Miss Universe 1999-T&T the proud host!

L-R: Spain, Jamaica, Philippines, Botswana, India, Venezuela, South Africa, Ghana, Puerto Rico & Mexico

L-R: South Africa, Botswana, Philippines, Spain and Venezuela

L-R: Botswana, Philippines, Spain

Miss Universe 1999: Mpule Kwelagobe (Botswana).
1st runner-up: Miriam Quiambao (Philippines)
2nd runner-up: Diana Nogueira González (Spain)
Top 5: Lucbel Carolina Indriago Pinto (Venezuela) & Sonia Raciti (South Africa)

The top ten delegates:
Gul Panag (India), Silvia Salgado Cavazos (Mexico), Brenda Liz Lopez Ramos (Puerto Rico), Nicole Haughton (Jamaica), Akuba Cudjoe (Ghana)

Special awards:
Congeniality: Marisa Ferreira (Portugal)
Photogenic: Brenda Liz Lopez (Puerto Rico)
National costume: Nicole Simone Dyer (Trinidad and Tobago)
Clairol Herbal Essences Style Award: Miriam Quiambao (Philippines)
[edit]Final competition scores

I love the background music....so festive.

Trinidad Carnival and Miss Universe Fusion

Miss Universe never knew what hit them when they encountered Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago. It was show they had never seen before and probably had never heard of either. The most advertised event in Trinidad is carnival, and so of course Carnival had to be incorporated into the spectacle for the world to witness. Carnival festivities usually start after January 1 and last until the Monday before Ash Wednesday. For these 2 or 3 ½ months, there are non step fetes, calypso tents, mas’ camps, jumby walking, steel drumming, wining socas and pure bacchana.



With Peter Minshall, “the high priest of carnival”, as the set designer, he was able to bring mas to the pageant. Milla writes, “While American efficiency and technology made the show possible, it was Trinis who made the show. Trini spirit, no, the Trini Mas, triumphed over and transformed a banal event.” Peter “married the jab molassie to the limbo and the moko jumby. The limbo is transformed by its marriage to the earth, its elemental and savage blue. And the bathing suit contest suddenly moved into the margins, bracketed by the brackets.”( Riggio 2). He has masqueraders Tan Tan and Saga Boy gracing the stage with their performance of dance that identifies with the essence of Trinidadian culture, except had to be modified for television. He brings out the Pierrot pair, the human birds, and adaptations of the bat. According to Milla Riggio, “he energized the stage with mas’, so that the camera could not escape. Wherever it looked, Mas reigned.”( Riggio 5). The band “Legends” gave the pageant contestants their own “jump up” so that they could experience a miniature version of carnival Monday. Everyone played their part, the calypsonians attempted to create a welcoming song for the participants. While adhering to the pageant organizers regulations, not a beat was missed when Peter recreated Trinidad Carnival for the world to see.

MOKO JUMBY


Peter Minshall's Stage Creation for the Evening Gown segment


Source: http://hemi.nyu.edu/archive/studentwork/global/trinity/Cato/TrinidadCarnivalandMissUniverseFusion.htm

[quote="Trinifan"]

i just love miriam signature pose!!!

^Yes, she was my pick for the crown that night. Too bad she was not more direct with her final answer.