A beauty pageant took an unexpected turn when one of the contestants mistakenly thought she had been called as a finalist.
It happened to Miss Panama Isamar Herrera at Saturday’s Miss Grand International in Bangkok, where she misheard host Matthew Deane as he named Miss Paraguay Cecilia Romero as the contestant who’d made the cut.
Footage that has now gone viral shows Herrera happily pumping her fists in the air and walking to the front of the stage to join the finalists, while Deane suddenly paused between names.
Isamar Herrera/Instagram
Miss Panama Isamar Herrera poses
Herrera is forced to stand picture-perfect for several seconds while the venue falls silent.
“I beg your pardon,” Deane said after a few moments. “I announced Miss Grand Paraguay.”
Deane tried to smooth things over by adding, “There is a lot of noise in this hall, filled with fans from all over the world.”
As he commented, Herrera, who had made her way to the front of the stage, simply turned and, with the walk of a runway model, returned to her spot among the beauty queens waiting to be named. But when all the finalists had been called, she was not among them.
Even after the misunderstanding, Herrera didn’t appear to be upset.
“These things happen,” she later told The Daily Mail. “It was a mistake, and this is a competition. You have to know how to lose and recognize the triumph of others.”
See the moment at about 1:08:00 in the video below:
Get your daily dose of entertainment news, celebrity updates, and what to watch with our EW Dispatch newsletter.
Herrera was described as “an entrepreneur and singer,” as well as “a dreamer and a student of Advertising and Marketing who firmly believes that with faith, discipline, and love, every goal can be achieved” in an Instagram post shared last month by the Miss Grand International pageant. “Guided by resilience and empathy, she treasures her family, friends, and every person who crosses her path.”
It continued, she “sees the crown as more than a symbol of beauty — it is a chance to inspire others and to show that limits do not exist when you fight with heart. Her mission is to be an example of overcoming adversity, reminding the world that true success comes from working with love, respect, and shining without dimming the light of others.”
Emma Tiglao, Miss Grand Philippines, walked away with the crown this year.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
