Miss Universe 2008 Finals Night Review
Miss Universe 2008 is aptly opened by Miss Universe 2007 Riyo Mori by standing on the beach together with the delegates. By doing so, we are reminded that the contest is being held in the Asian soil and that the current Miss Universe is also Asian. I read somewhere that whenever Asians host the Miss Universe, the Asians make it big and I couldn’t help but to agree. The first ever Asian country to host the Miss Universe is the Philippines in 1974 and it was a big event. And then it was followed by Seoul, by Taipei, by Bangkok and in 1994 the Philippines hosted the event again and it was again a big event! And in recent memory we saw Bangkok hosting the 2005 edition and now its Vietnam’s turn. Miss Universe 2008 is the very first Miss Universe contest held in a communist country!
Mel B. a.k.a. Scary Spice first appeared onstage and she is a bit careful this time. In the rehearsals, she slipped but gained composure just enough to evade a total disaster. She began by looking for Jerry Springer – the most awaited master of the ceremonies. Jerry arrived riding in a scooter which is the most common mode of transportation in Vietnam. They are so numerous such that in cities like Ho Chi Minh and Nha Trang you must be in a constant look-out lest you will be run-over. They are like a swarm without respect to the traffic-flow and sometimes they take the sidewalks as well.
What Jerry did was a reminiscent of Billy Bush’s arriving in a tuk-tuk during the Miss Universe 2005 in Bangkok. Mel B. and Jerry Springer did a good job but I must say that Jerry seems to be not as funny as he used to be. I find Jerry rather dull in comparison to his Miss World stint.
Great backgrounds are used throughout the pageant. It started with an ancient temple and then the delegates are presented wearing their national costumes. I particularly don’t like the format of Parade of Nations nowadays where only their name, age and country are stated. It can be best remembered that in the 90s, the delegates would line-up onstage and say something more about their country like, the Land of Midnight Sun or the Pearl of the Orient.
After the Parade of Nations, the background is changed into the beautiful and scenic Halong Bay complete with traditional balloons. Riyo Mori’s life is presented after which she was called onstage together with the little kids carrying lotus lanterns. A few days back during the rehearsals, I saw these little kids with ID’s labeled as talent and I was thinking that they are putting back that Little Sisters during the evening gown segment. It turns out that these kids will just get a couple of minute’s exposure.
Riyo look fabulous in her gown and she is interviewed by both Jerry and Mel B. Riyo encouraged young people to be themselves pointing out that it is exactly what she did when she won last year. Riyo’s victory last year may have bred misgivings to some quarters but look here she is now showing to the world that she did what she is supposed to do.
The contestants are again called back onstage and came the most exciting part of the pageant. It’s the Top 15! I don’t really know about the thing of being first to be called but for me it is rather an anti-climax for Miss Venezuela Dayana Mendoza to be the first. I also read somewhere that being called first is somehow a jinx! Anyway, the Top 15 are: Venezuela, Kosovo, Mexico, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia, Japan, Dominican Republic, Italy, Colombia, Russia, Hungary, Czech Republic, USA and Spain.
Missosology.Org correctly predicted 8 out of 15 if we base on our Prediction List. The same figure can be said in our final Hot Picks! The point here is, despite the fact that the usual superpowers were thought to have performed well at the preliminaries, the outcome turned quite different from what was expected! We overlooked the exclusion of Miss Panama Carolina Dementiev and Miss India Simran Kaur Mundi which was an absolute shock no matter who you will ask. There are a lot of fans who were shocked to see Miss Puerto Rico Ingrid Rivera out of the contention too. But I guess – just as what we hinted a day after the preliminaries – Ingrid truly missed the cut. She herself had doubts about her performance.
Shocking to see are Miss Hungary Jazmin Dammak and Miss Japan Hiroko Mima. I can point 15 more ladies that are superior to them! Not 2 or 5 – fifteen! Miss Vietnam Thuy Lam is not really a surprise. But you see, we thought that the modern Miss Universe will not stoop so low so as to include a perfectly underclass delegate just because she is the host delegate. With Thuy Lam, I can point 40 more ladies that deserve to take over her place. Miss Italy Claudia Ferraris is a mild surprise. She did not deliver a powerful performance at the prelims but she is beautiful in her own way. One thing I noticed is that this year, it would be virtually impossible to take a photo of the entire top fifteen facing up front. That’s because the Top 15 were arranged in a U-shaped format.
The top fifteen are then later presented with their official Miss Universe photo with Fadil Berisha. Then, all the contestants were back onstage with Lady Gaga performing “Just Dance”.
