 The Miss World pageant is an international beauty pageant created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Currently, Morley's wife, Julia Morley, co-chairs the pageant.
Miss World is oldest surviving major international pageant. The telecast of the final competition is the world's largest live annual beauty pageant television event with global viewers in more than 200 countries.
The winner spends a year travelling to represent the Miss World Organization and its various causes. Traditionally, Miss World lives in London during her reign. The current Miss World is Zhang Zilin of China.
History
Miss World started as the Festival Bikini Contest, in honor of the recently introduced swim wear of the time, but was called "Miss World" by the press. It was originally planned as a one-off event. Upon learning about the upcoming Miss Universe pageant, Morley decided to make the pageant an annual event.
Opposition to the wearing of bikinis led to their replacement with more modest swim wear after the first contest. In 1959, the BBC started broadcasting the competition. The pageant's popularity grew with the advent of television. By the 1990s, the pageant was reaching two billion viewers from almost every country in the world.
In the 1980s, the pageant repositioned itself with the slogan Beauty With a Purpose, with added tests of intelligence and personality. However, the competition has been seen as old-fashioned and rather politically incorrect in its native Britain. Despite the global appeal, the show was not broadcast on any major terrestrial British TV network for several years, until Channel 5 aired it in 1998.
21st century
Eric Morley died as the pageant entered the new century. His wife, Julia, succeeded as chairwoman of the Miss World Organization.
The century saw its first black African winner, Agbani Darego, in 2001. As part of its marketing strategy, Miss World came up with a "You Decide" television special during that edition, featuring the delegates behind the scenes and on the beach, and allowing viewers to either phone in or vote online for their favorites. It also sells its Talent, "Beach Beauty" and Sports events as television specials to broadcasters.
In 2002 the competition was slated for choosing Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria to host its final. 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 (see Controversies section).
Miss World Organization
The Miss World Organization owns and manages the annual Miss World Finals, a competition that has grown into one of the World’s biggest. Since its launch in 1951, the Miss World Organization has raised more than £250 million for children’s charities. Miss World is franchised in more than 140 countries. Miss World, Limited is a privately held firm, and thus figures for its earnings, expenses and charitable contributions are not publicly available.
Aside from raising millions of pounds for charities around the globe under the banner of its 'Beauty with a Purpose' program, Miss World is also credited with directly influencing a dramatic increase in tourism in Sanya, China, host of the Miss World finals from 2003-05.
The pageant
In the year preceding the global finals, each delegate must win her national title or a specially designated Miss World national preliminary. Miss World's national preliminaries are conducted by their license-holders, who hold the franchise to use the "Miss World" name in their country. The annual final is typically a month long event, with several preliminary galas, dinners, balls and activities, culminating in a globally telecast final show in which the field is narrowed to between 15-20 delegates.
Since 2003 Miss World pageant also features Fast Track events during the preliminary round. The winners of Fast Track events are automatically qualified to enter the final round. Fast Track events which have been used since 2003 are:- Beach Beauty (2003-present)
- Miss Talent (2003-present)
- Miss Sport (2003-present)
- Beauty With A Purpose (2005-present)
- Top Model (2004, 2007)
- Personality (2003)
- People's Choice (2003)
- Contestant's Choice (2004)
Titleholders
The following is a list of winners of the previous ten years. See List of Miss World titleholders for the full list of titleholders.
| Year |
Miss World |
Country |
Venue |
| 2007 |
Zhang Zilin |
China |
Crown of Beauty Theater, Sanya, People's Republic of China |
| 2006 |
Tatana Kucharova |
Czech Republic |
Warsaw Palace of Culture and Science, Warsaw, Poland |
| 2005 |
Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir |
Iceland |
Crown of Beauty Theatre, Sanya, China |
| 2004 |
María Julia "Maju" Mantilla García |
Peru |
Crown of Beauty Theatre, Sanya, China |
| 2003 |
Rosanna Davison |
Ireland |
Crown of Beauty Theatre, Sanya, China, Beijing, China, Shanghai, China, and Xi'an, China |
| 2002 |
Azra Akin |
Turkey |
Alexandra Palace, London, UK |
| 2001 |
Agbani Asenite Darego |
Nigeria |
Sun City Entertainment Centre, Sun City, South Africa |
| 2000 |
Priyanka Chopra |
India |
Millennium Dome, London, UK |
| 1999 |
Yukta Mookhey |
India |
Olympia Hall, London, UK |
| 1998 |
Linor Abargil |
Israel |
Lake Berjaya Mahe Resort, Port Glaud, Mahe, Seychelles |
Controversies surrounding the pageant
The Miss World pageant seems to have been the target of many controversies since its inception.
