coronation night feels like the time sacramento kings lost to l.a. lakers in the western conference finals

28 Nov 2009 4 Comments

by shallow in entertainment, special event, thoughts Tags: antonia singut, beauty pageant, engara gosselin, merewalesi nailatikau, miss aotearoa, miss cook islands, miss fiji, miss new zealand, miss niue, miss samoa, miss south pacific 2009, miss tonga, paea williams, paretaunu randal, sarah geronimo, tusisaleia pomele, vanessa marsh

…or like the time blake lewis lost to jordin sparks in a.i.

all photos lifted from fijitimes unless otherwise specified.

miss fiji, merewalesi nailatikau wins miss south pacific 2009

in summary: she deserves the crown for how she answered the last question. but i think other contestants deserve the special awards.

when they were reduced to five finalists, grand slam pageant style, scores were erased and judging for honors was based solely on answers to the last questions. yes, i mean to pluralize that. because unlike other international pageants, they still had to fish for a “surprise” topic from a pool instead of the typical one final question where as one contestant attempts to answer, the others are either in a soundproof isolation booth or wearing noise-reduction headphones with elevator music playing. a dip in many topics for your question i think is a little skewed. how can you compare the answer to, say, “if you win this title, how can you help the youth in their battle against drugs?” to “how can society promote corporate social responsibility?” one question will naturally be more difficult than others and the competition vastly increases the element of luck.

not that i think a one-final-question format would have dramatically altered the outcome. because despite my above ideas, miss fiji still makes a runaway winner; she, after all, delivers the paradoxical “prepared impromptu speech” leagues better than the others. but even with this glaring reality, i was still hoping that my favorite girl miss cook islands, who happens to be articulate herself, throws us a curveball and snags the crown. in other words, like the l.a. lakers some western conference finals ago, i expected miss fiji to win over miss cook islands’ sacramento kings, but up to the last minute, i was crossing my fingers for an upset.

my favorite miss cook islands, engara gosselin bags first runner-up.

what really pops my snare though is miss fiji also winning the special awards for best talent and best traditional costume (my complete thoughts in this entry). there might be other criteria we are unaware of that upend my shamelessly frank opinions or the judges just might have preferential views that are strange to me, but i still can’t quite put a finger on how a “talent” as puerile as declamation randomly coupled with an amateur dance routine beat an obviously classically trained, well-choreographed performance. or how a drag-and-drop costume design whose cut and workmanship is as common as a budget outlet wedding gown beat a conceptualized, well-planned production of a dress. it’s like charlene gonzalez winning best national costume during the philippines-hosted miss universe when, upon ambush interview, the other contestants didn’t even attempt to conceal their aversion of the results.

i hope miss aotearoa somehow reads this so she finds out how ado and i were extremely impressed by her talent! i hope miss samoa somehow reads this so she finds out how my father-in-law’s and my jaws dropped at the sight of her dress!

miss aotearoa (new zealand), paretaunu randal's dance was in a class of its own. miss samoa, tusisaleia pomele's traditional costume was a work of art.

other special awards and brief thoughts:

miss photogenic: miss american samoa (judged by professional photographers)

miss personality: miss american samoa (chosen by the other contestants like miss congeniality or miss friendship)

miss internet: miss papua new guinea (most internet votes. here’s a crazy notion: miss png was nowhere around the top of internet votes for more than half the duration of the voting period. when i posted this entry in my other blog, she suddenly shot straight to number one. it’s most probably coincidence, but i’d like to think that some of my 1000+ readers that day helped boost her stats. i can indulge myself, can’t i?)

miss aotearoa (new zealand) and miss papua new guinea in a fun pose at the arts tent.

miss (forgot the category name of “most text votes”): miss fiji (host country, duh)

miss interview: miss fiji (as the name suggests, best in interview portion)

best in sulu/sarong: miss cook islands (that dalo planting sure paid off. and who would object to her figure.)

miss elegance: miss tonga (selected by sponsors, wins a modeling contract, therefore imho the one truly relevant special award. very well-deserved.)

for winning miss elegance, miss tonga, paea williams gets a modeling contract. it couldn't have gone to a better candidate.

a full two minutes after announcement of winners, i have gotten over the loss of my favorite candidates. so i went on to browse online for photos. i wrote this entry a few days ago saying i couldn’t find any picture of miss aotearoa doing the maori pukuna. well i just found one:

miss cook islands, engara gosselin blows a kiss as miss aotearoa, paretaunu randal does the pukana.

miss south pacific 2008, niue's vanessa marsh with some of this years candidates. she has been a very worthy representative of the region. and i still think she's a dead ringer for sarah geronimo.

i'm posting sarah geronimo's photo here just to prove my point. i bet some of you thought this was vanessa marsh at first glance! this is sarah about to sing the pna before the pacquiao-morales fight.

as we called it a night, i suggested to ado that greenscape ltd. sponsor a special award in next year’s pageant. in keeping with the nature of the landscaping business, it should be the best in hair foliage award.