Despite being among the 16 semi-finalists, Miss Colombia was not selected among the five finalists of the Miss Universe pageant, a pageant that has been running for 73 years.
The crown went to the representative of the United States, leaving Venezuela as viceroy (Amanda Dudamel, daughter of soccer coach Rafel Dudamel).while the Dominican Republic was the first runner-up.
The other two finalists were Puerto Rico and Curacao.
María Fernanda Aristizábal was in Group 16 (She was named last) but it wasn’t enough to finish in the top five in the final.
The new Miss Universe replaces Harnaaz Kaur Sandhu from India. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, USA, was the site of the closing ceremony, where María Fernanda represented Aristizábal, 25, of Quindía, Colombia.
The blonde, who has always been among the contenders for the crown, was crowned Miss Colombia at the 2019 National Beauty Pageant. Then, when the Miss Universe Colombia brand bought the Miss Universe country franchise, María Fernanda was chosen to represent Colombia in the popular beauty pageant in 2021. He prepared for the event for more than two years.
The most winning
In the 73 years (71 editions) of the competition, the United States has been the country to win the most, nine times (including last night), followed by Venezuela with 7 titles (this year’s representative is the daughter of soccer coach Rafael Dudamel). ), while Puerto Rico, the Philippines and Switzerland have won five, four and three times respectively.
Colombia has won it twice, in 1958 with Luz María Zuluaga and in 2014 with Paulina Vega. Five times the “Queens” of Colombia have held the title of Viceroy: Paola Turbay (1992), Paula Andrea Betancur (1993), Carolina Gómez (1994), Taliana Vargas (2008) and Ariadna Gutiérrez (2015).
In fact, 2015 was one of the most contentious elections in history, when moderator Steve Harvey “mistakenly” announced that the queen was Colombia (Ariadna Gutiérrez) and then rectified and elected the Philippines.
For success as Miss Universe, the winner received an award of nearly $250,000 and an important salary throughout the year.
About the crown, which will have to be delivered next year, it turned out that the tiara has 933 gems, 110.83 carats of blue sapphires and 48.24 carats of white diamonds, and costs about $5.3 million