Miss Philippines Universe Pamela Bianca Manalo Arrives in Bahamas

Miss Philippines Universe Pamela Bianca Manalo is one of the two Asian beauties who made an impact on me at the ongoing Miss Universe 2009 in Bahamas. The other one is Miss Singapore Rachel Kum.

While Rachel was standing out in their swimsuit pictorials the other day, Pamela's arrival in Bahamas showed her class and regal bearing. Pamela looks very sweet, elegant and with grace.

The Filipino beauty queen was greeted by a handful of Filipinos working in Bahamas and it is said that her arrival is so far the warmest welcome a delegate could have received from supporters.


Even the controversial Ines Ligron, director of Miss Japan Universe, was stunned by the natural beauty of Pamela. She made a post in her blog calling Miss Philippines a "stunner". She added that Pamela is a "real beauty with grace".

And we are right, the outfit we have mentioned here is what Pamela wore.

We are putting Miss Philippines in our Top 15 prediction (to be released soon). But we are hoping she have a decent long gown to realize this. But anyways, the Miss Universe organization is looking for the girl who looks the best in long gown and not the best long gown.

Miss Philippines is one of the late delegates who arrived in Bahamas to beat the deadline of registration.

Ris Low wins Miss Singapore World 2009

Nineteen-year-old Ris Low was crowned Miss Singapore World 2009 last July 31st. She will be competing at the 2009 Miss World pageant to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa in December 12 later this year.

"I am excited because I’ve never been to any of these countries and I’ll get to meet other contestants too," says Low.

 

 

Miss Singapore Rachel Kum Tweets her journey to Bahamas

Miss Singapore Universe 2009 Rachel Kum tweets in her twitter account that Miss Mexico Karla Carillo was her first co-delegate she met in person. She and Karla were on the same flight from Miami to Bahamas. She said that Karla is her first friend in the contest.

Rachel also added that her flight from Singapore to Miami took a grueling 28 hours because of baggage delay.

On the other hand, Miss Guam  Racine Manley is Rachel's roommate in Bahamas.

Meanwhile, below are Rachel's national costume and evening gown. The national costume was chosen by the Singaporean through an online poll. The chosen costume was designed by a second-year fashion student Zhang Xiaoqing.

 

 

Will Miss Bahamas Kiara Sherman Penetrates the Top 15?

I am excited with Miss Universe 2009 and starting tomorrow we will be witnessing the arrival of all the delegates from around the globe. Bahamas will be the center of the world for beauty pageant lovers like me.

For the last three weeks, we've seen a lot of the latest pictures of some of the delegates who are being hyped by their fans. We saw their transformations. We loved some of them and bashed some of them. But why on earth we aren't talking much about the host country's representative? She's just waiting in Bahamas to welcome all the ladies and I think we need to look at her transformation also.

Kiara Sherman is definitely one of the most bashed delegates this year together with Miss Singapore Rachel Kum and Miss Philippines Pamela Bianca Manalo.

Yes, Kiara was lambasted when she won her title by her fellow Bahamians because they believed she was not the perfect choice. But looking at her latest photo, I am convinced that Kiara is working so hard to make her country proud of her.

She is definitely better now and hopefully she might give Bahamas its first ever Top 15 finish in the history of Miss Universe.

Do you think she could penetrate the Top 15 considering homecourt advantage?

Miss Singapore Rachel Kum's National Costume

I mentioned earlier here that for the first time in the history of Miss Singapore Universe, their national costume for the Miss Universe pageant will be decided by the public through online voting.

The reason why the pageant organizers are doing this is because they received flak last year with the merlion-inspired outfit wore by Shenise Wong at the Miss Universe 2008 in Vietnam. This time, the organizer would like to satisfy the public.

Ten designs by students of Raffles Design Institute, which draw inspiration from local themes such as the national flower Vanda Miss Joaquim and the twinkles of the city skyline at night, were presented online. The one with the highest votes will be the national costume of Rachel Kum, Miss Singapore Universe 2009.

Here are five of the designs including the merlion-inspired costume.

 

  

  

  

 

National Costumes and Long Gown at the Miss Universe 2009

The official head shot of Miss Philippines Universe 2009, Pamela Bianca Manalo

Miss Universe candidates from all over the world start arriving in Bahamas one week from now. We have visited different websites and forums and collected some interesting information on some of the lovely candidates. Here they are:

1. Miss Japan Emiri Miyasaka will be the first Japanese delegate to speak English if she can pass through the finals or Top 5. According to her national director, Ines Ligron, Emiri is the most prepared Miss Japan since she started handling the Japanese girls to the pageant.

