hey guys welcome to the critical beauty salon so 2019 miss international beauty
pageant took place on November 12 at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo Japan and
Sireethorn Leearamwat of Thailand won, making her the first woman
from her country to win the coveted title . Were you just as surprised as I was? To
be honest, Thailand was not on my list and I definitely did not expect her to
win especially after listening to her humdrum speech. What is not
surprising is the fact that the results every year are hard to predict; a
contestants may be considered a major front runner at the beginning of the
pageant but her frontrunner status may eventually subside during the remainder
of the pageant perhaps due to lack of energy or that the pageant organizers
are disappointed with her behavior, character, and overall performance. In
Miss Thailand's case she just came out of nowhere and crushed the popular and
favorite delegates from the Philippines Vietnam Indonesia Mexico Venezuela and
Uganda. The first event was a national costume presentation. Unlike the other
major pageants that usually begin with an opening number and lavish
choreography, Miss International 2019 pageant opened with the eighty three
candidates dressed in their national costumes. First, the contestants gathered
on stage swaying to the synthesized music played by a Japanese group
positioned on the upper level of the stage. Instead of being presented in
alphabetical order the girls simply paraded individually up to the center
of the stage beginning with the delegates from the Americas. This segment
lasted just a little over 15 minutes. I found myself
nearly dozing off as the live stream began in my region at midnight. I perked
up only when Vietnam won the best national costume award. Did you notice
that the special awardees are only given a sash? I'm not sure if the awardees
receive any cash prize or trophies but if you do know please comment below. Did you
also notice that none of the contestants wore gimmicky
and heavy over-the-top costumes that you would usually find in that other pageant
which will take place in Atlanta December 8? In my last vlog I discussed
the four things that I like about Miss International. I meant to follow up with
another vlog entitled "Four things that I hate about Miss International" but I
realized that I could only come up with one thing that I hate about the pageant
and that is the dragging and painstakingly slow pace of the
production. I don't see any reason why an international pageant should last longer
than three hours with commercials included. You couldn't pay me enough money to
attend this pageant unless the time is cut in half and the selection of the
dull music, which sounded like royalty free music that no one has ever heard of,
is upgraded to a more trendy, hip and syncopated music. The pageant was held at
the Tokyo Dome City Hall, a facility for sport, fashion show, circu,s and live music
located in Tokyo inside of Tokyo Dome City. The arena has hosted a few Miss
International shows in the past. The stage is a basic thrust stage with a
wide ramp in front that allows the girls to pose and pivot. On the main floor, in
addition to the rectangular tables set for the judges, several round tables have
been placed to accommodate the spectators who paid good money to have a
good view of a spectacle while sipping sake and nibbling some sushi. Further
away in the back of the arena are rows of seats reserved for the non-VIPs
that included the families, friends and supporters of the contestants. The show
was co-hosted by Ayako Kisa, a Japanese announcer and TV personality and by
Tetsuya Bessho, a Japanese actor and radio presenter who has been hosting the
pageant since 2014. Both speak fluent English. Right after the walking
competition Bessho tried to raise excitement at the venue by asking the
audience, "Where are you from?" The audience shouted back, "Indonesia Mexico
Philippines" Kylie Versoza, Miss International 2016
played a backstage host who interviewed the top eight finalists.
Since the pageant has been held in Japan since 1972 and since it is run by
Japanese organizers it is only logical to create a mostly Japanese judging
panel. There were eight Japanese judges and for non-Japanese judges co-host
Ayako Kisa stated that since arriving in Japan on October 25th the contestants
have been touring Japan for nearly three weeks and they have been actively
engaging in all kinds of international exchanges and social contribution
activities. These contestants were also judged on the intelligence,
sophistication, and communication capability they demonstrated during this
period. Today's 2019 Miss International will be
crowned based on the results from strict examination and points in the national
costume, evening gown, and swimsuit competitions. The Japanese judges were
these folks and the non Japanese judges were these folks. Mariam Velasco, the
outgoing Queen is introduced and gives a speech that lasted for about five
minutes. Before she won she did not know what being Miss International meant. A
year after she learned that it is about promoting cultural exchanges and
comprehension among nations and world peace. The second event was the evening
gown competition which lasted about eleven minutes with the same monotonous
royalty-free music playing in the background. Two girls at a time
approached the front of the stage to try winning the judges with their charm,
grace, elegance, and poise. I didn't like that a handful of the contestants and
they're all from Africa - Uganda Equatorial Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire -
waived or blew a kiss to the audience. To me this is just tacky
and should never be done during the evening
competition. There were many nice gowns (I specially like those of Philippines
Venezuela Sri Lanka and Taiwan. This segment was followed by a 20-minute
intermission when the rest of the video montage of the girls' experiences in
Japan was shown. At this moment I was about ready to fall asleep. after the
intermission was the swimsuit presentation. The girls wore swimsuits of
different colors and styles. There were some in bikinis and some in one-piece.
