Harnaaz Sandhu, the 22-year-old winner of the 70th Miss Universe pageant, is set to crown the 71st Miss Universe, which will air on Saturday, January 14, 2023.
The 71st annual Miss Universe pageant will take place on Saturday at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana. The contest has brought together nearly 84 contestants from across the world.
Harnaaz Sandhu: Looking back at the reigning beauty pageant
As mentioned earlier, the 71st Miss Universe will be crowned by reigning queen Harnaaz Sandhu from Chandigarh in Punjab, India.
The 22-year-old won the Miss Diva Universe 2021 title. This opened avenues for her to compete in the Miss Universe 2021 pageant for India, 21 years after Lara Dutta won the crown.
Sandhu began her modeling career at quite a young age and has appeared in a number of fashion shows in India. She also began participating in beauty contests and won her first contest when she was crowned Miss Chandigarh in 2017.
Harnaaz also competed in the 2019 Femina Miss India pageant and was also featured in the top 12. She then took part and won the Miss Diva Universe competition in 2021.
Harnaaz charmed the judges with her knowledge and social awareness, and managed to win every round. During the contest, she gave a speech about Climate Change and Global Warming which won the judges who crowned her Miss Diva 2021.
Miss Universe pageant will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana
Reigning Miss Universe, Harnaaz Sandhu will crown the next Miss Universe in New Orleans, Louisiana. Mayor LaToya Cantrell of New Orleans said in a statement that the city and the Miss Universe Organization have common ideals of "promoting inclusivity, culture," and women empowerment.
The Miss Universe 2022 pageant title has a cash award of $250,000. The top 16 semifinalists will be chosen by the public following the evening gown and national costume rounds, which took place on January 11, 2023. The participants will compete in the final swimsuit round, which will reduce the number of finalists from 16 to 10.
The Miss Universe preliminary competition was streamed live on the Miss Universe YouTube channel on January 11, 2023. It is hosted by Jeannie Mai Jenkins, and reality actress and former Miss Universe, Olivia Culpo.
This year, Divita Rai will be posing as the 2022 Miss Universe contestant from India. Rai was named Miss Diva Universe 2022 by departing title-holder Harnaaz Sandhu on August 22, 2022, at the Miss Diva Organization's 10th-anniversary gala.
Divita Rai hails from Mumbai but was born and brought up in Mangalore.
The national costume competition that was held on Wednesday featured 23-year-old Rai teaming up with Abhishek Sharma, an Indian-Western fashion expert. The elaborate outfit, named "sone ki chidiya" (golden bird) has gold wings on top of a lehenga that has been lavishly embroidered.
The 71st Miss Universe pageant will be broadcast on the Roku channel. Interested viewers can watch it on their Amazon Fire TVs, Apple TVs, Samsung TVs, or Roku.com, Roku TVs, Roku Streaming Sticks, and Fire TV Stick 4K. The Roku app is available for iOS and Android devices as well.