MICHELLE DEE Reaches Top 12 in MISS WORLD 2019, Ending PH BIG FOUR Title STREAK

Barely a week was out after the 2019 edition of the Miss Universe competition was held in Atlanta, when another one of the so-called “Big Four” in terms of global beauty pageants. This contest was the 69^th edition of Miss World, held Saturday last week on December 14 at ExCeL London, in the city where the pageant was first held in 1951. As the oldest existing competition of the Big Four pageants, winning Miss World is a great honor, and the Philippines is eager to add to Megan Young’s debut victory in 2013 with current representative Michelle Dee. Unfortunately, like the Miss Universe bet, this one did not pan out.

According to Inquirer.net, the best that Miss World – Philippines Michelle Dee could do in the 2019 Miss World beauty pageant held over the weekend is to make it to the Top 12 contestants. In fact, it became a washout of Asian representatives in the competition, which managed only nine contestants advancing to the Top 40, and just 4 to the Top 12 including Dee. The 23-year-old actress and TV presenter, who has beauty titleholder blood in her veins from her mother, Miss International 1979 Melanie Marquez, also made the pageant’s Top 40 Top Model list.

While Dee’s Miss World Journey advanced only two levels for the country this year, the 2019 title and crown would ultimately be claimed by Tori-Ann Singh of Jamaica, with First and Second Runners-Up being won respectively by French candidate Ophely Mezino and Miss India Suman Rao, the only Asian to make it to the Top 5 level where the winner and runners-up were drawn. Rao was also honored as the Asian winner for the Continental Queens of Beauty special awards. At 111 confirmed participants, Miss World 2019 fielded one of the largest contingents of beauty pageant contestants for the year.

In summation, with the conclusion of Miss World 2019, all Big Four beauty pageants have been held this year with none of the Philippine representatives being lucky with even one title. The best competition progress was in November’s Miss International 2019 with Bea Magtanong reaching the Top 8. This also marks the end of the country’s blessed Big Four win streak having a titleholder for at least one of the pageants involved from 2013 to 2018, the longest of any country. Of the Big Four, only Miss World has one win for the Philippines courtesy of Megan Young in 2013.

Image courtesy of ABS-CBN News