THE DUCHESS’ FINAL PREDICTION
The Duchess putting herself through another year of Miss Earth? After so much heartbreak here she is, following this pageant that hurt her so badly 2 years ago. And yes, the answer is yes. I cannot deny that I enjoy the overall format of Miss Earth and I love that you got something to do for a whole month that is pageant related. But what do I love more? I love just how good my candidate is doing that it is honestly inevitable to not get a bit excited a hopeful that perhaps we can finally get the final crown in our collection. This is the one, people, the one we haven’t gotten. And oh boy, does the Duchess want it hahaha. So Earthlings, be proud of me because I followed each pre-judging competition, each medal even (except for talent which I could only find one group) and I believe this is a pretty decent list and hopefully more in tune with tomorrow’s group. My pageant heart is full of hope because tonight I get to see the beautiful Hazel Ortiz participate in MGI and even though I cannot stand its director, I am here to cheer for my girls. So when I wake up in the morning to go to college and sneak-watch Miss Earth in the middle of class, I am going to be in high spirits because I know Hazel will do well. So all I am asking from Miss Earth is simple… don’t break my heart again. All I’m going to say hahaha.
I really liked the pre-pageant portion of this pageant, the venues and activities to me made me feel like the girls were doing something. They were always busy; they were always just doing something with their time and I appreciate that. So now what I am waiting for is the final night, I want to be able to say that it was at least at the level of last year and hopefully better. I want to be able for this pageant to have a good final night and an even better Elemental Court, one that hopefully includes my girl. So I am going to show you the Top 10 in each preliminary judging as well as the overall Top 10 and the add my 8 continental picks based on who I think should be there. So enjoy this final prediction and hopefully I will get a much better result this year, and hopefully some good news.
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SOOOO For my final Top 20:
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THE DUCHESS’ TOP TWENTY
TWENTIETH PLACE: ENGLAND (Cinthia Kusuma Rani)
NINETEETH PLACE: NEPAL (Riya Basnet)
EIGHTEENTH PLACE: VIETNAM (Hoang Thi Hanh)
SEVENTEENTH PLACE: NEW ZEALAND (Tashan Kapene)
SIXTEENTH PLACE: SIERRA LEONE (N’jainatu Sesay)
FIFTHTEENTH PLACE: GUATEMALA (Maria Regina Barco Sandoval)
FOURTEENTH PLACE: SOUTH AFRICA (Nazia Wadee)
THIRTHEEN PLACE: SPAIN (Sonia Evelyn Rodriguez Romeo)
THE DUCHESS’ TOP TWELVE
TWELVETH PLACE: BRAZIL (Maria Gabriela Hespanhnol Batistela)
Now I really like Brazil (as usual, Brazilians are gorgeous) but I had way higher hopes for me and I think she has faded a bit into the background. Like I know that she will do great on the Top 20 because Brazilians excel in portions like this, she even almost made my Top 10 performers. But I don’t know, I don’t find myself as excited for her as I used to be weeks ago. Hopefully she can do better on Saturday, I still have a bit of hope for her performance.
ELEVENTH PLACE: PHILIPPINES (Janelle Lazo Tee)
I honestly think everyone is too hard on Janelle because of Karen Ibasco, and she has to me actually had a really good run. I don’t mind her medals, she actually have such high scores on the medal events and in the Body and Form pre-judging. I wouldn’t put her past top 12, like lets not get crazy but I do think she deserves to have Top 20 spots. Now… I don’t want nor think Janelle should be in the Top 4 so I am hoping we can have a coronation with the least drama possible. But yes, you guys have to give Janelle a break; she is not Karen and it is unfair to treat her as such. If we really find the Miss Earth so unfair, bad and with preference to Philippines then perhaps we should follow other pageants.
TENTH PLACE: GUYANA (Faydeha Cathylyna King)
My girl! Faydeha is my first “Duchess Pick” and has been on my list since the beginning, even before many people had her. And I am very happy with how she has done; I find her so beautiful as well as having a fantastic personality. She has a tight bond with Nellys and was even so happy when she won Miss Earth Flora. To me she is not only beautiful but also has a great figure and I actually wish she’d go further, I really hope she does too. Like while I’m sleeping (given the pageant is at 4:00am in PR, and the melatonin I take wont allow me to wake up haha) she is over there doing a fantastic job.
