Miss World 2001: The Triumph Of The Bayamon Alumni; The Best Miss World Pageant Ever!

In the tradition of this year’s Miss People’s Republic of China, Bing Li, I’d like to make the following apologies:

First, to Henrique, Ed, and Marcio of Global Beauties: Sorry for failing to post my annual “homestretch” review for this pageant. Work commitments, physical exhaustion, and illness have prevented me from coming up with my review, even though I took the time to view the “You Decide” show.

Second, to all those expecting my choices for the Top 10 for this pageant: I am sorry for not being able to provide the list for the reasons mentioned above, plus the fact that my home computer has been acting up and breaking down – so I cannot connect to the net to post my Top 10 the eve before the pageant. Anyway, better late than never, these were my choices for the Top 10 based on my impressions of their photos, buzz, and the “You Decide” show: Aruba, Ukraine, Chile, South Africa, Venezuela, United States, China, Tanzania, Thailand, and Nigeria.

Yugoslavia was in my “shortlist” along with Bolivia, Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Nicaragua, Switzerland, India, Lebanon, and Spain. Russia and Scotland were in my list of possibilities along with so many others. Six out of 10 of my Top 10 list made it, plus two of my shortlist and the other two were included in my possibilities list.

My predictions this year were a major improvement from last year (see the Global Beauties coverage of last year’s Miss World to check my predictions), where only two of my Top Ten list made it (India and Turkey, by the way), plus only one in my shortlist (United States), and the rest except for Ukraine (who I failed to list even though I had a good regard for her) were in my possibilities list. I think seeing the “You Decide” show helped me get a better batting average this time and helped me weed out the hype.

I hope all of you will accept my apologies.

Now, let’s proceed to the review of this year’s Miss World 2001.

This is the first year of the Miss World wherein Julia Morley was completely at the helm, and she wasted no time developing some new innovations, namely:

1. Part of the criteria for selecting the Top 10 will be based on telephone votes by the general public around the world.
2. There will be a pre-pageant show shown to audiences around the world called “You Decide”;
3. There will be a running tally of the leaders known as a “leaderboard” during the broadcast of the pageant coronation night.
4. There are new special awards like a “Miss Talent” and a scholarship award.

I was expecting there will be a “Top Model” award, but apparently that didn’t push through. Anyway, these innovations provided much needed excitement to the proceedings. On a minor note, Julia likewise put her own spin on the announcement of the winners, varying a bit her late husband’s famous lines (repeat after me): “As is customary I shall announce the results in reverse order.” This lady is now definitely in complete command of the pageant.

It was a wise move for Miss World to be held at Sun City again. Sun City provided a venue that combined glamour with hip modernity, and the vast stage reflected that. It looked like a pageant held in this millennium, instead of the early 1970s vibe that permeated last year’s pageant. Another wise move was to allow Jerry Springer to host again, along with a former Miss World 1st runner-up – Claire Smith, who represented the United Kingdom in 1992 – to act as backstage commentator.

Jerry Springer fortunately toned down his famously off-color jokes for the occasion, and it worked to this pageant’s benefit. Claire Smith proved to be extremely competent as a backstage commentator; she’s very considerate to the girls, even with the time restraint – take that, Rebecca de Alba! I wouldn’t mind seeing Jerry and Claire do this gig for five to ten more years – maybe even beyond. The new male voiceover was likewise topnotch, though unlike the very cheeky British accents of the previous two voiceovers, this one has a standard American accent – he reminds me of those voiceovers we hear in 1940s and 1950s newsreels, with the same amount of observational humor as his British counterparts (“Queen of Karate” for Miss Yugoslavia, for instance).

Originally, the entertainment was to be provided by international-caliber recording artists like what they have done in the past three editions. This year, it was supposed to be Diana Ross doing an opening number (I bet she would have done “I’m Coming Out” – they usually put “veteran” artists as an opening act; Errol Brown of Hot Chocolate in 1998, Robert Palmer in 1999 and Bryan Ferry in 2000) and Abba-esque British pop quintet Steps performing somewhere in between.

I think the events of September 11 prevented the slated entertainers from going, so they relied on local talent instead. Fortunately, the use of (presumably less expensive) local talent turned out to be a stroke of genius, as the audience around the world was treated to a showcase of South African cultural pride, what with the stunning “Umoja” opening number, and the Mary J. Blige-esque vocal stylings of Lebo Makossa (the bleach-blonde black girl), who likewise danced up a storm in the two numbers she performed. I especially dug the “Try A Little Tenderness” number, where Lebo duetted with Loiso and it climaxed with a gospel choir. If there was any quibble in the entertainment, it’s basically about Lebo’s first number – I think the leather get-up doesn’t seem to match with the Latin stylings of her number. Lebo redeemed herself in the “Try A Little Tenderness” number with her red dress.

All in all, the entire Miss World presentation was near flawless and top-notch. But of course, there will always be quibbles, and here are mine – and let me note, these are really very, very minor and I’m sure easy-to-do for the next edition.

1. For the “Leaderboard”, I think the first batch was at a disadvantage, as we all see the near “cellar-dwellers” in that batch – so surprising to see Mz. Australia, Brazil and Croatia near the bottom of the Top 10, beaten by Mz. Argentina, American Virgin Islands and Angola. Miss Argentina was overrated, in my opinion, while Angola and American Virgin Islands were pleasant surprises. I think viewers from the other batches would also like to know how their countries fared even if they belong to the later batches. And I think it can demoralize some delegates when the leaders are announced in front of them like that. Here’s my suggestion: how about simply announcing the Top 5 of each batch of delegates (preferably without the delegates’ hearing the results) and do without the progressive Top 10 “Leaderboard”. This can still create added suspense during the announcement of the Top 10.

2. Corollary to the “Leaderboard” issue, although Jerry Springer claims that the order was random, the semifinalist announcement was actually based on rank, with Miss Nigeria in 1st place (ergo, called 1st) and Miss South Africa in 10th place (ergo, called 10th). I think we need to preserve the randomness of the announcement, so mix up the order of the Top 10 next time. Fortunately, though, there was still a major shakeup in the standings with the semifinal interview playing a major part, so this gaffe was forgivable.

3. I wish the Miss World Organization should have the foresight to even the timing and the number of questions asked to each semi-finalist. They should have standardized the format that Jerry will ask two questions to each semifinalist, with or without translators on hand. As it was, Jerry took his sweet time with the first half, then rushed through his questions with the second half.

The selection of the Top 10 was an exemplary bunch – not satisfactory, like last year, but truly exemplary. It’s surprising to see the early bettors’ favorites like Mz. USA, India, Venezuela, Chile and Brazil fail to make the cut, and I don’t think they’re mediocre delegates at all. Those who made the cut truly deserved to be there, and I have no questions at all with their selection (well, maybe one – I think the articulate Miss Thailand would have been a better choice than Miss People’s Republic of China, but the latter was stunning nevertheless and a worthy Top 10-er).