- In 1970, feminist protesters threw flour bombs during the live event at London's Royal Albert Hall, momentarily scaring the host, Bob Hope.
- The 1974 winner Helen Morgan resigned four days later after it was discovered she was a single mother.
- In 1976, several countries went on a boycott, because the pageant included both a Caucasian and African representative for South Africa. In yet another shut-out for the nation for its apartheid policy, South Africa competed for the last time in 1977, before it was welcomed back in 1991 as that policy disintegrated.
- 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 1996, wide-scale protests took place in Bangalore, India over the hosting of the beauty contest. The swimsuit shootings were moved to Seychelles, and heavy security was placed. Despite the chaos, the pageant's live telecast went on smoothly.
- Just days after her 1998 crowning, Israel's Linor Abargil revealed that she had been raped only two months before the pageant. One of the highlights of her year was seeing her accused rapist convicted.
- It was in 1998 Miss World Pageant when Miss Ghana unfortunately slipped in the middle of the stage, but was unharmed.
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 after being rescheduled to avoid taking place during Ramadan, with many prominent nations sending 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, would probably have chosen one of his wives from among the contestants had he been alive to see it, resulted in inter-religious riots that started on November 22 in which over 200 people were killed in the city of Kaduna, along with many houses of worship being burned by religious zealots. Because of these riots, the 2002 pageant was moved to London, following widely circulated reports that the representatives of Canada and Korea had withdrawn from the contest and returned to their respective countries out of safety concerns. 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.
Trivia
- Miss World remains the only major beauty pageant where a country successfully held the title for consecutive years: Sweden (1951-52), United Kingdom (1964-65), and India (1999-2000).
- Though unplaced in Miss World, contestants Georgina Rizk (Miss Universe 1971), Angela Visser (Miss Universe 1989), and Mpule Kwelagobe (Miss Universe 1999) were all Miss Universe title holders. Michelle McLean (Miss Universe 1992) from Namibia was a finalist at the 1991 Miss World pageant in Atlanta and went on to win the 1992 Miss Universe crown in Bangkok.
- The longest reign by any Miss World titleholder belongs to the first winner, Kiki Håkansson, which lasted for 475 days (almost 16 months, from July 29, 1951 to November 15, 1952). The shortest reign was that of Gabriella Brum, which lasted just 18 hours before she resigned in 1980. Officially, the shortest reign, from the time of her crowning until she passes the title to her successor, belongs to 2005 winner Unnur Birna of Iceland, who reigned for just 294 days (less than 10 months) by the time she crowned Taťána Kuchařová of the Czech Republic on September 30, 2006.
- Several Miss World alumnae have been cast as Bond girls or made appearances in the Bond movies:
- Dr. No - Michelle Mok (Hong Kong, 1958).
- Thunderball - Claudine Auger (France, first runner-up 1958).
- Diamonds Are Forever - Denise Perrier (France, Miss World 1953).
- The Spy Who Loved Me - Eva Rueber-Staier (Austria, Miss World 1969); she would go on to reprise her role in For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy).
- Octopussy - Mary Stavin (Sweden, Miss World 1977) and Carolyn Seaward (United Kingdom, first runner-up 1979).
- A View to a Kill - Lou-Anne Ronchi (Australia, second runner-up 1984) and Mary Stavin (Sweden, Miss World 1977).
- The Living Daylights - Ruddy Rodriguez (Venezuela, finalist 1985).
- Tomorrow Never Dies - Michelle Yeoh (Malaysia, 1983).
- Die Another Day - Halle Berry (USA, finalist 1986).
- Other notable contestants who made impacts in the show business on an international level are Lynda Carter (USA, semi-finalist, 1972) know as Wonder Woman and Maggie Cheung (Hong Kong, semi-finalist, 1983).
- Miss World 2004 had the whole world voting for the new Miss World. It was for the first time that a major international event had popular votes were considered for choosing the winner.
- Miss World chairperson Julia Morley scrapped the swimsuit competition from the finals from the year 1998. She said that beachwears must be worn on beaches only. However, she contradicted herself from the year 2004 because from that year all the contestants present themselves in bikinis on the stage during the finals.
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