The Barcelona model Mireia Lalaguna was crowned Miss World, a title that no Spanish had achieved before, in the 65th edition of this beauty contest, held in the tropical city of Sanya.
Mireia, then a 22-year-old pharmacy student, beat the representatives of Russia (Sofia Nikitchuk) and Indonesia (Maria Harfanti), who got the second and third place, to become Miss World 2015.
It was the first time that a Spaniard won the Miss World pageant, of British origin and the oldest of the great beauty contests of the planet, although another had obtained the title of Miss Universe in 1974.
Tall and blonde, Mireia, with her hair pulled back to one side and dressed in a spectacular blue dress that showed her full back, sat on the queen's throne while the winner of the 2014 edition, the South African Rolene Strauss, placed the blue diamond crown on her head.
Mireia also confessed on a chat show, that she had said a harmless little lie in her selection for Miss World. "It’s out little secret, I cheated a bit – but hey I already have the crown", she joked on the show.
At Miss World the different talents of the misses are also valued, so to earn points of the jury she decided to send a video in which she is seen playing the piano, although she was really just making the gesture of playing the keys and edited the video adding the music later.
Once it was selected, the people in charge of the contest invited the miss to play live, the music that appeared in the clip, in front of the public in a university of China, but the young lady was lucky that the event was canceled and her lie it was not discovered.
(Photo Credits - Mireia Lalaguna Instagram official)
The young Catalan also confessed that when the jury asked her to dance a double step, a Spanish regional dance, she invented it completely and was unable to repeat it the next day.
Mireia was already a famous Spanish model, and thus did not need an introduction into the world of ramp walks, and fashion shows. She, however, paid attention to her charities and always maintained them as a priority.
She was seen playing Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal & Real Madrid football superstar), at a game of Poker, by PokerStars. According to the rules, each participant had to pay $ 5,000 as registration, which a very profitable investment, taking into account the advertising return it means for them. The $ 5,000 registration fee went into the donation to the charity of their choice. “Right to Play & Save the Children” was one of the charity organisations included in the list.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/KP8Zey3kX6g
Mireia was familiar with the cost of being a celebrity and was unaffected by the commotion over her alleged affair with Neymar. The beauty gracefully told a media outlet that the Barca star Neymar was just a friend, and nothing more. She did not indulge in the unnecessary gossip, and soon it died down.
In the end, Mireia might not have been the perfect, by-the-book Miss World, but, she sure had a journey of a lifetime.