Yesterday we witnessed the crowning of Iris Mittenaere from France as the winner of Miss Universe 2016 in the Philippines. While the selection of winner was globally accepted with happiness, what left people in extreme shock was the exclusion of Mariam Habach, Miss Venezuela, from the Top 13 of the contest. Mariam was touted as the one to beat out by the global pageant portals and many considered her preliminary performance as the finest performance that night. It was extremely difficult to digest the fact that she couldn’t even place in Top 13 inspite of giving such a stellar performance. In last 13 years, this is the 4th time Miss Venezuela missed the cut in the finale. While it was difficult to believe that she was out from the competition too early, the pageant fans have listed few points that made us contemplate on the said fact. Let us have a look at them.

1. The Attitude: There were some reports from fans stating that a famous blogger Julio Rodriguez who quoted Mariam coming from a rich family and having a spoilt attitude. He says he has seen her treating with bad attitude and making mockery of them. He looked really upset with her being Miss Venezuela and didn’t even include her in his prediction list for Miss Universe 2016, which apparently became the reality on 29th Jan’17 Night. If you see her national crowning, you would notice how contestants walked out of the stage when she was declared as the winner. This happens very rarely when mass of contestants leave the stage in despair and this speaks volume.
2. Personal Interview: Miss Venezuela are generally well spoken, so it’s difficult to believe that Mariam bombed in interview. However, in a recent article by ABS-CBN news, judges quoted that Mariam lacked the confidence they were looking for. She wasn’t upto the mark in personal interview. Now if you know, Personal interviews are generally taken before Preliminary contest. So if judges didn’t like someone in interview, no matter how that girl performs on the stage, they would still try to avoid her. That’s a general human psychology. Similarly, we see girls like Kenya, Canada, Peru etc who didn’t stand out so easily in preliminary yet made it so high in finale because judges must have liked them during interview and hence they gave good score to them in preliminary as well. This explains why we see many front runner girls missing the first cut in finale and how some weak sashes places above everyone else.
3. Strong Individual Personality: If you analyse this year’s selection patter of Top 13, you would realise how each girl had a strong personality and an advocacy. They were looking for a woman who had a motto in life and shined as an individual rather than on sash. This explains why girls like Haiti, Canada, Kenya, France, Colombia etc made it so high because they stand as a strong women of today. Mariam lacked in this area. She stood out because of sash and the loud support but not because of an advocacy or some practical achievements.

   

4. The Loser Attitude: There was something weird to notice during the final telecast. While the semifinalists were being called out, Mariam was constantly looking down with an upset face. It looked as if she knew she isn’t going to place and was very sad about her. She was standing in extreme front and it was very sad to see her not even facing camera. Yes, we do feel bad for her but when you are on a global television where billions of people are watching you live, the least you can do is smile, irrespective of the result. She might have known this on the basis of how judges felt for her in interview or may be someone told her or may be her gut feeling, we don’t know. But what we know is her this act didn’t go down well with global fans. When 13 finalist, Miss Thailand was called out, we could see the girl standing next to Venezuela consoling her for not making to Top 13.

These are just derived theories or speculation. While we would loved to be proven wrong, the facts say otherwise. What do you feel about the points mentioned? Do you think Venezuela deserved her non placement? Or she should have at least place in Top 13?