Iris Mittenaere of France bagged the 65th Miss Universe crown over 85 other ladies of different nationalities at the Mall of Asia Arena yesterday.
Miss Haiti Raquel Pelissier was declared 1st runner up followed by Miss Colombia Andrea Tovar who was hailed as 2nd runner up.
The first cut of the competition featured the top 13. The pageant changed its format this year; it had 12 instead of 13 finalists, and counted online votes from the Miss Universe app and Twitter.
They are Kenya, Indonesia, USA, Mexico, Peru, Panama, Colombia, Philippines, Canada, Brazil, France, Haiti, and Thailand who got the highest on line vote.
Meanwhile, to the surprise of many, Miss Venezuela Mariam Habach failed to make the cut.
Habach was widely considered as one of the frontrunners in this year’s pageant who had received a lot of positive comments after her outstanding performance during the preliminary competition.
For the second cut, the top 9 finalists were USA, Thailand, France, Mexico, Kenya, Colombia, Canada, Haiti, and Philippines who was announced as part of the top 9 after the commercial break, drawing a deep breath of Filipino audiences.
Philippines, along with Thailand, France, Kenya, Colombia, and Haiti were declared the top 6.
The Philippine bet Maxine Medina was the first up in the competition’s critical question and answer. Medina was provided an interpreter to translate the question in Filipino, but she answered in English.
Two-time Miss Universe host Steve Harvey asked the Filipino beauty queen: “What is the most significant change you’ve seen in the world in the last 10 years?” To the cheers of the audience, Medina answered, “In the last 10 years of being here in the world, I saw all the people bringing in one event like this in Miss Universe. It’s something big to us that we are one. As one nation, we are all together. Thank you. Maraming salamat po.”
Medina, along with Thailand’s Chalita Suansane and Kenya’s Mary Esther did not make it to the last cut of the competition.
For the last round, the top three were asked “Name something over the course that you failed at and tell us what you learned.”
“I failed several times in my life… When you fail you have to be elevated and you have keep going. If tonight I will not be the winner I am still honored that I’m still one of the three finalists. For me this is a great opportunity,” Mittenaere answered.
23 year old Mittenaere was born North of France in a town called Lille. She has kept herself busy the last 5 years by pursuing her degree in Dental Surgery. Besides dental school, Mittenaere has always been fond of extreme sports, travelling the world and cooking new French dishes. Fresh, funny and caring is how she would best describe herself. She enjoys making others happy, especially when volunteering at Bienvenue-Tongasoa and Les Bonnes Fées. Mittenaere is honored to be representing France in the upcoming Miss Universe competition. If she takes home the crown, she hopes to advocate for dental and oral hygiene.
Confidently beautiful with a heart
During an interview succeeding the pageant, Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach expressed her confidence on the results of the pageant.
“I’m very much at ease passing on my crown because it will go to a very much deserving winner,” she said.
“I’ll still be working closely with Miss Universe, thankfully…” she added.
Wutzbach also confirmed that International Management Group , a New York-based talent management company just recently “absorbed” her in their team.
“I don’t really feel like it’s the end of my reign more like a beginning of a new chapter,” she said.
Meanwhile, Wurtzbach also gave a “practical advice” to the new Miss Universe to “back up your phone” as she was fond of taking photos during her reign as advised by the previous Miss Universe title holders but her niece formatted her phone, deleting her stored photos.
Fresh from her victory, Mittenaere said she has a lot of plans and she wants to do a lot of things.
“Because Pia showed that this sash is not only a sash. This is something to do everything, to help people, to understand people and I want to meet people all around the world,” she added.
The 65th Miss Universe will be staying most of the time in her New York apartment courtesy of Miss Universe Organization (MUO) during her reign. She will be sharing it with Miss USA and Miss Teen USA since the said pageants are also run by the said organization.
