host country Portugal who all are guaranteed a spot in Sunday’s grand final.

While Mauboy has waxed and waned among the predictions, the down-to-earth Darwin artist has charmed the Eurovision family, winning hearts among fellow contestants and the judges media room.

The Eurovision hosts crossed to her after her performance, offering her a Portuguese tart as a riff on the fact the show is broadcast early in the morning in Australia.

“It’s the first time I’ve had breakfast with that many viewers and it’s a couple of hundred million,” Mauboy joked.

The Australian pop star and actor has built in strength through the rehearsals and proved to be one of the most popular acts with the audience at Altice Arena who enthusiastically supported her performance by clapping and singing along.

Ahead of Thursday’s jury show as she was preparing to launch into We Got Love, the audience started chanting Jessica. That love from the crowd was repeated again during the televised semi-final today and clearly affected this seasoned live performer who broke script during to shout out “sing” to the fans a few times during her act.

She advanced to the grand final courtesy of the jury votes collated from Thursday’s non-televised performance combined with the fan votes registered after the semi-final on Friday.

The grand final will air on SBS on Sunday from 5am and is repeated from 7.30pm.

Kathy McCabe travelled to Lisbon as a guest of SBS.