Delta Goodrem in the box seat for victory after dazzling Eurovision grand final performance

Delta Goodrem has brought the house down in her grand final performance at Eurovision 2026, putting her on the cusp of an historic victory before she fell agonisingly short.Goodrem sang the power ballad Eclipse in a show-stopping performance that featured bright lights and a wind machine.The singer was second favourite to win in the final in Vienna on Saturday night (Sunday morning AEST).One of Delta's first moves after finishing her performance was to call Today entertainment editor Richard Wilkins."She's such a sweetheart, she says, 'Did I do all right?'," Wilkins said."She's sang the song a thousand times and she finds something new in it every time."What I think she has done is the performance of her career so far... This takes her to a whole new level."In the video call with Delta, Wilkins told her, "you're the Matildas, you're Cathy Freeman... the whole of the country is just holding its breath and sending its love, it's incredible."She replied, "Oh thank you, I felt everybody with me in this entire journey and I just wanted to make everybody proud and do what I do."The crowd was insane, they were chanting my name as they came out and I was like, how many people flew from Australia... it was definitely a lot of love."UK star Graham Norton, who was reporting from the ground, confirmed the same thing.Watching the crowd, he said, "If the audience could crown a winner right now, they would give it Australia. I hope her star power doesn't go against her," as per the Liverpool Echo.Aussies cheered her on from home, including former Aussie representative Dami Im who took the stage in 2016."COME ON YOU'VE GOT THIS," Im encouraged her fellow Eurovision representative.GoJo, Australia's contestant from last year, said, "YOUVE GOT IT IN THE BAG!!!❤️"One of the biggest messages of support she received was from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday afternoon."Good luck at the Eurovision Grand Final, Delta," he posted on X."You've already made Australia proud. We'll all be cheering you on."TAB has the Aussie songstress and her banger Eclipse placed second-best to win behind Finland's Linda Lampenius and Pete Parkkonen with their song Liekinheitin.Sportsbet also has Australia pegged as second to win, with odds at four to one.Finland is the favourite - most likely because Australia has never won Eurovision before, and the very idea of our non-European nation winning makes some fans of the song contest squirm.Either way, the whole nation is backing Goodrem after her incredible performance in the semi-final sent her flying into the finals.She made it to the Grand Final alongside countries including Malta, Denmark, Norway, Albania and Cyprus.Other countries in the Grand Final include Ukraine, Bulgaria and Romania.The "big four" automatically in the Grand Final are France, Germany, Italy, the UK.The betting companies aren't the only ones who think Goodrem is in with a chance to win, with fans flooding social media proclaiming she's our best chance of "bringing it home" since Dami Im's performance of The Sound of Silence in 2016, which put her in second place.Nine.com.au spoke to Goodrem in an exclusive chat right before she jetted off to Vienna to represent Australia in the song contest. The Eclipse singer said she "loved" all the positivity around her entry."I love it, I love the passion, the positivity," she told nine.com.au."I'm gonna take all this incredible good energy and vibes with me and fly over to Vienna with it all." Traditionally, the winner of Eurovision hosts the following year's contest in their home country.However, Eurovision has said that if Australia were to win, it wouldn't be able to host the concert Down Under.Instead, SBS would co-host the broadcast in collaboration with another European broadcaster.However, Goodrem said that if she were to win, she thinks they should make an exception.We'd be an amazing host," she said."Everyone coming to Australia, we've got the most beautiful country, we'd be great ... we'd put on an incredible hosting."The singer said she pays no attention to such remarks."I think that we saw was an awesome music show ... I'm really happy that we're a part of it. We're there for a great time, and we give it a go!" she said."When [Eurovision] had seen how involved Australia was when it came to getting involved with the contest from a far, it made logical sense [to invite us]."I think we're the only country part of it that's not part of Europe … we're always visiting anyway!"FOLLOW US ON WHATSAPP HERE: Stay across all the latest in celebrity, lifestyle and opinion via our WhatsApp channel. No comments, no algorithm and nobody can see your private details.