Miss Universe 2012 Review: Gabon - Haiti

The 61st Miss Universe Pageant will be held on December 19 at PH Live, Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino. This has not been the best year for the Miss Universe Organization as they were scrambling for the greatest part of the year to find a host for the pageant and in the end it resulted in Vegas again and the pageant being held right at the very end of year for the first time. As a result, Angola's Leila Lopes has become the longest reigning titleholder in the history of the pageant. She will crown Miss Universe 2012 at the conclusion of the event that will be shown live on NBC and Telemundo Wednesday night. The Miss Universe Organization has made the most of this year's pageant despite all the setbacks and embraced the time of the year with a holiday themed show. The great group of delegates also made up for the very long wait. A note to the Miss Universe Organization: PLEASE LOWER THE HOSTING FEE!!! You will find a host if you don't charge a fortune. We want to see the pageant in new exotic locations.
Now on to the stars of the show:

KEY:

POSSIBLE WINNER - ******
POSSIBLE TOP 5 FINALIST - *****
POSSIBLE TOP 10 SEMI-FINALIST - ****
POSSIBLE TOP 16 QUARTER FINALIST - ***
UNLIKELY TO PLACE - **
HIGHLY UNLIKELY TO PLACE - *

GABON: CHANNA DIVOURI **

Channa was one of my favorites at Miss International where she failed to place. She has improved a lot in just a short period of time and I thought she did really well. She did walk a little bit too fast. This is the first time her country is represented at Miss Universe and she represented Gabon very well.

GEORGIA: TAMAR SHEDANIA ***

Tamar’s beauty is not exactly my cup of tea. I was a bit disappointed when I saw her candids because the photos I saw before the pageant were better. But she is THE best representative her country has ever sent. She is fierce and sexy and she worked the stage during preliminaries. I think she has a very good shot at being the first delegate from her country to place at Miss Universe.

GERMANY: ALICIA ENDEMANN **

I was really excited when I saw Alicia’s Fadils and thought she could give her a country a long overdue placement. She is very striking, elegant, and a breath of fresh air but her lack of pageant experience showed during the preliminaries. She was quite good in swimsuit but her gown and hairstyle in the evening gown round were both quite disappointed. She is, however, the best German delegate Kim Kotter has sent.

GHANA: GIFTY OFORI **

I have seen better girls from Ghana not placing, so I’ll be a bit surprised if Gifty places. She was good on stage but for me she is definitely middle of the pack.

GREAT BRITAIN: HOLLY HALE *

I am always hoping that Great Britain will find a stunner and send her to Miss Universe. Clair Cooper was a glimmer of hope but since then they have failed to deliver. This year is no exception. Holly looks like an amazing young lady but she is just not competitive enough.

GREECE: VASILIKI TSIROGIANNI **

When Vasiliki was crowned in Greece, many people felt that she was the type of beauty Miss Universe would go crazy about. I don’t feel that she competed particularly strongly. She did fine but she was a bit of a disappointment for me. I’ll give it to her that she’s got a great catwalk but her features appeared a tad harsh and that was distracting.

GUAM: ALYSSA CRUZ AGUERO *

Guam tends to send all their best delegates to Miss International where they are wasted anyway. This year the better delegate went to Miss International again and they crowned Alyssa. She is tall but that’s about it. She had a bad walk and just got lost in the crowd but I liked her gown though.

GUATEMALA: LAURA GODOY ***

Laura performed really well during the preliminaries and could be a surprise. She did not blow me away but I am now starting to take notice of her. A placement is a bit of a long shot but it’s definitely possible.

GUYANA: RUQAYYAH BOYER ***

When she was crowned in her country, I completely wrote her off but I’ll now happily admit I was wrong. She is MUCH better than I thought. She is not the most beautiful or the most polished of the group but she definitely has some sort of appeal that demands attention. It’s too bad that she fell during her evening gown presentation but she handled it very well. She has a great body and could be a MUO pick.

HAITI: CHRISTELA JACQUES *

When Christela was announced at Miss Universe Haiti, many people believed she could be the best performing black girl but she was quite a big disappointment for me. It became very apparent that she was not trained properly and she struggled with styling issues that made her features appear quite harsh. She will most likely miss the cut.

Photos: www.missuniverse.com