Miss World is Karolina Bielawska from Poland
The Top 3, from left to right: Olivia Yacé of Côte d´Ivoire won three fast-track events, started the night as “the one to beat”, and ended it in 3rd place, a historical accomplishment for her country; Karolina Bielawska of Poland grew in the final event to the point of being deservingly elected the new Miss World; Shree Saini of the USA won the BWP award, and beat all the odds to reach a very surprising 2nd place.
The best thing about the telecast of the 70th Miss World contest was the winner´s announcement, by Julia Morley: Poland!
Stunning Karolina Bielawska, 23, started her modeling career at the age of 14 when she placed second in the Elite Model Look competition. In her late teenage years, she signed with several different high-profile modeling agencies and walked in fashion weeks in Poland and in other countries.
Aside from modeling, Bielawska holds a bachelor’s degree in management and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in business.
She describes herself as an adrenalin junkie and says traveling is among her biggest passions in life.
“Enjoying the world and its beauty brings me a lot of joy. Discovering new places, meeting new people, and learning about their culture makes my life fuller,” she wrote in a Miss World blog post.
“Hans Christian Andersen said that ‘To travel is to live´ and I completely relate to that. Trying new things, enjoying the wilderness of nature, and learning from people with different views is what makes me feel alive,” she said.
During the pageant, she spoke of her hopes to become a television presenter and actress, describing Australian Oscar-nominated actress Margot Robbie as her dream co-star.
“I heard many times that I look like her. It would be amazing to meet and learn from this wonderful actress,” she said.
Bielawska’s charity work has seen her support and volunteer for a number of organizations since she was crowned Miss Polonia in 2019, including the Zupa na Pietrynie group, which provides support for homeless people in her country.
One piece of curiosity is that Karolina flew to London in 2019, already as Miss Polonia, to attend the 69th Miss World competition and support that year´s Polish representative.
Other candidates competing in this year´s pageant described the new Miss World as kind, high-spirited and friendly. The Miss World title is in excellent hands!
The final show
After so much controversy and many unexpected obstacles, Miss World was finally concluded at the Coca-Cola Music Hall, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, last Thursday, March 16th. We know for a fact that a lot of work was put into it, so that it could actually happen.
Nevertheless, the final telecast was not what was promised when it was announced that Puerto Rico would host the event. After the local government withdrew its sponsorship, a new tv channel had to be found, along with a new production team. The show was far from the high-quality event we saw in London, in 2019, but there´s a reason for it: without the support they were supposed to get, organizers had to find their way through.
To begin with, there was no chemistry between the hosts. Peter Andre, who had done a terrific job two years ago, was a bit off this time. But perhaps he´s not the one to blame. Fans are still trying to understand what Fernando Allende was doing there, a man who was clearly not ready to present a world-class event. Puerto Rico and other Latin American countries have PLENTY of talented presenters and television/movie starts who certainly would love an invitation to host Miss World.
But there was some good stuff as well, like the opening number recorded with all 98 candidates in December, showcasing Puerto Rican great music and dancers, and all the candidates wearing their national costumes. The orchestra on stage was a nice touch, and so was the time given to the Top 40 to walk the runway in their evening gowns, something rare in Miss World in recent years. Paying tribute to Ukraine was nice and touching.
GB´s commentator Nick C from Turkey, has this to say about Miss World´s production:
“If you watched the latest Miss World final last Thursday night, you may have been disappointed with its production, after all, we are talking about a world institution. I have been following Miss World since the 80s, and I have never seen the giant in the industry in such a position. I guess the outbreak of the pandemic in December and contestants and crew getting infected was a prequel for what turned out to be a weak Miss World edition, unfortunately, when it celebrated its 70th anniversary.
I don´t know exactly what happened, but I assume that some sponsors pulled out, which led to the much-publicized legal feud between Miss World and their former queen, Stephanie del Valle. And I also assume the two aforementioned events led to the poor production quality for this year's show. I am especially disappointed with the choice of one of the hosts- who had no emcee qualities that would justify giving him the job. I also find it astonishing that even native English speaker contestants struggled to understand him.
I also cannot agree with a national director as a judge. Has anyone heard the term "conflict of interest?". To gain credibility, Miss World organizers must really go out of their comfort zones and establish an independent judging panel. Compare that with Eurovision where you cannot be a judge if you were one within the last years.
