The Miss Universe competition has endured 65 editions yearly since the first one held in 1952. It was founded by a California-based clothing outfit, Pacific Knitting Mills and the Miss Universe Organisation but it is now owned by WME/IMG Talent Agency which bought it off President Donald Trump in 2015. Miss Universe – Wikipedia
Interesting story here: so Donald Trump used to be a co-owner of the Miss Universe Organisation and in fact, he had sole ownership for three days at a point. In 2015, he made one of his rude and racist remarks about illegal Mexican immigrants during his first campaign speech which caused NBC, a partner of Trump’s and the station that used to air the competition, to end its business relationship with him. So Trump bought all of NBC’s shares in addition to what he already owned in the business. He was the sole owner for 3 days before he sold it all off to WME/IMG Talent Agency which now runs the show that airs on the Fox and Azteca Networks.
However, this is background is not what the Miss Universe pageant is mostly known for. The beauty competition has now become synonymous with Steve Harvey’s infamous goof from 2015. At the show’s finale when the winner of the 2015 competition was to be announced, the Family Guy TV show host called out Miss Columbia as the winner instead of Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach, who currently wears the Miss Universe Crown. (Watch here).
Miss Columbia, Ariadna Gutierrez had already been crowned the Miss Universe 2015 before Steve Harvey realised or was told about his mistake.
Then she was de-crowned.
And Miss Philippines had to be crowned. Right there on stage. Needless to say, it was the most awkward television ever.
After this, Miss Universe, for the second time in its 65 year history, skipped a year as there was none in 2016. The current competition will produce the Miss Universe 2016. By the way, guess who’s hosting this year’s show?
Harvey arriving the Philippines’ Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila on Saturday.
22-year old Unoaku Anyadike representing Nigeria. Here, she’s pictured doing her pose during the swimsuit contest
The last event at the competition which happened yesterday was a cultural competition which saw the contestants try to show off their heritage in often over-the-top attires representative of their countries. Although it was not a scored test, it showed off the creativity and poise of the contestants as they had to maintain their strides even in the costumes. See below:
Miss Vietnam’s wooden dress
Miss Malaysia wearing Petronas Twin Towers pantsuit to show off her country’s most visited tourist attraction
Miss Myanmar put on a puppet show in a dress
Miss Canada somehow made a knitwear snowflake attire look pageant worthy
Miss Hungary with wearing a red dress that features 1500 paprikas sewn into it
Miss Indonesia Golden Garuda pant suit
Miss USA had a case of malfunctioning wings in her superhero attempt. Pretty significant considering the current state of affairs
It was a broken left wing Miss Ecuador but she still picked it up with a great smile and the outfit was a winner anyway
Miss Germany iconic spot hat was a bit of a stretch but very brave still
Miss Dominican Republic holding 3D birds
Miss Philippines worth P1 million with real pearls in her headpiece
And Nigeria:
Unaoaku Anyadike in red George attire and matching beads.
This year’s judges include Dayanara Torres, former Miss Universe from Puerto Rico; Sushmita Sen, first ever Miss Universe from India; Leila Lopes, first Miss Universe from Angola; Mickey Boardman, editorial director of PAPER magazine; Cynthia Bailey, founder of The Bailey Agency School of Fashion; and Francine LeFrak, Tony award-winning producer, social entrepreneur and women’s empowerment activist.
The timing is a little twisted right now because it shows at 8:00am in the Philippines which means 1:00am Nigerian time. We are not so lucky to catch the show live but there’ll be many opportunities. Especially to catch what must be the riveting performance that Boys II Men will put up soon. Flo Rida too!
But then, if you are up and don’t mind the tiredness you may feel tomorrow, catch the live action live here.