The presentation was followed by the announcement of the winner of best in
swimsuit - Miss Uganda wearing a bold pink one-piece with a string around the waist
as the girls remain on stage in her swimsuit the top 15 are called. Co-host
Ayako Kisa explains that these finalists were selected based on the
collective results of their activities since arriving in Japan, the preliminary
screening, and today's competition. I assume the judges at the prelims were
the same judges during the finals. Anyway the top 15 proved to be a great group.
Only in Miss International that you will hear the phrase "Please come to the
center stage" 15 times center stage
The top 15 then had to compete in walking. I find it odd that it is called
a walking competition instead of calling it a runway competition but when you
think of it there's not much of a runway on that simple stage. Anyway, I thought
these girls had amazing catwalk Venezuela Hong Kong Puerto Rico Colombia
and Indonesia but I like Puerto RIco's walk the best that girl was fierce to
the max. An artist dressed up as a geisha and accompanied by a league of musicians
performs a traditional Japanese dance. This segment lasted for nearly 10
minutes even though I found a performance not as exciting as an
ordinary citizen singing karaoke I did appreciate the fact that the organizers
stuck to tradition which is one of the most significant characteristics of the
pageant. Now for the second cut of the evening
from 83 down to 15 and now from 15 down to the top 8. The 15 semi-finalists had to
return to the stage wearing different gowns from the ones that they had worn at the
beginning of the show. The top eight were called in this order - Mexico Philippines
Colombia Uganda who kept doing the screwing the light bulb wave, Indonesia
Vietnam Thailand and United Kingdom. Notice that all of them were wearing
pastel coloured gowns. I was expecting Venezuela to advance instead of Vietnam
or Indonesia because I thought her gown was the most attractive and she carried
it very well, but I guess it just wasn't her night.The third event was the speech
competition. Each of the eight finalists had to deliver a 45-second long speech
in which she had to explain the significance of the pageant's theme this
year which is "Cheer all women." All eight speeches were delivered in English and
had to be translated into Japanese - a task that prolonged the segment even further
to 20 minutes. This segment was probably my least
favorite of all segments because not only was it dragging but the woman
interpreter screwed up the flawless speech of Miss Philippines and Miss
Indonesia. Miss Uganda's delivery was not as good as the two other girls but
she was saved by the male interpreter who probably enhanced the interpretation
in her favor. Miss Thailand's speech was heartfelt and sincere. She stated that
she had been criticized for winning Miss Thailand but that she turned criticism
into power to be the best version of herself. She was also lucky to have her
speech translated by the male interpreter. While the judges deliberate
for another 20 minutes the co-hosts announced the winners of
the Continental Queens who were selected by their colleagues who believe that
they best represent their respective continents. I've been doing some research
and I found out that the Continental Queens began in 2015
Between that year and 2018 no Miss Photogenic
or Miss Friendship award was distributed. Could it be that the Continental Queen
award has now replaced those two traditional awards? Maybe not, because a
Miss Photogenic award was given to miss Guadeloupe this year. Two new awards Best
Dresser and Best Body were introduced in 2014 and distributed until 2018 but
neither award was presented this year. This inconsistency in the distribution
of awards is just driving me crazy! Anyway here are the winners of the
Continental Queen Awards. While the judges spend another 10 minutes
deliberating. the co-hosts engaged in small talk in Japanese. Then special
awards were distributed - Best in Evening Gown to Miss Venezuela and Miss
Photogenic to Miss Guadeloupe/ Co-host Tetsuya Bessho explains that the
Miss Photogenic award goes to the contestant who is the most successful in
sharing the fun and the glamour of the Miss International contest through
social media during her stay Japan. The co-hosts announced the top
five in ascending order, beginning with fourth runner-up United
Kingdom, followed by third runner-up Colombia, second runner-up Uganda, and
first runner-up Mexico whom many fans had as their favorite for the crown.
Another 10 minutes were spent in sashing and crowning the runners-up. At this
moment only four finalists remain on stage - Philippines Indonesia Vietnam and
Thailand (all from Southeast Asia). When Thailand was eventually proclaimed
the winner she was in shock and certainly caught by surprise.
Compared to Mariam Velasco's coronation last year which was orderly and
time-consuming, Sireethorn's oronation was messy as the girls quickly huddled
around her to congratulate her which suggests that she is well liked by
everyone. Co-host Ayako Kisa, in her genteel manner. politely asked the
girls to return to their positions for the coronation ceremony. After the
ceremony Sireethorn gave a heartfelt speech thanking everyone who helped her
to her victory. I think she deserves her win and I'm happy that Thailand has won
its first Miss International crown since it began competing in 1968. Next year the
pageant will celebrate his sixtieth anniversary and I'm entertaining the
possibility of attending it just to see how it's really like. I've been to Miss
Universe. Miss World. and Miss Earth pageants and I would love to attend Miss
International just so I could complete my mission of attending all big four
pageants in person. Besides I have never been to Japan before so I think it
should be fun! And there you have it - my review of the
Miss International 2019 pageant. Do you agree or disagree? Comment below. If you
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