Although the pandemic has caused many events around the world to be canceled, the Miss Earth pageant was not one of them. The Miss Earth 2020 pageant was conducted virtually and spanned over several months. On Saturday, November 28, the virtual coronation night occurred and we now have our new queens – Miss Earth and her elemental court.

Every year the Miss Earth pageant has a theme and this year’s theme was “eco angels”. The night kicked off with the host – James Deakin – introducing the 84 contestants in their “eco angel” inspired costumes, while the Miss Earth song played. This segment lasted for about 7 minutes, which is a pretty good time for highlighting 84 girls. This segment was followed by another showcase of the girls in their national costumes and that took about 10 minutes. Even though the amount of time for each of the segments was good considering the number of girls, the top 20 was not announced until 20 minutes into the show, which I did not really like since I wanted to know the results right away.

Top 20 Announcement Details

This year, the Miss Earth organizers decided to break the top 20 into regions: Europe, Africa, Asia & Oceania, and Americas. From each region, there are a specific number of girls that could move on into the top 20 (Europe – 6, Africa – 4, Asia & Oceania – 5, Americas – 5). Part of me likes this format and another part of me doesn’t. I like this format because it gives a chance for more girls from Europe and Africa to place in the top 20 instead of seeing the usual American and Asian countries heavily populating the top 20. I also like this format because of the number of girls from Europe that were able to make it in this year. Europe tends to be overlooked at pageants because they normally do not place or do not place as often as American and Asian countries. The European countries at Miss Earth this year came in very strong with high quality delegates and I am glad many of them placed (I do not doubt that many of them would have still placed in the top 20 even if the breakdown of regions did not exist). The reason why I do not like this format is because it limits the number of girls from each region that can move on. More times than not, there are more high quality, deserving delegates in a specific region than there are spots available. This bites for the girls who truly deserve to move further into the competition.

Also, the first girls that were named into the top 20 for each their respective regions were the eco video winners. Each of the eco winners’ videos played after their country was called.

Top 20

Overall, I feel good about this top 20 because each of these girls performed well in their Earth Talk’s as well as in their individual contestant videos. The only down side I have to this top 20 is that Australia did not place. I thought Australia’s Brittany Dickson was a shoo-in for the top 20 with her story, her passion for the environment, and her incredible speaking skills. However, something must not have fully clicked with the judges.

Judges

Following the top 20 announcement, came the announcement of the judges. The judges were Natalia Barulich (international model), Michael Ma (founder and owner of IndoChine Group), Patricia Zavala (popstar, tv host, and model), Iskandar Widjaja (world-class violinist), Lorraine Schuck (former beauty queen and Executive Vice-President of Carousel Productions), Hassan Malik (President of the Staff Council of the United Nations Industrial Development Org.), and Jewel Colmenares-Lobaton (former beauty queen, women empowerment advocate, and founder and owner of Jewel Beauty Strong).

Swimsuit Competition

Each contestant made prerecorded videos of themselves in their swimsuits, which were then used for the swimsuit competition. In addition to the videos, a voice over was included where it described each contestant a bit more.

I would have liked the swimsuit competition more if each of the videos included the girls walking and not just them standing in their swimsuit. Even though the competition is virtual, it would have been nice to have the normal swimsuit catwalk incorporated into the show more.

Swimsuit Favorites: Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Thailand, USA, Venezuela

Hashtag EarthTalk Competition

The hashtag earthtalk competition is when a contestant randomly selects a hashtag and has 30 seconds to speak on that specific hashtag. For example, Belarus selected #PlasticWaste and then she gave her opinion on plastic waste.

Best Hashtag Answers:

Denmark: #RenewableEnergy

Michala talk about how important renewable energy is for our earth and biodiversity to thrive. Michala talked about how her country – Denmark – is taking strides towards using renewable energy (ex. wind turbines). They are also developing better solutions for renewable energy and more eco-friendly ways of living in order to reduce their air pollution and overall carbon footprint. She ended saying that education is important for our future and that we should all learn from each other, so we can find more innovated ways to take better care of our planet.

USA: #ClimateCrisis

Lindsey talked about the different contributors to the climate crisis and tied in her advocacy – the water crisis – into her answer. She followed saying that the contributors to the current climate crisis can be reduced through climate action and climate justice. By following through on climate action and justice, the safety of our ecosystems, animals, and humanity will increase in the future. She ended saying that this is what she would fight for as Miss Earth and asked for everyone to stand alongside her.

