The Wheel and Axle

Congratulations, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters of South Africa!

The last winner from South Africa was Margaret Gardiner back in 1978.

It seems, lately, that Miss Universe is really letting countries who haven’t won in decades win again (in the last four years: Colombia, Philippines, France, and South Africa). They’ve also come from different continents. Any guesses for next year?

Continued From:

Queens of My Heart, Part 1

Here I proceed with the second half of my list of my Top Ten Favorite Miss Universe winners ever, presented in chronological order.

(continue reading…)

Still on a bit of a Miss Universe high, and recently I got to thinking who my favorite winners have been. It wasn’t an easy list to make, given that there have been over six decades of queens, but I managed to trim the list to ten.

So here they are: my Top Ten Favorite Miss Universe winners in chronological order, starting with…

(continue reading…)

Finland’s Armi Kuusela, Miss Universe 1952 and the first winner of the crown, married a Filipino, Dr. Virgilio Hilario.

Virgilio’s mother was a relative of Nana Enchang Javier-Gonzaga, my great-grandmother. This makes Virgilio a cousin of my maternal grandmother, Mommy Queta Gonzaga-Ignacio (who turns 96 this February!), and her siblings: Lola Belen, Lola Noneng, Lolo Carlos, and Lolo Eddie.

This also thus makes Miss Universe 1952 our relative by marriage.

No wonder I love Miss U. It’s practically in my blood.

(continue reading…)

Dream Come True

So yesterday, I fulfilled my dream to be able to watch Miss Universe live as a member of the audience.

It was everything I hoped for and more.

From feeling the positive energy of an international audience (a true melting pot of cultures, though I must say there were especially a lot of nice Thais, lovely Indonesians, and hot hot hot Latin men) to seeing beauty queens past and present, it was an experience I want to live again and again. Steve Harvey was funny, and the guest acts were surprisingly good (I’d been afraid they were too old school). We got to see what happens when the show is on commercial break (hint: not much, really), and over-all, it was indeed worth having won those tickets last minute.

(continue reading…)

Congratulations, Iris Mittenaere of France for besting 85 other worthy ladies and winning the crown to become Miss Universe 2016!

Europe hasn’t won this pageant since 2002, and moreover, this is France’s only second crown since Christiane Martel won in 1953. This is a triumph 63 years in the making.

You’re a wonderful woman, Iris! May you be worthy of your predecessor, the remarkable Pia Wurtzbach. You have big footsteps to follow, but we know you’ll make us all proud.

PS We would love a taste of your cooking!

As she relinquishes her crown later today, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Wurtzbach ends her reign as one of the most well-loved winners of this most prestigious beauty pageant. Despite that controversial crowning moment, Pia proved that she is the one true lady who rightfully won the title and deserved her place.

She will go down in history as one of the best winners in any pageant. Ever.

You did a great job, Pia. You’ve made us proud, and you will always be queen.

Mabuhay!

I was ready to watch this year’s Miss Universe with friends while on a mini-staycation in a nice AirBnB unit in BGC. Although we’d long wanted to watch the pageant live should it be staged here once again, circumstances prevented us from proceeding.

However, when our mini-staycay started on Saturday afternoon, my friend Bj (a.k.a. Pinoy Travel Whore, the sixth person to visit all 81 provinces of the Philippines) convinced me to join a Q&A Facebook contest sponsored by TV5 in collaboration with several popular pageant-focused social media sites. The prizes would be tickets to the coronation. On a whim, I thought, Why not? then proceeded to respond to the various questions. There were quite a few, mind you, and I had to fit it in right while I was also writing the article on my personal faves for this year’s pageant. (continue reading…)

The Miss Universe 2016 pageant will be broadcast live from Manila tomorrow (local time), the first from the Philippines since 1994, and as the country has always been pageant-crazy, this year’s show is doubly exciting for Pinoys.

As with any enthusiast, I have my own personal picks. After seeing the social media pictures and clips as well as the preliminaries that streamed live last Thursday, I have tried my best to determine who I feel should be part of the Top 12. It was a pretty difficult task, really, as there are a lot of fierce and fabulous contenders, so I went and chose 16 ladies any of whom I think deserve to make it to the Top 12 (well, Top 13 since it’s been confirmed that the winner of online voting will be included as a 13th candidate rather than be among the twelve).

(continue reading…)

One week away, darlings.