Evelyn Abena Appiah was crowned Miss Grand International 2020 at the coronation night held on 27th March 2021 in Thailand as she stunned everyone with her remarkable beauty and outstanding performance. The beautiful diva won many hearts with her amazing smile and her heart-to-heart connection with the audience and judges at the competition. She is not just a beautiful diva but also a poised queen, who knows how to conquer hearts. She succeeds Miss Grand International 2019 Valentina Figuera of Venezuela.
Abena gave a stellar performance throughout the competition. She is 27 years of age and stands 178 cm tall. Abena is not new to the pageantry world as she has previously represented Ghana at Miss Earth 2019 where she was placed at the Top 20 and was also the part of Miss Universe 2014. The diva won Miss Talent Ghana in 2012 and Top Model Ghana 2013 after which she represented Ghana in the Top Model of The World pageant held in Egypt.
Abena holds a degree in Bachelor of Science and Communication. She loves to be on-stage as she feels that she is confident and empowered when she is on-stage. She describes herself as an entertainer who loves to be entertained as well. She stepped into the world of beauty pageants and modelling at the age of 3 and discovered her love of music at the age of 9. She has been signing, acting, writing, and performing her own music since a long time now. She has released five singles and released her first album in 2015.
While in her quarantine period before the event, encouraging women to “continue to be strong, continue to be yourself and take up space as you are”, Abena took to her social media to share a hard-hitting message related to the beauty standards and bullying and shared a video with her self- composed song, “No More Hate”.
Abena uses the worldwide stage as an opportunity to bring awareness to social justice issues and did just the same through a custom dress that she wore at the National Costume competition. The gown was inspired by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ campaign. She shared through her social media, “For years people of color have fought hard for Equality and it hurts my heart to say that we are still living in a world without that basic human right. A right that ensures we all have the same opportunity to make the best out of our lives. It's about time we teach and show love to all races so there is no more space for discrimination and hate.” The gown featured portraits of victims of police brutality such as Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Akai Garley.
Abena is a strong, confident, and a dedicated woman who made her country and her people proud and believes, "Strive hard to achieve your goals no matter the circumstances.” The diva who also belongs to Ghana wants to work and use her platform to raise awareness about opportunities for the young girls in her country and believes that she has the skills and abilities to do so. She strongly feels that her placement can be an example for the girls in Ghana and United States to prove that if you work hard, everything is possible in the world.
Abena’s confidence and experience in competing internationally was clear during the Miss Grand International 2020 finals night. Part of her speech and Q&A responses were in Thai, which likely gave her plus points with the local crowd. This gorgeous diva bested 63 other contestants and became the reigning queen of Miss Grand International 2020.
As the reigning queen of Miss Grand International 2020, Abena addressed her feelings through a post saying, “I stand here today as your Miss Grand International. I accomplished the unthinkable for all the girls that look like me; I want you to know your hair is beautiful, your skin is flawless, and that you should wear all of it with pride and grace. We are enough; we are beautiful, we do not have to fit any beauty standards because we set our own. The first BLACK MGI Queen, the first to bring the golden crown home to the USA, and finally, a dream as a young three-year-old is now a reality.”
In hope of change she wants to see in the world, Abena mentioned, “Why must we hurt one another, we were all created as one. It takes courage to be different, to be first, to stand in the light instead of darkness. We have watched many people cry out for help before our eyes, fighting, marching, and protesting. This is the time to break the silence and raise our voice for change. We must be the change in the world we want to see by simply working together.”
The beauty queen is now enjoying and also with that took her advocacies to move forward in the movement and to work for the betterment. She also recently started with her media tours along with her runner-up queens. Abena is currently in the process of building a YouTube, "geared towards uplifting young women of color and giving them the tools she gained during her journey through the pageantry world."