She’s the vibrant and soulful young diva who single-handedly justified Alice Spring’s inclusion on our Audition Tour. Jessica Mauboy is the teenage sensation who hypnotised the judges with her warm personality and extraordinary voice.

Jessica, like so many of our Top 12 contestants, benefited from early experience in choirs. It seems like the perfect way to train a young singer and teach budding vocalists how to handle the pressure of singing in front of large audiences. It may not have seemed like the coolest pursuit, but Jess loved it.

“I think that kind of helped me, singing in front of a lot of people,” Jess explains. “It was something that I loved to do in primary school. It was like ‘Yeah! We get to get out of work and school and stuff!’ It was fun man. I loved it. I didn’t want to quit it and as I got to high school I kind of moved off that from singing choirs and stuff like that. In year 8 people were like ‘what the hell? Choir? What?’”

Her peers may have scoffed at the school choir but Jess had the last laugh when her well-developed skills as a vocalist helped to secure first place in the Road to Tamworth competition, where Jess had the opportunity to meet local country legends.

“I grew up with country music,” she recalls. “Singing with mum in the kitchen washing up dishes. I was really inspired by artists like Beccy Cole; she is so beautiful! I got to meet her! Part of the prize was to go to the Tamworth Camerata Junior College, the music school. That was so fun. We got to meet Beccy Cole and Kasey Chambers. They just had a talk about how they developed through their music. I was really into that. It gave me confidence and made me love music more.”

Winning a major singing contest opened Jess’ eyes to the realities of tough competition. The Road To Tamworth was a learning experience that introduced Jessica to competitive and ambitious personalities plus the pressures that come with added exposure. So Jess must have been a little apprehensive to enter a contest of Australian Idol’s scale.

“Yeah, it’s the biggest!” Jessica says with a laugh. “I thought, ‘oh I’m going to come into this competition and there’s going to be all this bitchiness from the girls but I was so surprised! I really was! And I can’t believe I’ve made it this far; it’s so exciting!”

The camaraderie has supplied loads of support for the younger performers but building relationships can come at a cost. Having strengthened bonds with the girls in the semi-finals groups, Jess suffered the heartbreak of losing a few closer friends after the Wildcard announcements, as Jess explains.

“I didn’t know what to say. I think with the first Wildcard that was a bit hard because we lost Lydia and Lyndelle. All the girls like me, Reigan, Lavina were like ‘what are we going to say? Don’t stop singing?’ There was nothing else to say. It was just too quick.”

Watching her mates leave the competition was a grim reminder of the realities of Idol as a competition, but it’s also made Jess prepare for the possibility to exiting Idol HQ and returning home to build a solo career.

“Whatever happens,” she explains. “I’m cool with it just as long as I’ve made it to the Top 12. A lot of people have seen you already so it’s just like ‘wow’. I know that I’ve made it to there and that I’ve made it to the stage where I can just say ‘now this is my turn and I’m on my own’. I’ve thought about it a little bit and I think it’ll be okay if I do get out.”

But there’s more to Idol than singing and living in a massive mansion. Jessica is now getting acquainted with the profession, both behind the scenes and in the gaze of a ruthless media. But fresh from her first press conference, Jess only has a positive view of the media. It certainly helps when the journalists are fans of Idol.

“I just thought it was really good to learn and be around the press and how they react as well. It was very warm in the room cos we got to meet them as well. They were a bit like fans, cos they were like ‘oh my god!’ Someone from TV Hits was like ‘oh can we have a photo’ and I was like ‘yeah, yeah go ahead!’ It was really warm in the room and everyone got to know each other.”

Hmm… that doesn’t sound like the media we know and ‘love’. So if Jess has already mastered the ability to deal with nosy journalists, surely she’ll struggle when it comes to writing songs for her debut album. No, Jess is ready for that as well. Clearly, she isn’t overawed by any of the industry’s complexities.

“I’d love to do that,” she says excitedly. “To write my own music. I’m actually writing some at the moment, just about the experience so far and how I’m feeling about the people and what they’re feeling about it. It’s a pretty amazing journey.”