Miss World
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Wikipedia-Article "Miss World"
The Miss World pageant is an international beauty pageant founded in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951.
It started as the Festival Bikini Contest, in honour of the recently introduced swimwear of the time, but was called Miss World by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event.
Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swimwear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew as the popularity of television grew.
Along with the rival Miss Universe pageant, Miss World has grown to be the most sought after and prestigious title in beauty pageantry. It is the most widely attended and broadcast such event, with over a hundred delegates in competition (Miss Universe, by comparison, welcomes approximately 80 delegates). The road to the Miss World crown is a long one. In the year preceding the global finals, each delegate must win her national title or a specially designated Miss World national preliminary. The annual final is typically a month long extravaganza, with several preliminary events, galas, dinners, balls and activities, culminating in a globally telecast final show in which the field is narrowed to between 15-20 delegates.
The winner spends a year travelling the globe representing the Miss World organization in its various causes. MW has an explicitly altruistic agenda, and has raised over 250 million pounds for various global charities.
Controversy
The Miss World pageant seems to have been the target of many controversies since its inception. In the 1960s and 1970s, the pageant was marred by scandals. The 1960s included tabloid coverage of nude photographs and the alcoholic excesses of the winners. The rise in feminism led to further controversy. The first winner from the United States, 1973's Marjorie Wallace, was forced to resign because of her high-profile serial dating. The 1974 winner Helen Morgan resigned four days later after it was discovered she was a single mother. In 1977, a United Nations boycott was organized because the pageant included South Africa, a participation which ended the next year. The 1980 winner Gabriela Brum of Germany resigned one day after winning, initially claiming her boyfriend disapproved. A few days later it emerged that she had been forced to resign after it was discovered that she posed naked for a magazine.
In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan Beauty With a Purpose. The contest added tests of intelligence and personality. By the 1990s, the pageant was reaching two billion viewers from almost every country in the world. The competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather un-PC in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show has not been broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years.
21st century
Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. In 2002 the competition was slated for Calabar, Cross River State of Nigeria. This choice was controversial, as a northern Nigerian woman, Amina Lawal, was awaiting death by stoning for adultery under Sharia law there, but Miss World chose to use the publicity surrounding its presence to bring greater global awareness and action to Amina's plight.
The 2005 55th Miss World Pageant, December 10th, 2005 from Sanya, China
The 55th Miss World 2005 Pageant took place on December 10th, 2005 in Sanya, China for the third consecutive year. This was one of the most unique pageants to be hosted in the history of Miss World by pageant chairwoman Mrs. Julia Morley. Nine former Miss Worlds judge from 102 contestants for the ultimate woman to be crowned Miss World 2005 by former Miss World from Peru, María Julia Mantilla García. Additionally, this year six continental winners were chosen by public or viewer votes through the Internet and as well as telephone and SMS voting.
Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir of Iceland is the third Miss World titleholder from her country. She was crowned in Sanya, China on December 10, 2005.
The 2005 55th Miss World Pageant Selection Process
From around 105 nations of the world, the first fifteen will be chosen in which, three women will automatically qualify after winning the preliminary contests. These are the Talent Hunt, Beach Beauty and Beauty with Brains contests. These three winners will be the fast track winners. The remaining twelve women will qualify as continental winners. Two from each continental zone i.e. Americas, Asia, Northern Europe, Southern Europe, Africa and the Carribean zones will qualify. Afterwards, the nine former Miss Worlds making up the judging panel will select the ultimate six final continental winners for the last round. Ultimately, first the 5 runners-up of Miss World 2005 will be announced and the new Miss World 2005 crown will be bagged by the contestant chosen by the judges after the Q&A round is over.
The 2005 55th Miss World Pageant (Preliminary) Contest Winners
Three fast track contestants will automatically make it to the top 15 semi-finalists to be announced during the final on December 10th, 2005 in Sanya, China. Two contestants have already made it to the top 15. These two contestants won the Beach Beauty and Talent Hunt contests held prior to the main Miss World 2005 finals.
Miss American Virgin Islands, Kmisha-Victoria Counts won the Talent Hunt contest beating 65 other competitors after singing a sensational Whitney Houston number "I Will Always Love You" held on November 21st, 2005.
Miss Russia, Yulia Ivanova beat twenty women during the Beach Beauty Contest held on December 6th, 2005. Meanwhile, the last or third Miss World 2005 fast-track winner will be announced during the live telecast of Miss World 2005 pageant around the world from Sanya, China on December 10th, 2005.