NINTH PLACE: CZECH REPUBLIC (Klara Vavruskova)
All of Team Czech are worthy of applause because they have done so well I am very happy to see Klara do so well, I think she can get to a Top 12 place. I think she has done great and has had a consistent performance throughout this month. To me, she could do very well on final night, but I think this is as far as she’ll go not because she isn’t beautiful but because the other girl will probably have more impact on the judges.
THE DUCHESS’ TOP EIGHT
EIGHT PLACE: BELARUS (Alisa Manyonok)
Now Belarus is one of my two sentimental favorites, one of the two girls I truly love in this competition besides my country’s girl. Belarus to me is beautiful, has a nice body, spoke very eloquently in the interview and to me she needs more recognition in the medal events. Perhaps one would say I am blinded by how much I like her but I do think she has the body, catwalk and the face to make it to the top 8, I truly believe so. She has done very well in the medal events and the pre-judging; she is one of the girls that can handle both glam and natural photography. And to me she would be a good performer for that final night, so this is the second “Duchess Pick” I am defending fully hahaha. I would love to see her in a beautiful blue gown that shows her figure and given she is very stylized she will look hella tall.
SEVENTH PLACE: INDIA (Tejaswini Manogna)
Now this is probably the candidate that will be the most interesting to watch because to me she will probably get in by a special award rather than performance. She barely made it on my performer list. Her body is not in the shape that she needed to get a good score in body, and unfortunatelly to me her undereye bags were really pronounced for me to be in the Top 10. She is a beautiful girl but I wished she would have worked on that discoloration for the pageant. Now her saving grace is obviously the interview round which I think she topped, that is what will help her in the pageant. Now if I wear to judge her in the correct format, I don’t think she would go further than Top 20 because her body is not there. BUT if she actually survives that round, I have a feeling she’ll get very far, but if I were to choose based on the format I would put her way lower and bring someone from the top 12 or even Spain to her position. I do wish her the best of luck because she is a very educated woman as well as a good environmental warrior. But I have a feeling she will get really far or not far AT ALL; she is that type of contestant to me.
SIXTH PLACE: VENEZUELA (Mitchel Roxana Castellanos Azuaje)
So, for the 3 consecutive year I have correctly predicted the Miss Earth Venezuela, so I have high hopes for this girl. Now, I am actually one of the few people who doesn’t think she was like that amazing in the Face and Poise. Like she did okay to me. But to me she won the Body and Form preliminary, and that is the kind of stage presence that will catapult her to the Top 12. And honestly with makeup I do think she looks very pretty, and I think she will probably be okay in the hashtag round. NOW, on the final question I am always a bit worried with Venezuelan queens because I notice they do have a bit of problems with English. And the reality is that Mitchel can sometimes be a bit difficult to understand, so I am hoping they found her a translator. I would answer in Spanish if I were her.
FIFTH PLACE: USA (Emanii Jovan Davis)
So I had real high hopes for Emanii but to be honest I got to say I no longer look for her in crowds and to be honest sometimes I forget she is in the competition. If we didn’t have the pre-judging’s I honestly don’t think I’d have her on my final 8 because I don’t know, my expectations were too high. But I do think Emanii is the type of woman who knows when to peak so in the pre-judging she actually did very good which is good because I think she will place. I think it will take a surprise for her not to be in that Top 20 but it will take honestly presence to go further. She is competing with my Top 4 which has a lot of presence and they just grow of stage so. USA has a lot of work to get to that Top 4.
THE DUCHESS’ ELEMENTAL COURT
MISS FIRE 2019: Ghana (Evelyn Abena Appiah)
This woman is absolute fire and that is the reason I have her here, to me she is the perfect Miss Fire out of my Top 4. She came into the competition and I don’t even think I had her on my list, and then she started setting the competitions on absolute fire. To me, what she lacks in facial harmony (she has, to me, a sort of pulled look to her features) she makes up in not only performance but on personality. She looks very regal yet down to earth and she has known how to win over the crowd to the point she became a sensation in the Philippines. She has won awards and has won medals; she has just risen through the ranks of the Miss Earth pageant and I gotta applaud her. Her placement has honestly warranted a high place in this final night, and I am hoping she can answer the hashtag round because the two ladies above could snag an elemental crown.
