Harnaaz Sandhu is a 21-year-old model from India, who had won the prestigious award. She had topped a field of 80 contestants in a pageant that was touched by politics and the pandemic.
Harnaaz Sandhu Wins The 70th Edition Of The Award
She has been crowned the 70th Miss Universe after Andrea Meza from Mexico.
The pageant was held in the middle of the night, wrapping up at 5 am on Monday to accommodate the primetime schedule in the United States.
This beauty pageant included traditional displays of national costumes, swimwear, and a series of questions to test the contestants’ public speaking skills.
The top 10 showed off intricately bedazzled full-length gowns in either gold, silver, or bronze.
The Philippines’s Beatrice Luigi Gomez wore an asymmetrical cut dress with one sleeve, highlighting a new tattoo she said: “celebrates her womanhood”.
Before Harnaaz Sandhu, two Indians have won the Miss Universe title: Bollywood actresses Sushmita Sen in 1994 and Lara Dutta in 2000.
The contest also drew attention in recent weeks for other reasons, with several contestants defying pressure to boycott in support of the Palestinians.
A grassroots Palestinian-led boycott movement had urged its contestants to skip the event to protest Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians.
The Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel stated: “We urge all participants to withdraw, to avoid complicity in Israel’s apartheid regime and its violation of Palestinian human rights.”
The 80 contestants also included Miss Morocco Kawtar Benhalima and Miss Bahrain Manar Nadeem Deyani, whose Muslim-majority nations normalized ties with Israel last year.
