[ad_1]
She's there. And this time she did not need to wear a swimsuit to do the work.
Miss New York, Nia Imani Franklin, was crowned Miss America 2019 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. She is the fourth Miss New York to be crowned in six years.
Franklin, 25, becomes the first Miss America to win the crown without having to model a swimsuit in competition. The major change came after nearly a century of competition and this turned out to be a particularly tumultuous year for the New Jersey institution.
After the contest, Franklin said that she was able to eat more because she did not have to worry about swimsuit competition.
"I'm worth more than that," she said, as did all other competitors.
Asked about the controversy that weighed on the contest this year and what needs to happen to advance Miss America, Franklin did not hesitate with his answer.
"I do not want to sound arrogant, but I think you're looking at her," she said.
Miss Connecticut, Bridget Oei, was the second to win a $ 25,000 bursary. Miss Louisiana, Holli's Conway, finished second, winning $ 20,000. Miss Florida, Taylor Tyson, was third, earning $ 15,000. Miss Massachusetts, Gabriela Taveras, was fourth with $ 10,000.
Franklin, who lives in Brooklyn and is from North Carolina, studied music composition and graduated from East Carolina University and the School of the Arts from the University of North Carolina. She sang the opera of "La Boheme" on the Miss America stage. Franklin, who advocates the arts as a social impact initiative, says he composed his first song at the age of five.
She interpreted the chorus of the song for reporters – "Love, love, love, love, love, is the only thing that matters to me hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
During part of the contest, Franklin, who is black, said the music had helped her find her identity when she had gone to a school where most of the students were white.
Franklin said that when her father was diagnosed with cancer several years ago – she donated stem cells as part of her treatment – she had to find a way to help pay for her education. The contest revealed that Franklin's earnings before receiving the crown amounted to $ 17,250.
As part of a review of the contest dubbed "Miss America 2.0" intended to emphasize the voices, education and advocacy of candidates, the Miss America organization announced in June that she was going to give up her swimsuit contest.
Miss America revisited reached relevance with the shadow of history thrown on the boardwalk. The show was held for the first time without a swimsuit on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the 1968 feminist demonstration of the contest. Women's liberation activists went to the sidewalk to divert bras, pots and pans, calling the show degrading, racist and consuming.
Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989 and Miss America board chair, said candidates would no longer be judged on physical appearance starting with this year's contest. But Carlson and Regina Hopper, CEO of the contest, were faced with a flood of criticism following the decision on the swimsuit. Representatives of 46 state reenactments signed letters calling for their resignations (Minnesota and Arkansas, their home country, did not sign), just like 23 former Miss Americas. The jury of the contest also experienced an exodus of the former owners.
The situation worsened a few weeks before the start of the contest when Miss America 2018, Cara Mund, wrote a scathing letter accusing Carlson and Hopper of intimidating and ignoring them for months. Mund, 24, has accused Carlson of having become the public face of the show during media appearances.
Carlson denied intimidating or silencing Mund and said his decision to publicly criticize the contest cost Miss America $ 75,000.
Although Carlson delivered a speech at the competition's arrival ceremony on August 30, during three nights of preliminary competition, she did not appear on stage once. Hopper, the contest's CEO, did not do it either. Posters posted in Atlantic City criticized Carlson's leadership, and the former Miss Americas, like Suzette Charles, put her performance to the service of volunteers.
"She's afraid of being booed," said Charles, who grew up at Mays Landing and became Miss America in 1984 after Vanessa Williams resigned as a result of a nude photo scandal. Carlson had named Charles as the contest liaison with Atlantic City.
Volunteer competition directors from across the country waited to see how all the troubles would unfold.
"We have to stop if we want to move forward," said Rachel Daly, 33, a former contender and executive director of the Miss Nebraska contest.
"Hopefully, after the broadcast, we can find a solution here," said Charles.
The show, presented by Carrie Ann Inaba, judge of "Dancing with the Stars" and television personality Ross Mathews ("Ross the intern" of Jay Leno's "Tonight Show"), has been reconfigured for the "Miss America" mission 2.0 ". the swimsuit contest. The talent, which accounted for 50% of each competitor's score in the preliminary round, was 30% in the final. The stage interview counted for 25%, as was the composite score of each participant for the preliminaries. Evening dresses count for the least, at 20%.
In an effort to have the participants speak more during the competition, "peer questions" were incorporated, for which each state asked a question to the next, instead of a judge or a host.
The other changes to the competition were that the age limit was changed from 24 to 25 years old, that there was no runway on the competition stage and that participants had to talk about their social life. impact initiatives (Miss New Jersey was sensitization to food allergies). They were also invited to wear other types of formal wear, including pants and cocktail dresses. But everyone chose to wear blouses, anyway.
Miss New Jersey, Jaime Gialloreto, a resident of Woolwich Township and a communications officer at Loyola University Maryland, was a finalist for the competition's quality of life award for her advocacy. But Gialloreto, 19, did not reach the top 15 of the show.
Miss Indiana, Lydia Tremaine, who won a prize for talent (she sang "That's Life" by Frank Sinatra) in preliminary competition, was among those who said they would not miss the contest swimsuits.
Tremaine, who lost 40 kilos, said she had once been told that she would never advance to her state contest.
"It was said that I could never be Miss Indiana because of my size," she said after winning her award Friday.
But other candidates, including Miss New Jersey, did not want to say goodbye to the traditional part of the show.
"Going ahead without a swimsuit, I think, eliminates all of our weight as bright and beautiful candidates and the culmination of all that it means to be an American woman," she said. said Miss Michigan, Emily Sioma, earlier this week. ("Candidates" is what the contest prefers to "call" its competitors.) During the contest, Sioma was featured hinting at the water crisis in Flint, Michigan – "D & # 39; a state with 84 percent of the United States' freshwater, but none for its residents to drink. "
The other competitors won prizes in the run-up to the competition, for three nights of preliminary competition. Part of the competition on the stage, in which participants have 20 seconds to answer, filled for the absent swim suit competition.
Miss Massachusetts, Gabriela Taveras, won for a stage issue; Miss Virginia, Emili McPhail won for a question on stage; Miss Wisconsin, Tianna Vanderhei also won for a question on stage; Miss Louisiana Holli's Conway won for her talent (she sang "I Believe" by Fantasia Barrino) and Miss Florida's Taylor Tyson, also won for her talent (she played Franz Liszt's "Mephisto Waltz" at piano).
McPhail was asked a question about NFL players kneeling in the national anthem. She said that the players had the right to protest, but that it was important to recognize that the players were protesting against police brutality, not the national anthem.
Another candidate, Miss West Virginia, Madeline Collins, did not win a prize for an issue on stage, but still made the headlines when asked to name the biggest problem in the country.
"Donald Trump is the biggest problem facing our country today," said Collins without hesitation. "Unfortunately, it has caused a lot of division in our country and as long as we can not trust him and the choices he makes for our country, we can not unite."
Amy Kuperinsky can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @AmyKup or on Facebook.
[ad_2]
Source link
