Leila Lopes of Angola crowned 60th Miss Universe

 

Leila Lopes from Angola was crowned Miss Universe, smoothly handling an interview question about what physical trait she would change if could, while wearing a strapless cream-colored gown.

Lopes, Angola’s first winner, beat out 88 other competitors to win the title during the 60th anniversary of the world’s biggest beauty pageant. She replaces last year’s winner, Ximena Navarrete of Mexico. 

The first runner-up was 23-year-old Olesia Stefanko of Ukraine and the second runner-up was Priscila Machado of Brazil. The third was Miss Philippines and the fourth Miss China.

Contestants from 89 nations on six continents spent the past three weeks in Sao Paulo, trying to learn samba dance steps, visiting impoverished children and kicking a football around for cameras as the globe’s biggest beauty contest is held in Brazil for the first time. 

The contestants, who must never have been married or had children and who must be at least 18 years of age and under 27 years of age by Feb. 1 of the competition year.  

Miss Universe 2011, the 60th anniversary of the Miss Universe pageant, will be held at the Credicard Hall, in São Paulo, Brazil on September 12, 2011. Ximena Navarrete of Mexico will crown her successor. 89 contestants are participating in this year´s pageant, surpassing the previous record of 86 contestants in 2006.

Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest run by the Miss Universe Organization. The pageant is the most publicized beauty contest in the world with 600 million viewers. The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of Kayser-Roth and then Gulf and Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996.

In 1998, Miss Universe changed its name from Miss Universe, Inc. to Miss Universe Organization and the headquarters moved from Long Beach California, to New York City that year. Donald Trump brought in a new team of professionals to the contest headed by its new CEO, Molly Miles, and president Maureen Reidy. The contest would use the slogan "Redefined for Today" for promotion of the pageants.

                         List of Miss Universe titleholders

Year	Country/Territory	Miss Universe	National title	Location
2011	Angola	Leila Lopes	Miss Angola	São Paulo, Brazil
2010	Mexico	Ximena Navarrete	Nuestra Belleza México	Las Vegas, Nevada U.S.
2009	Venezuela	Stefania Fernandez	Miss Venezuela	Nassau, Bahamas
2008	Venezuela	Dayana Mendoza	Miss Venezuela	Nha Trang, Vietnam
2007	Japan	Riyo Mori	Miss Universe Japan	Mexico City, Mexico
2006	Puerto Rico	Zuleyka Rivera	Miss Puerto Rico Universe	Los Angeles, California U.S.
2005	Canada	Natalie Glebova	Miss Universe Canada	Bangkok, Thailand
2004	Australia	Jennifer Hawkins	Miss Universe Australia	Quito, Ecuador
2003	Dominican Republic	Amelia Vega	Miss Dominican Republic	Panama City, Panama
2002	Panama	Justine Pasek	Señorita Panamá	Crowned by Donald Trump in NYC*
2002	Russia	Oxana Fedorova (Dethroned)	Miss Russia	San Juan, Puerto Rico
2001	Puerto Rico	Denise Quiñones	Miss Puerto Rico Universe	Bayamón, Puerto Rico
2000	India	Lara Dutta	Miss India	Nicosia, Cyprus