2. Mayra Matos of Puerto Rico will be wearing a boxer-inspired suit for her national costume. Some argue that she should not win the Best in National Costume award since boxing is not a native of Puerto Rico. They say Puerto Rico can't claim the boxing outfit exclusively. See the pictures below for reference.

3. Miss Philippines Pamela Bianca Manalo is no longer dressed by Alfredo Barraza who, for almost a decade, trained the Philippine representatives with no success. Pamela is being trained by a Philippine top model, Wilma Doesnt, with her catwalk skills. Her sister, Miss World 2002 finalist Katherine Ann Manalo is training her how to do well at the question and answer part of the pageant.

It is also rumoured that Pamela will be wearing a Filipiniana terno for her national costume and it is said that the dress was designed by Pitoy Moreno. According to some, Pamela personally chose the dresses she will be wearing in Bahamas.

Will she be wearing a gown made by Monique Lhuillier? What's the truth on this?

4. Miss Singapore Rachel Kum will be wearing a national costume that will be decided by the people via public voting. Six costumes were presented online for voting and the one with the highest vote will be her costume in the pageant.

5. Miss Jamaica Carolyn Yapp is said to be the latest favourite of the Miss Universe Organization. Apparently, the people behind the Miss universe pageant are so impressed with her beauty. If this is true, expect her at the Top 15.

6. Miss South Africa Tatum Keshwar's national costume is very similar to a Vietnamese traditional dress. Her costume is kinda good but the gown is not stunning. See pictures below for reference.

7. Miss Vietnam Vo Hoang Yen is definitely one of the most hyped delegates this year together with Miss Japan Emiri Miyasaka. At first we love to see the "photo-chopped" pictures of Vo Hoang Yen but upon seeing more of her candid shots, we are predicting that she will end up not making the cut.

Though Vo Hoang Yen has a good catwalk skill, we doubt if she can score high in the long gown and preliminary interview. Never had a Miss Vietnam wore a stunning gown in any international pageants. We doubt also if she can do well in the interview. But we hope we are wrong since we love to see Asian winning the crown again.

The national costume of Mayra Matos, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2009

Mayra Matos, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2009, in her national costume.

Mayra Matos, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2009, in her national costume.

An artist sketch of the national costume of Mayra Matos, Miss Puerto Rico Universe 2009.

Tatum Keshwar, Miss South Africa 2009 in her long gown.

Tatum Keshwar, Miss South Africa 2009 in her national costume.

Is Miss Singapore Rachel Kum about to succumb to pressure?

There have been calls to strip Miss Singapore 2009, Rachel Kum, of her title after some racy or scandalous pictures of her appeared in this blog, Beauty in Pageants. The photos were picked up by beauty pageant related forums and other blogs until it reached the organizers of Miss Singapore.

But the organizers said they are not stripping Rachel of her crown since the pictures were all taken before her crowning. She will still be going to Bahamas for the Miss Universe 2009.

Asiaone.com also run a story on these photos. Though the website did not name our blog, it was pretty obvious the writer was talking about this blog and the pictures we first uploaded here. They actually copied some of the comments made under the blog entries we wrote on Rachel Kum's suggestive pictures.

There is one I discovered from reading all the news articles on this so-called brouhaha, I came to realize that people are not aware that these pictures we published here came from the blog of Rachel Kum, herself. Yes, it's just like the beauty queen was also the one who fed us these pictures in question - innocently.

Did you know that?

But when I checked back Rachel's blog, her site was temporarily unavailable. She mentions that the site is going to be revamped soon.

Another source told me that at one point, Rachel set her blog privately. One can read it by invitation only. Probably she did it while she was deleting the pictures.

The question is, is Rachel about to succumb to pressure?

I have seen online petitions calling her to step down or give up her title. More and more people are signing.

We did not expect that these stories we ran in this blog would generate such controversy. One thing is achieved here - Rachel is now one of the most talked candidates to the Miss Universe 2009.

So don't be surprised if we see her on the Top 15 come August 23rd.

***Rachel posted the picture shown above in her blog. It was taken in Maldives.