Miss Universe 2018 Final: H'Hen Nie in Top 20

The 67th Miss Universe had the participation of contestants from 94 countries and territories, surpassing the record of 94 contestants of 2017.

According to this year's rules, the organizers will choose the top 20 instead of the top 16 like last season, then the top 10 and top 5. Steve Harvey continues to take on the role of MC with model Ashley Graham.

The Top 20 will include 5 European contestants, 5 representatives from the Americas, 5 representatives from Africa and Asia-Pacific, the remaining 5 will be randomly selected from all contestants. The Top 10 will perform in both swimsuits and evening gowns for the judges to choose the Top 5 to enter the behavioral round.

In short skirts, 94 beauties from many countries and territories stepped out to greet the audience.

Host Steve Harvey announced the five contestants from Asia, Africa and Oceania in the Top 20 right after the contestants' performances. The five representatives from Asia, Africa and Oceania include: Tamaryn Green (South Africa), Catriona Gray (Philippines), Manita Devkota (Nepal), H'Hen Niê (Vietnam) and Sophida Kanchanarin (Thailand).

The Vietnamese representative officially entered the top 20 amidst the cheers of thousands of spectators. The beauty communicated quite fluently in English.

From 1997 to 2014, under Donald Trump, the Miss Universe pageant was always known for its beautiful, extremely hot girls, excellent performance skills, and especially the ability to cause a media fever.

At that time, the swimsuit and evening gown performance scores accounted for 2/3, the interview only accounted for 1/3 to choose the Top 15 semi-finals. Then, based on the performance skills on the final night, the Top 10 and Top 5 were gradually eliminated, creating a playground for only a few beauty powerhouses in Latin America to take turns entering the top and winning high prizes.

However, since 2015, when it was transferred to IMG, the criteria for the contest suddenly changed 180 degrees when many new, less-noticed countries suddenly created many unexpected successes. For 3 consecutive years, the beauty queens were only less than 1.70m tall, sometimes with a beauty that was difficult to perceive, but were all crowned thanks to their ability to answer questions, behave, and communicate.

The organizers also announced that the judging will be based on the entire competition process, not just the two preliminary and final nights. 60% of the score is decided by the organizers based on her personality during the 2-3 weeks of the competition, whether her behavior is good or not, and her interview score; the remaining 40% is performance skills and beauty.

That means now the criteria of Miss Universe has started to follow the model of Miss World, favoring girls with deep souls, active social activities, and intellectual intelligence as top priorities.

The most promising candidates

The first candidate that needs to be mentioned is Miss Philippines - Catrolina Gray (born January 6, 1994), of Australian-African descent, so she has an extremely sharp, attractive, and luxurious face.

Next up is Tamaryn Green (born August 19, 1994), who is expected to make a back-to-back victory for South Africa. The first thing that impresses people about this African contestant is her international beauty and bright commercial face.

Don't be surprised if Miss Puerto Rico - Kiara Ortega (August 23, 1993) unexpectedly wins the crown even though she is limited in height under 1.70m, appearing quite modest compared to other competitors.

13 years ago, Canada won the Miss Universe 2005 crown right on Thai soil, and the former Miss of that year, Natalie Glebova, really hopes that her compatriot, Marta Stępień (January 23, 1994), is also a Canadian of Eastern European origin, and is also a true warrior who has competed in many international beauty pageants in the past.

In addition to the strong candidates mentioned above, we must also be wary of other candidates from Australia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, ... all of whom have the potential to cause big surprises in the upcoming final night.

H'Hen Nie is facing a historic opportunity.

Vietnam's representative at this year's contest is Miss Universe Vietnam 2017 H'Hen Nie. The beauty was born in 1992 and comes from Dak Lak, and is of the Ede ethnic group. She is 1.72m tall with measurements of 84-60-93.

Throughout the past time, H'Hen Niê has always made a strong impression on the judges and fans both domestically and internationally.

In the semi-final night, the beauty continued to show her mettle. With two impressive performances in swimsuit and evening gown, H'Hen Nie was highly appreciated by a series of beauty experts and predicted to have the ability to make a difference in the final round.