The lack of transparency of the judging criteria makes things somehow unclear. And this year's results are somewhat very surprising. The "Caribbean Black Out" was really puzzling. Bahamas, Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico were all front-runners, yet none of them made it to the Top 13. Other notable exceptions from the Top 13 were Misses Cameroon and England, who placed in almost every preliminary event, hot favorites South Africa, Brazil, and Venezuela, or yet super-articulate Botswana and Malaysia. It was exciting to see Côte d´Ivoire, a country that had never placed in any Grand Slam pageant, reaching the Top 3 in Miss World, as 2nd runner-up.
I was shocked that for the first time in years throughout that long show, we did not see anything about the BWAP projects. In my opinion, the Philippines or India deserved the award this year, but I respect Miss USA for her great social work and for being chosen as the BWP winner.
The top 6 questions were... bizarre to say the least. Until a few years ago, all Miss World finalists needed to do was to explain why they wanted to be Miss World or why the judges should pick them. This year, in a significant shift of gear, they were given very difficult questions. My main issue, however, is that some of the questions were not clear. Let's take Miss Indonesia's question about inequality. As an economics professor with over 40 publications, I do not know how to answer that question, because I am not sure if we are talking about income, wealth, gender, race, or cross-continent inequality. And these are vastly different issues. While one can suggest Thomas Piketty's fiscal policy solutions for the income or wealth inequality, gender or race inequality would need more social policy changes, like affirmative action in the job market, or increased educational opportunities for the underprivileged groups.
While Miss Poland was never on my radar, I have to admit she looked like a Miss World on the final night, and she handled her difficult question skillfully (but without really answering the question). She was statuesque, and an absolutely worthy winner. I can also say the same for 2nd runner-up, Miss Cote d'Ivoire who performed strongly from the beginning and looked regal on the final night. Miss Northern Ireland in the Top 6 and Miss Somalia in the Top 12, were pleasant surprises.
Right now I have a very gloomy outlook for beauty pageants in general. I think all of them should do some serious soul-searching in order not to become redundant. All the infighting, lack of transparency, and silent discrimination should be ditched the soonest (here I am actually talking about all Grand Slam pageants).
This year's Miss World showed us regardless of their history, all pageants need the masses and the sponsors. Unless the Grand Slam pageants stop being defensive and reinvent themselves very soon, I am genuinely afraid they will just be part of history books, with later generations not even understanding how they existed in the first place”.
Miss World´s official results:
Miss World 2021
Poland – Karolina Bielawska
1st Runner-Up
United States – Shree Saini
2nd Runner-Up
Cote D'Ivoire – Olivia Yacé
Top 6
Indonesia – Pricilia Carla Yules
Mexico – Karolina Vidales
Northern Ireland – Anna Leitch
Top 13
Colombia – Andrea Aguilera
Czech Republic – Karolína Kopíncová
France – April Benayoum
India – Manasa Varanasi
Philippines – Tracy Perez
Somalia – Khadija Omar
Vietnam – Đỗ Thị Hà (Digital Challenge Winner)
Top 40
Argentina – Amira Hidalgo
Bahamas – Sienna Evans
Botswana – Palesa Mofele
Brazil – Caroline Teixeira
Cameroon – Audrey Monkam
Canada – Svetlana Mamaeva
Chile – Carol Drpic
China – Jiang Siqi
Dominican Republic – Emmy Peña
Ecuador – Ámar Pacheco
England – Rehema Muthamia
Guinea – Nene Bah
Hungary – Lili Tótpeti
Iceland – Hugrún Birta Egilsdóttir
Ireland – Pamela Uba
Kenya – Sharon Obara
Madagascar – Nellie Anjaratiana
Malaysia – Lavanya Sivaji
Mongolia – Burte-Ujin Anu
Nepal – Namrata Shrestha
Nicaragua – Sheynnis Palacios
Paraguay – Bethania Borba
Puerto Rico – Aryam Díaz
South Africa – Shudufhadzo Musida
Sri Lanka – Sadé Greenwood
Trinidad and Tobago – Jeanine Brandt
Venezuela – Alejandra Conde
Continental Queens of Beauty
Africa
Cote D'Ivoire – Olivia Yacé
Americas
United States – Shree Saini
Asia & Oceania
Indonesia – Pricilia Carla Yules
Caribbean
Dominican Republic – Emmy Peña
Europe
Northern Ireland – Anna Leitch
GB comment: We understand Miss World faced many obstacles and deserves our appreciation for resuming its 70th edition, even if not in an ideal way. We know they have struggled in Puerto Rico for reasons they had no control over, and that next year they will come back with a great show and full strength! We wish the fabulous Karolina Bielawska and fantastic year of reign!