The Philippines’ Catriona Gray was named Miss Universe 2018 in a competition held in Bangkok on Monday, besting contestants from 93 other countries and delighting her home nation.
The 24-year-old singer and model attended Boston’s Berklee College of Music. When she was 13, her mother had a dream that she’d win the contest.
Gray wore a sparkling red dress that she said was inspired by a volcano in the Philippines as she was handed the crown to the delight of a roaring crowd in the Thai capital that generally favored Southeast Asian contestants.
In the Philippines, pageants are a popular attraction, and Gray’s countrymen watching the televised contest cheered wildly and jumped for joy when she was declared the winner.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sb0H9vCQ8A4
This year’s Miss Universe competition included the first-ever transgender contestant, Angela Ponce of Spain. She said in a video presentation that it was not important for her to win, but was more important for her “to be here.”
One of the few controversies of this year’s contest involved Miss United States, Sarah Rose Summers, who appeared to mock contestants from Cambodia and Vietnam over their English language skills. Summers apologized.
The finale was again hosted by Steve Harvey, who infamously announced the wrong winner in the 2015 contest. Harvey joked briefly about the incident in exchanges with contestants, saying, “You all can’t let that go” and “I’m still here.”
The theme of this year’s pageant was “Empowered Women” and was judged by seven women, including former pageant winners, businesswomen and a fashion designer.
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