describing mauboy's dress as "eye-catching", croffey wrote that "it would have been difficult for europe not to sit up and take notice of the darwin-born beauty as she strutted her stuff on stage." helen davidson of "the guardian" noted that mauboy's vocals were "a little shaky at first" but commented that she was "clearly enjoying herself in front of the thousands of pop music lovers in the audience." similarly, al newstead of tone deaf wrote it was "difficult to ignore some of the more wonky notes of mauboy's swooping vocal lines." newstead also believed that the "real low highlight" of her performance was the astronaut. nastassia baroni of "music feeds" commented that "after dusting off some initial flat notes, [mauboy] rollicked into a high-energy performance, palpably relishing her moment as a dance diva in the global spotlight." peter vincent of "the sydney morning herald" noted that she had "a nervous start and a couple of flat notes" but "quickly grew into the performance" and "even remembered to beam into the cameras and strike a few diva poses as she strutted about the stage." vincent concluded that mauboy's performance "was worthy of an international dance pop diva." a writer for "the new zealand herald" wrote that mauboy's performance song was "a breath of fresh air" but wanted to know "what on earth is a sea of flags?."