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The 25-year-old beauty won the crown at this year's competition.
Miss America has won a new award – and she is a black queen.
Miss New York Nia Imani Franklin won the Miss America 2019 tiara at the historic Sunday night parade. Franklin won a $ 50,000 purse and crown at the first Miss America contest, which was held without swimsuit competition.
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"I have the grain of New York," said Franklin at the competition. "As a New Yorker, I understand what it means to work hard."
Beyond the value of hard work, here are five things to know about New York beauty:
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She is a classical opera singer
The 25-year-old is a classically trained singer who graduated from the University of North Carolina's School of Arts with a Master's degree in composition in 2017. She has also studied music composition during her undergraduate studies.
She sang a selection of operas from the opera La Boheme during the talent component of the Miss America contest and even promoted an "advocacy for the arts" platform during the competition.
Her love for the song also pushed her to musical composition, a career that, she hopes, will earn her a Grammy one day.
She is actually from North Carolina
Franklin grew up in Winston Salem, North Carolina. Although she eventually moved to New York last year after being accepted into the Kenan Fellow program at Lincoln Center Education in Manhattan, she still loves her native North Carolina where she also received her degrees from music.
Her love for the arts has helped her connect with students in her predominantly white school.
During the Miss America contest, Franklin used his life as an example to explain why the arts are important.
"I grew up in a predominantly Caucasian school and it was only there [a] a minority of five percent, and I felt so out of place because of the color of my skin, "said Franklin. "But growing up, I found my love of the arts and, thanks to music, it helped me feel positive and know who I was."
His father is a cancer survivor
Franklin's father was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma during his first year at university.
After his victory Sunday night, Franklin thanked his "beautiful family, my mom and dad, who survived cancer.
She believed that music and perseverance were great actors in her healing. According to the website of the School of Arts of the University of North Carolina, "she used her love and passion for music to find therapeutic ways to help her family and herself to overcome difficulties. As a last resort, she donated stem cells and essentially saved her life.
She is a fan of Janelle Monae
Like all of us, Franklin is a fan-girl of the singer "Tightrope".
"Anyone who knows me knows that I STAN for this strong woman," she wrote earlier this year on Instagram when Monae abandoned her "Dirty Computer" album. "She is one of my music heroes …"
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