The 2005 55th Miss World Pageant Official Winners
Six new Miss World ambassadors were chosen on December 10, 2005:
- Miss World Africa: Tanzania, Nancy Sumari.
- Miss World Americas: Mexico, Dafne Molina Lorna, also Miss World 1st Runner up.
- Miss World Asia Pacific: Korea, Oh Eun-young.
- Miss World Caribbean: Puerto Rico, Ingrid Marie Rivera Santos, also Miss World 2nd Runner up.
- Miss World Northern Europe: Iceland, Unnur Birna (Miss World 2005).
- Miss World Southern Europe: Italy, Sofia Bruscoli.
A unique panel of nine former Miss Worlds chaired by Miss World Chairman Julia Morley then chose Iceland as overall winner of the contest.
The 2005 55th Miss World Pageant Hot Favorites
105 contestants represented their respective countries in the Miss World 2005 Beauty Pageant, held on December 10th, 2005 in Sanya, China for the third consecutive year. Apart from the two fast-track winners already announced, contestants from Costa Rica, Philippines, Spain, Puerto Rico, Australia, India, Iceland, Canada, Venezuela, Jamaica, South Africa, Martinique, Italy, Mexico and China (the host) were predicted to make it to the Top 15 in the Miss World 2005 competition.
The 2002 Nigeria Contest
In the year leading up the finals in Nigeria, several European title holders lobbied their governments and the EU parliament to support Amina's cause. A number of contestants followed the lead of Kathrine Sørland of Norway in boycotting the contest (despite the controversy Sørland would go on to become a semifinalist in both the Miss World and Miss Universe contest), while others such as Costa Rica were instructed by their national governments and parliaments not to attend the contest. Among the other boycotting nations were Denmark, Spain, Switzerland, Panama, Belgium and Kenya. There was further controversy over the possibly suspended participation of France and South Africa, which may or may not have been due to the boycott. For her part, Lawal asked that contestants not suspend their participation in the contest, saying that it was for the good of her country and that they could, as the representative of Sweden had earlier remarked, make a much stronger case for her on the ground in Nigeria.
Despite the increasing international profile the boycott was garnering in the world press, the contest went ahead in Nigeria, with many prominent nations sending their delegates. Osmel Sousa of Venezuela, one of the world's most influential national directors, famously said "there is no question about it (the participation of Miss Venezuela in the contest)." The trouble did not end there, however. A ThisDay (Lagos, Nigeria) newspaper editorial suggesting that Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, would probably have chosen one of his wives from among the contestants had he been alive to see it, resulted in riots that started on November 22 in which over 200 people were killed in the city of Kaduna. Because of these riots, the 2002 pageant was moved to London, following widely circulate reports that the representatives of Canada and Korea had fled to their home countries. A fatwa urging the beheading of the woman who wrote the offending words, Isioma Daniel, was issued in Nigeria, but was declared null and void by the relevant Saudi Arabian authorities. Upon the pageant's return to England, many of the boycotting contestants chose to attend, including Miss Norway, Kathrine Sørland, who was ironically tipped in the last few days as the number one favorite for the crown she had previously boycotted. The eventual winner of the pageant was Azra Akin of Turkey, the first predominantly Muslim country to hold the title since Egypt in 1954.
Akin was followed by Ireland's Rosanna Davison, daughter of the "Lady in Red" singer Chris de Burgh. In 2004 the crown was decided for the first time by a global vote, resuling in the victory of Peru's Maria Julia Mantilla Garcia and the return of the title to Latin America after nine years.
Further notes
The only international pageant to have over 100 countries participate, Miss World is considered less "predictable" than many of its international rivals, because of its diverse judging panels. The representatives of India, among them international actress Aishwarya Rai, were the success stories of the 1990s, capturing the crown four times, once back-to-back. Although China has been doing extremely well since entering and hosting the pageant (a top five placement from 2001 to 2003) the pageant has yet to crown an East Asian winner.
Title holders
1 Crowned after Helen Morgan of the United Kingdom resigned.
2 Crowned after Gabriela Brum of West Germany resigned
Scoretable
As of 2005:
| Times | Country |
|---|---|
| 5 | India, Venezuela |
| 4 | United Kingdom |
| 3 | Iceland, Jamaica, Sweden |
| 2 | Argentina, Australia, Austria, Netherlands, Peru, South Africa, United States |
| 1 | Brazil, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guam, Ireland, Israel, Nigeria, Poland, Puerto Rico, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey |