User:Mauriziok/Miss Universe 2015

Miss Universe 2015, the 64th Miss Universe pageant, was held on December 20, 2015 at The AXIS in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Paulina Vega of Colombia crowned her successor Pia Wurtzbach of the Philippines at the end of the event. After 42 years, this is the third time the Philippines won Miss Universe, after Margarita Moran in 1973. 80 contestants competed for the crown.

This was the first edition of the Miss Universe pageant to be held under the ownership of WME/IMG, which purchased the Miss Universe Organization from Donald Trump on September 14, 2015, three days after NBCUniversal sold him its 50% interest in the organization in exchange for Trump's dropping a breach of contract lawsuit he filed against the media company in August for terminating NBC's contract to televise the Miss Universe and Miss USA pageants. Consequently, it is also the first Miss Universe event to be aired by Fox and Azteca, which replaced NBC and UniMás (the respective parents of both networks, NBCUniversal and Univision Communications) as the pageant's respective English and Spanish broadcasters. The latter networks terminated their rights to the pageant in response to statements about Mexican immigrants made by Trump during a speech on June 16.

The broadcast received worldwide media attention due to an error made regarding the winner. Host Steve Harvey initially announced Ariadna Gutiérrez of Colombia as the new Miss Universe. After she was crowned, Harvey returned to the stage and apologized, stating that Gutiérrez was in fact the 1st runner-up and Wurtzbach was the winner. He later stated that he had been confused when reading the winner's name because both names were on the card and he only noticed the "1st" by Colombia's name.

Background music

 * Opening: "Beautiful Now" by Zedd featuring Jon Bellion, "Lean On" by Major Lazer & DJ Snake featuring MØ, "Cheerleader" by Omi
 * Swimsuit Competition: "Marvin Gaye", "One Call Away" and "Some Type of Love" by Charlie Puth (Live Performance)
 * Evening Gown Competition: "Live Forever" and "Done" by The Band Perry (Live Performance)
 * Final Look: "Every Time I'm with You", "Kiss from a Rose" and "Crazy" by Seal (Live Performance)

Judges
Miss Universe 2015 contestants were evaluated by panels of judges.

Preliminary competition

 * Erika Albies – Vice President of Global Fashion Communications at IMG
 * Erin Brady – Miss USA 2013 from Connecticut
 * Julio Caro – Independent film and television producer and talent manager
 * Keiko Uraguchi – Director of Digital Partnerships for WME/IMG
 * Nischelle Turner– Correspondent for Emmy Award-winning Entertainment Tonight
 * Rocky Motwani – Entrepreneur who recently co-founded his first fintech company, Jiko Services
 * Zak Soreff – Entertainment marketing expert

Final telecast

 * Emmitt Smith – Former college and professional football player
 * Niecy Nash – Emmy Award-nominated actress
 * Olivia Culpo – Miss Universe 2012 from United States
 * Perez Hilton – Blogger, columnist and television personality

Contestants
80 contestants competed for the title of Miss Universe 2015:

Retreats

 * 🇸🇮 Slovenia: Ana Haložan suffered an accident shortly after arriving at the hotel that welcomed the candidates, for which she remained hospitalized in Las Vegas with facial paralysis, preventing her from participating in registration activities, interviews and photographic studies; finally, after the uncertainty about e participation of her, she was not in the official presentation; However, despite not competing,  'Haložan'  was included in some activities at the end of the concentration, accompanied by her mother, and both were treated as special guests. At the final ceremony, she was allowed to parade across the stage in full dress, wearing the band with her nation's name, and received a bouquet of roses, in recognition, from Paulina Vega,  [ [Miss Universe 2014]] . It was the first time since  2009 that a candidate leaves the contest, being already in the previous events.
 * 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan: Despite having been included on the official website, the profile of Aigerim Smagulova was removed days before the start of the concentration for reasons not disclosed.

Substitutions

 * 🇦🇹 Austria: Amina Dagi winner of the 2012 national pageant, she represented that country in this contest, due to the conflict of dates that the current winner Annika Grill had for attending Miss World 2015.
 * 🇭🇷 Croatia: Barbara Ljiljak broke her arm hours before leaving for the competition, so her substitute was Mirta Kuštan, second finalist in the national competition.
 * 🇬🇦 Gabon: Ornella Obone third finalist of the national title, she represented her country in Miss Universe 2015, after the winner, Reine Ngotala, has competed in Miss World 2015.
 * 🇱🇧 Lebanon: Cynthia Samuel, first finalist of the national pageant, she was selected to compete in Miss Universe 2015 after Miss Lebanon 2015, Valerie Abou Chacra, competed in Miss World 2015.
 * 🇲🇺 Mauritius: Sheetal Khadun, first runner-up of Miss Mauricio 2014, she competed in place of Khusboo Ramnawaj, who was stripped of her title for failing to fulfill her duties as titular queen.
 * 🇵🇾 Paraguay: Myriam Arévalos was appointed by "Promociones Gloria", a Paraguayan national franchise holder, to represent the country in this edition; after the original designee, Laura Garcete, broke communication with said company after her pregnancy status was discovered.
 * 🇷🇺 Russia: Vladislava Evtushenko, first runner-up for the national title, represented her country in Miss Universe 2015, after the winner, Sofia Nikitchuk, competed in Miss World 2015.
 * 🇿🇦 South Africa: Refilwe Mthimunye, first runner-up for the national title, represented her country at Miss Universe 2015, after the winner, Liesl Laurie, competed at Miss World 2015.

Designations

 * 🇧🇬 Bulgaria: Radostina Todorova was appointed by the directors of the franchise of that country, after not carrying out the national contest.
 * 🇨🇱 Chile: María Belén Jerez was appointed by Luciano Marocchino, who is director of the franchise in that country, after not holding the national contest.
 * 🇸🇻 El Salvador: Fátima Rivas was chosen by the Organization Nuestra Belleza El Salvador after not holding the national contest this year.
 * 🇫🇷 France: Flora Coquerel was appointed by the director of the franchise Sylvie Tellier, to compete in "Miss Universe 2015", after being a national beauty queen in 2014; And given the impossibility of crowning a new queen, then "Miss France 2016" was scheduled for December 19.
 * Georgia: Janet Kerdikoshvili was appointed by the board of the organization in her country, after not being able to participate in Miss Universe 2013.
 * Kosovo: Mirjeta Shala was appointed by Fadil Berisha, who is president of the Kosovar organization, to participate in this edition, after not being able to do so in Miss Universe 2013.
 * 🇵🇱 Poland: Weronika Szmajdzińska was selected to represent her nation, after being national queen years ago, after the delay of the national contest in her country.

Returns

 * Last competed in 2012:
 * 🇰🇾 Cayman Islands
 * 🇲🇪 Montenegro
 * Last competed in 2013:
 *  Vietnam
 *  Vietnam

Withdrawals

 * 🇪🇬 Egypt – No national contest held.
 * 🇪🇹 Ethiopia – Miss Universe Ethiopia was not held due to lack of sponsorship. The next edition will be held in October 2016.
 * 🇬🇺 Guam – The Miss Universe Guam pageant was postponed until early 2016.
 * 🇰🇿 Kazakhstan – Aigerim Smagulova was appointed to replace Regina Valter, Miss Almaty 2015, by the Miss Kazakhstan Organization because of scheduling conflict with the Miss Kazakhstan 2015 finals, but withdrew for personal reasons.
 * 🇰🇪 Kenya – The Miss Universe Kenya pageant was postponed to next year.
 * 🇱🇹 Lithuania – The Miss Lietuva pageant was postponed.
 * 🇸🇮 Slovenia – Miss Universe Slovenia Ana Haložan suffered an accident when she arrived in Las Vegas, which resulted in hospitalization, preventing her from participating in registration activities, interviews and pictorials. She was not present at the first official events but stayed in Las Vegas until the pageant was over. She suffered a seizure and had her face partially paralyzed. Despite her withdrawal, she was given an opportunity to walk on the stage during the live telecast.
 * 🇱🇰 Sri Lanka – The Miss Universe Sri Lanka Organization plans to have its national contest in 2016.
 *  St. Lucia- Miss Universe St. Lucia was not held, hence no delegate participated this year.
 * 🇨🇭 Switzerland – No national contest held.
 * 🇹🇹 Trinidad and Tobago – Miss Universe Trinidad and Tobago was cancelled after several major sponsors of the pageant withdrew because of the Donald Trump controversy and the upcoming general elections.
 *  Turks and Caicos – The Miss Turks and Caicos pageant was not held due to lack of funding and sponsorship. The next edition of Miss Turks and Caicos will be held in 2016.