MISS WATER 2019: Colombia (Yenny Katherine Carillo Zapata)
Now Colombia to me got into a very competitive group and that’s why she hasn’t “shined” in her medal events yet to me she did very well in her Pre-Judging. She made two of my lists and she did pretty okay in the interview, so I think she will get in because to me she is one of the best of the Americas. Specially in Body and Form, she kinda got a second wind and I was glad we were all very happy with her performance. Colombia has been waiting for a crown for a LONG time but honestly with Ukraine, Ghana and Puerto Rico she will have to fight even harder than ever. She is a refreshing and to me she should go with the hair and makeup she had on the Long Gown competition. That has been to me the best she has looked, and I hope she comes with some usual Colombian high impact. Now out of the Top 4, this is the placement that I feel might not get to solidify with women like USA roaming around. So I am really intrigued as to how she will perform on final night.
MISS AIR 2019: Ukraine (Diana Shabas)
So Ukraine to me is a beautiful, sassy European with a great personality and communication skills that to me will send her incredibly far. To be she is just easy, light and breezy which is the reason why to me that even if she would be a stunning Miss Earth, to me she gives me Air. And I actually do like to match the girls with the element given that… that’s kind of the point. She topped my Beauty and Poise round and was one of my favorites at the Body and Form as well as Intelligence. So I think she could easily take this crown and have a very universal acceptance, I think it will keep fixing Miss Earth from what I call “The Happening” and I think a Euro winner would be too. So if she gets to the Top 8 and has good answer there’s no reason for her not to get a continental crown, to me she is the most secure placement in that Top 20. I would be VERY surprised if she doesn’t make it to Top 4, specially with how bubbly and approachable she appears to be. Plus she has also done great things in the advocacy side since she got to the Philippines that I know won’t go unnoticed.
MISS EARTH 2019: Puerto Rico (Nellys Pimentel Campusano)
I have to say that if I were to choose a complete queen, a queen who to me has delivered in every part consistently it would be Nellys and Diana. I would say it’s between both of them. But to me Nellys is the one that gives me the most complete vibes, she is beautiful both in her face and her body while also as being a fantastic spokesperson. It is mindboggling to me how she went from looking kinda just okay in her final night at the local pageant to literally making me feel we actually have a chance at winning. I wasn’t disappointed when Krystal didn’t get in last year, the only time I have thought we could win was with Karla. And I 1000% believe Nellys to be even a much better candidate than Karla was, to me she is more beautiful and speaks much better. So I cannot, for the life of me, see a scenario in which Nellys is undeserving of a placement on the Top 20. You cannot give me a reason for Nellys not to be in the Top 20, and this has nothing to do with the nationality of her. The whole first six places of this list have no reason to be out of this top yet I cannot keep my hopes too high. I’m afraid I have been heartbroken too many times by this pageant. And every earthling here knows I tried my hardest not to get excited by this pageant and there Nellys just goes and gives me one of the best performances of any Boricua in an international pageant. Like, how dare she? Anyhow speaking about the final night, if or should I say WHEN she gets into the Top 20… I believe she can easily get into the Top 8. To me she has both the body and the face to come through both of those rounds EASILY, especially in Face and Poise. She had to be at least Top 5 in that pre-judging. Now, let’s talk about the hashtag round and the question round because have to take about the wig-snatching they tried to pull on my girl on that Pre-Judging. Ya’ll can not tell me that wasn’t even a bit targeted, when some of the girls were asked about their boyfriends and freaking Kangaroos? Please hahaha. BUT ya’ll thought my girl was gonna choke? Nah, she looked that judge asking a heavily unnecessary question dead in the eye and say “Wow.” And I think that is the general feelings of all Boricua pageant fans have after that interview. YET, she went on and answered each question calmy and as diplomatic as possible and as sick as she was that day she absolutely did well. So I am hopeful that IF they try her again at either of those rounds my girl can rise above it. NOW, I don’t need Nellys to win, I won’t call shade if she doesn’t BUT unless she bombs the Hashtag round…. My girl deserves ATLEAST an elemental crown. Styling wise I want my girl in a high ponytail and a beautiful regal body hugging dress, I feel it is her best hairstyling. I don’t know how the gowns are gonna work but if she can choose it I’d love her in an orange, pink or a color that just pops with her skin color. I truly cannot wait to see how this goes, I’m even waking up early to watch it. I do have to say I have a feeling (for the past couple of days) that Nellys could be either our 1st Miss Earth or our 3rd Miss World.