Miss Venezuela Dayana Mendoza came out first and she looks fresh, has a towering figure and very confident. Miss Kosovo Zana Krasniqi is next with that supermodel look and moves. Miss Mexico Elisa Najera looks vivacious and has a great body. As I have said in my prelim review, Elisa will always prove that she was truly the winner of the swimsuit “mini-contest”. Miss Vietnam Thuy Lam looks confident but she is way out of the league. Miss South Africa Tansey Coetzee looks great but the problem lies on her sudden poses that came out as rather sharp. I do love her smile and she does have a great body. Miss Australia Laura Dundovic reminds us of Jennifer Hawkins – well, one of the judges sitting on the panel actually. Okay, Laura doesn’t have the walk of Jennifer but Laura is as beautiful and as curvaceous.
Miss Japan Hiroko Mima – What are you doing in there? Honestly, what are you doing in there? Miss Dominican Republic Marianne Cruz absolutely exceeded our expectations. When I interviewed her, I warned that she could pull a surprise and land in Top 15. And boy, she surprised us indeed. Miss Italy Claudia Ferraris’ beauty is beginning to show but her moves here are quite unpolished. Miss Colombia Taliana Vargas wow, I’m out of words. She looks seductive and fresh. I have big doubts about Miss Russia Vera Krasova. I am not really sure that she belongs to the Top 15 but she not that at all bad. Vera has been in our suspicions list for a long time. Miss Hungary Jazmin Dammak relatively looks flabby in the abdomen area. I hate to say this but Jazmin’s inclusion in the Top 15 is a mystery that we will never solve. Miss Czech Republic has one of the most beautiful faces here in the pageant but there is a great need for her to add spice in her moves. Miss USA Crystle Stewart rocks! She’s amazing and her moves clearly show she’s a professional. Miss Spain Claudia Moro has a great body and did perform well.
Scores during the finals night competition were shown to the public and one can see that some of the Top 15 semi-finalists received outrageously low scores. The scores however highlight the fact that many of the semi-finalists do not deserve to be in there at all. I have no questions for example if Miss Japan Hiroko Mima got a 7.1 score but Miss Australia Laura Dundovic’s 7.814 is quite unfair! In the 80’s and the 90’s a 7.9 score at the semi-finals was considered a rarity.
The Top Ten are called in the following order: Kosovo, Australia, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, USA, Dominican Republic, Russia, Italy and Venezuela. Notice that Venezuela is called last. I like the reaction of Miss Kosovo where she almost cried. I guess for a country struggling to gain recognition, reaching this far would be a very big boost to their cause. I am surprised by Miss Italy which I think the better replacement would be Miss South Africa.
The top ten are presented with their videos but I am not quite sure I like this segment. The advantage however is that the general audience will have a more personal info about the contestants.
To halve the remaining competing delegates, the gown competition followed. Miss Kosovo looks lovely in her pink gown. The design is quite revolutionary for me but it is okay. Miss Australia looks fiery in red. Her gown is one of the wardrobes presented to the Australian press prior her arrival in Vietnam and thank goodness she did not wear that “thousand-stockings-hanging” gown she used earlier. Miss Spain is okay. I had some praises on her gown in my fashion review but the way Claudia handled it, I simply want to retract my earlier opinion. Miss Mexico ditched her yellow gown during the prelims and opted for a gown with appliqué. I like her decision because the new gown spells “sexy”. Miss Colombia wows us again with more twirling of her gown. A lot of critics say that the gown’s design is basically inferior. But notice Taliana getting the highest score in this segment. I believe that the chemistry between Taliana and her wardrobe worked!
Miss USA Crystle Stewart hasn’t learned a lesson or two from her predecessor. In what is seen as a repeat of last year’s incident, Crystle slipped onstage just about the time she will take her initial strides. Blame it on her foot stepping over the hem of her gown but Crystle managed to recover (she actually clapped her hand) and basically she did well. Miss Dominican Republic gowns contain some controversial story but I am not so sure if there is any truth in the rumor that she changed her original gown without notifying the concerned persons. For me, I think it is a bad move for her considering that the new gown looked conservative with that long sleeve and I am not too sure how to react with the glass all over the fabric. Miss Russia’s gown reminds us of what Oxana Federova used in Miss Universe 2002 in which I have always doubts about its aesthetic value. Miss Italy is in one of the disastrous gown I’ve seen that night. She garnered the second lowest score in this segment even edging Miss Australia! I believe that Miss Australia’s gown is much better than Italy’s. Miss Venezuela decided to stick with the preliminaries gown. The yellow gown seems to be a lucky charm for her and I love the way she tried to twirl it just like what she did in the prelims.
