The God-awful Miss Tourism Queen International affair in China was the first "Grand Slam" pageant of the year. That rumours of questionable conditions for the contestants abounded did not surprise me in the least. Why a reputable pageant site such as Global Beauties continues to align itself with that mess is beyond me. The tragedy is that there are some really pretty girls that competed who will now have to spend an eternity defending their participation in that third-rate farce.Although I watched a webcast of the Miss Universe pageant back in July 2008, I never fully appreciated what a superb production it was until I viewed the telecast in December. Slick, professional, and the location and contestants were fantastic. That Miss Venezuela was going to win was a no-brainer. She is gorgeous and has a wonderful personality to boot. I was pleasantly surprised at the contestant from Colombia as well. Her photographs never did her any justice and I didn't quite understand all the hype at the time of the pageant. Miss Russia was also pretty, but I would have been happier to see the USA and Australia in the Top 5. Miss Dominican Republic was just too manly for my liking and Miss Mexico looked as though she'd spent 6 weeks in a Medieval rack with her elongated body and super long neck that simply did not look good.
Next up was the Miss International pageant in Macau. Although I don't really follow the pageant since South Africa does not compete, it appeared to be a huge improvement from the previous year with a fantastic set, lovely contestants and a stunning winner.
The Miss Earth pageant was held the same weekend and, although the production and quality of contestants was great, the winner leaves a lot to be desired. That she is concerned for the environment is very noble, but she is average looking at best. I am generally a supporter of Filipino contestants and feel that a number of their representatives have been overlooked at the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants in recent times, but by crowning Miss Philippines as Miss Earth, the organisers most definitely did not do anything to add to the value to the pageant.
The Miss World "yawn fest" was the final major pageant of the year. Whilst watching the pageant it dawned on me that the American claim to doing everything "bigger and better" is not unjustified. The pageant was just a seemingly endless, pointless waste of time and money and pales in comparison to the Miss Universe pageant. Why Julia Morley doesn't just award the title to her favourite is a mystery. Miss Russia was going to win (although she looked like a hot mess on the night) and the staging of a "contest" was merely a case of going through the motions. Based on the final performance, I would have crowned Miss Trinidad & Tobago. I was very surprised to see two African contestants in the Final 5. A look at the results of the last few years will reveal that the pageant tends to advance the top contestant from each of five (or six) geographical regions (whether officially or not). Miss Angola was most definitely not better looking than Miss South Africa. I would have replaced Angola with Venezuela. As a token of her appreciation to the organisers for bailing her pageant out of the dwang once again, Julia Morley then included South Africa in the Top 5. No comment.
OK! So that's my take on the international pageant world for 2008. Let's wait and see what 2009 has in store.