The new Miss Universe has been crowned!
The 65th Miss Universe coronation just concluded today January 30, 2017, at Mall of Asia Arena, Manila, Philippines. The event was aired live from the Philippines the evening of January 29 (ET/PT) on FOX. 24-year-old Miss France, Iris Mittenaere, is the newly-sashed and crowned Miss Universe.
86 candidates representing their countries competed for the crown, with Miss Universe 2015 Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach crowning her successor this Monday morning in her home country. The three-hour programming event was hosted by Steve Harvey, with Model, designer, and body activist Ashley Graham as Backstage Host. The coronation event also featured a seranade by four-time Grammy Award-winning R&B group Boyz II Men during the Final Look of the top 3 candidates; Grammy Award Nominee songwriter-rapper Flo Rida opened the festivities.
For the 65th edition, the judges include former beauty queens Dayanara Torres (Miss Universe from Puerto Rico), Sushmita Sen (first Miss Universe from India), and Leila Lopes (first Miss Universe from Angola); Mickey Boardman (Editorial Director of fashion and pop-culture magazine, PAPER), Cynthia Bailey (former model and founder of The Bailey Agency School of Fashion), and Francine LeFrak (Emmy and Tony award-winning producer, social entrepreneur, women’s empowerment activist).
The crucial part of the Miss Universe competition is preliminaries, held last week. The Preliminary Competition was where the semi-finalists (top 12) are chosen through the swimsuit and evening gown competitions. After the prelims last Thursday, the candidates also paraded in their national costumes.
This edition of Miss Universe also saw new competition rules. For the first time ever, the semi-finalists are grouped into a Top 13, 9, 6, and 3. Fans were also able to help their favorite contestant win to help her earn a spot in the top 12 by voting up to 10 times per day per registered account on the website (vote.missuniverse.com), the official MISS U APP, on Twitter by using #MissUniverse and the country specific hashtag found on the voting site, or by downloading the Vodi messaging app. Additionally, fans had the opportunity to continue voting during the live telecast.
The coronation event kicked off with the 13 semi-finalists (originally 12, with one additional candidate from the online votes), which then narrowed down to Top 9 for the swimsuit portion. It came down to Top 6 (evening gown), with the candidates participating in a Q&A round. Another Q&A round happened with the top 3, with the three candidates answering the same question. After the Final Look, the new Miss Universe was crowned.
RESULTS:
Miss Universe 2017 Winner:
- Miss France, Iris Mittenaere
1st Runner-up:
- Miss Haiti, Raquel Pelissier
2nd Runner-up:
- Miss Colombia, Andrea Tovar
Top 3:
Question: "Name something over the course of your life that you failed at, and tell us what you learned from that experience."
- Miss Colombia
- Miss France
- Miss Haiti
Top 6:
- Miss France: Iris Mittenaere, 24
- Miss Kenya: Mary Esther Were, 27
- Miss Colombia: Andrea Tovar, 23
- Miss Philippines: Maxine Medina, 26
- Miss Thailand: Chalita Suasane, 22
- Miss Haiti: Raquel Pelissier, 25
Top 9:
- Miss USA: Deshauna Barber, 27
- Miss Thailand: Chalita Suasane, 22
- Miss France: Iris Mittenaere, 24
- Miss Mexico: Kristal Silva, 25
- Miss Kenya: Mary Esther Were, 27
- Miss Colombia: Andrea Tovar, 23
- Miss Canada: Siera Bearchell, 23
- Miss Haiti: Raquel Pelissier, 25
- Miss Philippines: Maxine Medina, 26
65th Miss Universe Top 13:
- Miss Kenya: Mary Esther Were, 27
- Miss Indonesia: Kezia Warouw, 25
- Miss USA: Deshauna Barber, 27
- Miss Mexico: Kristal Silva, 25
- Miss Peru: Valeria Piazza, 27
- Miss Panama: Keity Drennan, 26
- Miss Colombia: Andrea Tovar, 23
- Miss Philippines: Maxine Medina, 26
- Miss Canada: Siera Bearchell, 23
- Miss Brazil: Raissa Santana, 21
- Miss France: Iris Mittenaere, 24
- Miss Haiti: Raquel Pelissier, 25
- Miss Thailand: Chalita Suasane, 22 (Top online vote)
Special Award:
- Best National Costume – Miss Myanmar: Htet Htet Htun, 24