After this segment, I realized that Miss Colombia is poised to win. She took the highest scores both in swimsuit and in gown competition!
Before the Top 5 is announced Miss El Salvador Rebecca Moreno is called to receive the Miss Congeniality award as voted by the contestants themselves. Miss Thailand Gavintra Photijak is also called to receive the Best in National Costume as voted by those who logged on at NBC.com. I noticed that the Thais these days are the most active in internet voting. It is of no coincidence that Gavintra also took the Missosology's People's Choice Award!
When the Top 5 is called, Taliana was first and although normally, it should be done in no particular order, the order basically aligned to the actual rankings. Venezuela is called next followed by Dominican Republic, Mexico and Russia.
With all honesty, I did not bother to follow the scores during the competition because I believe that it will all reset in the next round. I was at the press center with multiple TV screens with the Colombian press all excited, cheering and shouting for Taliana. No press was allowed in the house although a group of selected media outlets were allowed to snap some pictures.
The Top 5 question and answer portion is the one I hated the most but the one that excites me the most as well! I hate it because I want to revive that old “one question for all” scheme. The advantage of the old system is easy to spot. With a single question, there will be a better way to compare the contestants. Another thing is that bell thing that restricts the time for delegates. I am not so sure if they give some extras to those with interpreters.
The contestants will have to picks the name of the judge which in turn will ask the question of his or her choice. Each contestant will be given 30 seconds to answer.
Miss Colombia is first and I always think that being interviewed first is a disadvantage. She was asked by Miss Universe 2004 Jennifer Hawkins on what she would like to change in her past. Taliana hesitated at first and she answered that she wouldn’t change anything at all concluding that everything is perfect.
Miss Venezuela is asked by Louis Licari on whether men or women have it easier in life. Dayana pointed out that men always think that the faster way to go to a point is by going strait as opposed to women who think that going through curves and fixing every curve is the way to go. At that time, I forgot all the other delegates. I believe at that moment that no matter what will be the questions and answers of Miss Mexico and Miss Russia, it will be Dayana all the way. She is spontaneous, witty and her answers sum it all briefly and beautifully. It was a diplomatic and quotable answer.
Miss Dominican Republic is asked by Donald Trump Jr. about her biggest sacrifice that she have to make. Mariane talked about her parent’s divorce when she was young but I would like think that her time were unnecessarily used up on her greetings to Vietnam as well as – I suppose – by her interpreter.
Miss Mexico is asked rather teasingly by Roberto Cavalli with, “Madam, when is a woman truly satisfied?” Elisa answered that there should be a balance in her life – balance in her job, family and community.
Miss Russia picked Indian actress Eesha Kopickar who asked on whether discrimination against women still exists and what can be done about it. I think that Vera simply pointed out that women of today are stronger and smarter but failed to highlight the plight of women in some parts of the world who are still suffering today.
After the interview I have no doubt whatsoever that Miss Venezuela will be the winner with Miss Mexico posing a formidable threat. I would place Miss Colombia as second runner-up with Dominican Republic and Russia as third and fourth runners-up respectively. Interestingly, the Latinas used interpreters despite the fact that they all speak and understand English perfectly. Venezuela, Colombia and Mexico answered in English but the interpreter interpreted the question for their benefit. Dominican Republic answered in Spanish although she does speak good English. Miss Russia I think is the only one who genuinely needs an interpreter.
Riyo Mori, Miss Universe 2007, made an emotional final walk and made history by wearing a tuxedo instead of a gown. I asked her later in a press con about her choice of clothes and she answered in a-matter-of-factly way. (Check it out later in our buzz section) Riyo had been a great Miss Universe in my own opinion.
The results is not what I expected although we are right even days ago that Venezuela will triumph and Colombia will settle of the second place. I took pity on Mexico for landing as fourth runner-up. I think she deserves the first runner-up position. Colombia was the leader ever since and I hate to see her not performing well at the final question. After the press con with the new Miss Universe, I saw two reporters from Colombia in a sullen mood and asked them what they felt. They told me it was the fourth time that Colombia narrowly missed the crown. I can share their grief although they told me that Venezuela’s victory is not bad at all. They are neighbors and well, their flags look identical at the first glance!
Taliana is no doubt a formidable delegate but landing on the first runner-up is something she should thank the judges. If I am to judge, she wouldn’t be up there. She messed on her Q&A for hesitating and she lacks confidence that Dayana has.
Anyway, here she is ladies and gentlemen – Miss Universe 2008 Dayana Mendoza.
Discuss this Finals Night Review on the world's most popular beauty pageant forum!
Copyright � 2008. Missosology.org. All Rights
Reserved.
Contact the webmaster:
contactus@missosology.org
