Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Philippines' Pia Wurtzbach is Miss Universe

Congratulations to Pia Wurtzbach for winning the Miss Universe crown!

The Philippines can now finally celebrate a crown after many years of getting very close. Since 2010, our candidates have been making it to the top 10 (and in 4 of those 5 years, our candidate made it to the top five.) This Miss Universe title is the Philippines' first since 1973 and Pia Wurtzbach now joins Gloria Diaz and Margie Moran as Filipino Miss Universe winners.

Of course, this year's Miss Universe will be remembered for its massive controversy: host Steve Harvey incorrectly announced Colombia as the winner before correcting his mistake and announcing the Philippines as the winner. Watch a video of this very controversial moment here (and jump to around 2:40 of the video to see when the immense awkwardness starts). I can't help but feel sorry for everyone involved. Pia Wurtzbach didn't seem to know what to do, Miss Colombia must have been utterly devastated, last year's Miss Universe - who also happens to be Colombian - had the unenviable role of having to remove the crown from Miss Colombia and put it on Miss Philippines' head, and Steve Harvey, well, I don't know what I would do now if I was him.

Amidst all this insanity, I guess the big winner here is the Miss Universe pageant for becoming pretty relevant and for trending globally. (This has even led many conspiracy theorists to believe that it was all staged to gain international publicity). Of course, I would say that the Philippines is just as big a winner. We are now tied with Sweden at fourth with the most crowns. We are also the first Asian nation to win the title three times. Hopefully, Pia is able to perform her duties as Miss Universe very well and uses her crown as a platform to makes a significant positive difference in the world.) Congratulations, Pia!

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