What really made me sold on their answers were how much emotion Michala (Denmark) and Lindsey (USA) put into their answers. For Michala, you could see how passionate she is about the environment and you could hear the assertive strength behind her voice. For Lindsey, she exhibited compassion and a softer strength. Lindsey was confident in her answer, but she was not very forceful in the way she spoke.

Before the evening gown competition, Patricia Zavala premiered her latest single “Heartbreaker” (I love the song).

Evening Gown Competition

Like the swimsuit competition, the contestants videotaped themselves in their evening gowns for this competition. These video clips were accompanied by the music of Iskandar Widjaja.

Each contestant performed with grace, class, and fierceness, but there were a few that really caught my eye: Netherlands, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Thailand, USA, and Venezuela. These girls gave a little bit extra to their performance that made them stand out and become my favorites.

Tribute to Past Titleholders

This has to be one of my favorite parts of the entire pageant. Watching the previous Miss Earth titleholder being crowned brought a wave of emotions over me that almost made me tear up. In addition to the crowning moments being shown, the Miss Earth Organization told us about what each of their previous titleholders did after their reign and where they are now. I loved seeing how the Miss Earth title can change someone’s life by opening doors that would have probably not been open otherwise.

Farewell

The current Miss Earth (Nellys Pimentel of Puerto Rico) and her elemental court (Air – Emanii Davis of USA, Water – Klára Vavrušková of the Czech Republic, and Fire – Alisa Manyonok of Belarus) gave their farewell speeches. This has always been an emotional part of pageants for me, especially if I become a big fan of the girl(s). Each of them has had a challenging reign, but they all represented the Miss Earth Organization phenomenally. Congratulations and good luck on your future endeavors, ladies.

Top 8

I was surprised Poland and Denmark made it into the top 8 because hardly anyone – those, including myself, who made predictions (see my prediction on Beauty and Brain’s Instagram account) – thought that these two would make it this far. After watching everyone’s performances on the coronation night, I could see Denmark making it to the top 8, but I was surprised to see Poland in the top 8 and not South Africa (I thought South Africa had a stronger performance than Poland).

Final Question

Once each lady was announced into the top 8, they immediately were asked the final question.

“This year – 2020 – has brought us a lot of conspiracy theories and conflicting news – a.k.a. fake news. How do you reconcile this with the concept of proof?”

To me, the best answers belonged to Philippines, USA, and Denmark. If I had to choose which one had the better answer, I would say USA.

To sum up Lindsey’s (USA’s) answer, she mentioned how it is important to know where the information is coming from and if the source is reputable. It is also important to read several articles because if many articles mention the same thing, it is more likely that this piece of information is true. People need to listen and respect scientists and their discoveries because the information that comes from them is the information we really need to pay attention to.

Pageant Pet Peeve

A pageant pet peeve of mine is when contestants do not really answer the question, as in says something that does not fully answer the question being asked.

Venezuela and Myanmar did not really answer the final question. They both said good things, but they did not answer the question. I know that the language barrier can sometimes effect contestants’ answers, but they both had a translator who could have translated the question they had back into their own language if they did not fully understand what was being asked. If a contestant does not have a translator, simply saying that they do not understand the question and saying something positive and meaningful after that – like what Miss Earth 2012 Tereza Fajksová did – then I would be more okay with an answer that does not really answer the question.

Winners

Miss Earth Fire: Denmark

Miss Earth Water: Philippines

Miss Earth Air: Venezuela

Miss Earth: USA

I am so pleased with the results of Miss Earth 2020 not only because the USA captured its first Miss Earth title, but because Lindsey truly deserved it. To me, she has been the clear winner from the start of her Earth pageant journey, and watching her performance at Miss Earth USA and Miss Earth cemented my faith in her bringing home the Miss Earth crown.

Overall, I liked the Miss Earth 2020 virtual pageant. I was a little worried on how well the virtual pageant would work out, but it went better than expected. There were not any glitches, the transitions were smooth, James Deakin was a great host (not surprised about that), and the show was entertaining, especially seeing the reactions of each of the girls when they found out they won a title.

Congratulations Lindsey, the Miss Earth USA Organization, and the USA! Also, congratulations to Miss Denmark, Miss Philippines, and Miss Venezuela on winning the elemental titles. Good luck to all of you on your year of reign. I’ll be watching and cheering you all on every step of the way.

Watch Miss Earth 2020 on the Miss Earth Facebook Page and on the Miss Earth YouTube Channel.

Feature Image and Headshots courtesy of the Miss Earth Organization