The 70th edition of Miss World pageant, Miss World 2021, is set to be held on 16th December 2021 at the José Miguel Agrelot Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico where Toni-Ann Singh of Jamaica will crown her successor at the end of the event finale. There was no pageant held in 2020 due to the rampant spread of Covid-19 across the world.
While almost all the delegates have finally arrived in the host country and have begun with the registration process for the competition, the Miss World organization has officially drawn groups for the Head to Head challenge of the 70th edition of the pageant.
The organization has recently begun with the group interviews for the challenge and the first interview that has been uploaded by the organization is of Group 5 including Angola, Bolivia, Ukraine, Japan, Sweden and Venezuela.
The round was hosted by Vanessa Ponce de Leon Miss World 2018 and Jack Heslewood Miss World 2019. The stunning hosts introduced the challenge as they introduced the contestants, shared their presentation videos and asked questions and finally the contestants were asked questions at the end of the round.
Starting with Angola, Ruth Carlos talked about her country, language, culture and people. “I want to say that in life you have to fight. Fight even when everything looks impossible because a battle that wasn’t won for sure is one that hasn’t been fought yet. So this is my message, don’t give up because God is with you,” she shared. She also added that as Miss World Angola I have always wanted to work in social activities and being the national titleholder will give her greater visibility and platform.
Next up, Alondra Mercado of Bolivia opened about her loving family and being a woman of great conviction. She shared, “I am a human being who feels empathy for others. I love animals and am a part of the Loro Parque foundation, which preserves the fauna species in Bolivian Amazon.” The diva also works with many teenage mothers who struggle to move forward in life and need to be supported.
Ukraine’s Oleksandra Yaremchuk was next in line as she talked about the changes and development of her country. She shared that the national title is a responsibility followed by the spirit of leadership. “This is an opportunity to have certain influence on the events not only in your homeland but all over the world,” she added.
Moving on to Japan, Tamaki Hoshi shared about her life and her accomplishments. She also shared, “I am so excited to communicate the beauty of Japanese caring culture to my Miss World family from all over the world.” Following next was Sweden’s Gabriella Mann. The Swedish diva shared about her organization, ‘Fly with broken wings’, a health community for young people out there who have not been okay lately because of maybe bullying in school or difficulties at home but still are showing up every day because they refuse to quit on their dreams and goals in life.
For the last introduction video, Venezuela’s Alejandra Conde navigated along the land of happiness and where beauty blooms in adversity. She went on to share, “My faith taught me no matter where you come from, working for others will always bring peace. My mother has taught me that being a woman means doing things with intelligence, passion and from the heart. This has inspired me to teach others that we can all drive smiles with positive actions.”
Towards the end of the round, the six divas were all randomly questioned by the hosts. Going up first, Angola’s Ruth Carlos was asked, “How would you address a climate change conference?” Carlos answered, “In the first place it is important to that we know climate preservation is important from each and every country, if people from every country, every province, every city, choose not to leave rubbish on the beaches, streets, so that we will have a healthy climate. It is important we know the importance of climate, it is important to preserve climate. If each person in home does recycling, and picks up trash in the streets and in the seas, the climate and the animals will be properly looked after.”
Up next Bolivia was asked, “What do you think the world needs to hear right now?” Alondra confidently answered, “After living and gone through a global pandemic, which left scars on many hearts, on many families, I would tell them to value their family now more than ever. Because you never know if it’s the last day you will see your loved ones. We have learned to be more empathetic and caring with everyone who needs it. I think the world needs to give more love to others, because if there is love, everything would be perfect.”
Next question was directed to Ukraine as she was asked, “Have you learned more from your successes or your failures?” Oleksandra beautifully answered, “I believe that a great victory consists of small steps on the way to the main goal. So through defeat, it is possible to reach your goal, because it is a great motivation for yourself to persevere and win.”
Now for Japan, the hosts asked her how she would use her social media to make an impact. Tamaki interestingly shared, “I don’t refer to myself as an influencer, I think that I am you’re typical average Japanese girl and that is the image that I try to convey to my followers. My projects include going to revitalization projects, talking about education and sustainability, but all those messages and hard things can be conveyed to my audience if I’m this far away influencer figure.”
Next up, Sweden was asked what qualities she would look for being a judge at Miss World, to which Gabriella answered, “If I was a judge for Miss World, I would ofcourse look who’s here for the right reason. I can tell after being here that every girl here is so beautiful with a good heart, but when it comes to Miss World, the most important thing is your reason and purpose to be here and how you want to change the situation, how you want to work for our future together.“
Last but not the least, Venezuela’s Alejandra Conde was asked, “If you could change something about the world, what would it be and why?” Conde answered, “I feel there are many things that need to change in the world but without a doubt, there is something that could encompass many things and it would be stop having limitations between each other, to understand that we all are one, that there is no culture, no color, there is no race. There is no situation that separates us. I feel that the pandemic, what we experienced, that was a difficult situation for each of us, was also a great lesson despite the fact that is was somewhat difficult because it taught us to be together. I feel that each one of these things that we live through, makes us recover, to understand that we are one world that we have to work together.”
The divas from all over the world will move forward in the 15 groups drawn by the organization, where each group will have a winner and then two by two winners will compete with one another until one ultimate winner is determined through voting on the Miss World website, who will then get an automatic spot in the top for the final night. In this challenge, each of the ladies will be given the chance to speak about their passions and Beauty with a Purpose projects.