Miss France, Iris Mittenaere won the Miss Universe Crown on Sunday night in the Philippines, with Miss Haiti, Raquel Pelissier, as first runner-up and Miss Colombia, Andrea Tovar, as second runner-up.
Since there is no report of a mistake being made, it is safe to assume that returning host Steve Harvey announced the right winner.
One thing that never changes, though, is that the most interesting part of the Miss Universe pageant is the two-fold question round. The final round consists of only one question, which is asked to the top three finalists, while the first round is for the top six finishers, and would usually consist of socially relevant questions for each contestant.
Mittenaere, whose nation has suffered a series of terrorist attacks in the past few years, was asked whether countries should be obligated to accept refugees.
Her answer leaned towards neutrality, and she thought it should be left for each nation to decide for themselves.
“Countries should have the right to open or close their borders…” she answered through a translator. “In Europe, we have open borders. In France, we want to have the most globalization that we can. We want to have the biggest exchange of people that we can. Maybe someday that will change in the future, but now we have open borders.”
But, in the end, she did extol the advantage of the free movement of people. “Having open borders allows us to travel more through the world and find out more of what’s out there in the world.” she said.
Meanwhile, Miss Haiti was asked about the Women’s March and what she as an individual would have had marched for. She started things off by saying that she admired former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, and then she said that human beings need to respect each other because, after all, there used to be six species of humans, and now there is only one.
Miss Kenya, who made it to the top six, was asked the cringe-worthy question of what excites her and concerns her about the election of former Miss Universe owner, Donald Trump, as the President of the United States. “Donald Trump having been elected may not have been the choice of many people living in the United States,” she said, and then she made the controversial remark that Trump had united the nation!
The show itself went smoothly, but I’m not sure if that is a plus since last year’s gaffe broke headlines. But it seems to be on the organizer’s minds because Harvey kept alluding to that time he mistakenly announced Miss Colombia, Ariadna Gutierrez, as the Miss Universe winner instead of Miss Philippines, Pia Wurtzbach.
He even ended the show by poking fun at himself and saying, “I’m Steve Harvey, and I got it right!”
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