Earl D.C. Bracamonte - Philstar.com
Among the ladies predicted to enter the Miss Universe 2022 Top 20 are (from left) Ashley Cariño (Puerto Rico), Celeste Cortesi (Philippines) and María Fernanda Aristizabal (Colombia). The Miss Universe 2022 coronation night will be held on January 14 (January 15 Manila time) in New Orleans, Louisiana.
MANILA, Philippines — On January 14 (January 15, Manila time), the 71st Miss Universe titleholder will be proclaimed through a live telecast from the Ernest N. Moral Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The new winner, a "transformational woman," will wear Mouawad's new Force for Good crown.
With the Miss Universe Organization (MUO) under a new ownership, the new queen's reign includes the unveiling of the soon-to-be launched Miss Universe bottled water (priced at 12 baht) in Thailand. This only means that she will not only be a champion from the pageant, but also an influential face for the new MUO's universal campaigns.
So, it's quite difficult to determine in which mold the new winner should come from. Will she have the presence of the titleholders from the Catalina swimwear years? Will she be like those from the Trump era? Or will she be more like the queens from the IMG era? The answer remains to be seen.
Even with those considerations, frontrunners and dark horses have their sights on winning the elusive crown. The USA is working on its ninth, Venezuela on its eighth, Puerto Rico on its sixth, and the Philippines on its fifth.
At this point, it's still everybody's game. Join us in a little guessing game by whittling down the 84 entrants — yes, Miss Kazakhstan Diana Tashimbetova has pulled out of the race — to the semifinal round of lucky Top 20 placers.
Here are the countries we strongly feel have a chance to make it to the semifinal round. We present them in alphabetical order. They are:
- Monique Riley (Australia)
- Mia Mamede (Brazil)
- Maria Fernanda Aristizabal (Colombia)
- Floriane Bascou (France)
- Ivana Batchelor (Guatemala)
- Divita Rai (India)
- Virginia Stablum (Italy)
- Laksmi De-Neefe Suardana (Indonesia)
- Hannah Iribhogbe (Nigeria)
- Alessia Rovegno (Peru)
- Celeste Rabimbi Cortesi (Philippines)
- Telma Madeira (Portugal)
- Ashley Cariño (Puerto Rico)
- Ndavi Nokeri (South Africa)
- Alicia Faubel (Spain)
- Anna Sueangam-iam (Thailand)
- Viktoria Apanasenko (Ukraine)
- R'bonney Gabriel (USA)
- Amanda Dudamel (Venezuela)
- Nguyen Thi Ngoc Chau (Vietnam)
There's one other candidate we hope would get well from her COVID-19 confinement, Gabriela dos Santos of Curacao. Should she make it to the preliminaries, we feel that, like last year's Clemence Botino of France, she'll have a strong chance of making it to the semifinal round.
This list, however, may stay the same or vary slightly after the preliminaries. A lot can happen by then.
The Miss Universe 2022 preliminary competition is slated to unfold on January 11 (January 12 in the Philippines), while the National Costume presentation happens the following day. Stay tuned!
