Miss Venezuela Gabriela Isler has been crowned this year’s Miss Universe.
Judges, including rock star Steven Tyler from Aerosmith, picked the winner from a total of 86 contestants at the show, watched by millions of viewers around the world.
Last year’s winner Olivia Culpo of the United States placed a diamond crown on the head of Isler, who wore a silver rhine-stone studded evening dress.
The 25 year old model and television presenter told reporters that she was shocked, but blessed and happy to represent her country.
The big night began with 87 contestants looking for the title, but quickly only 16 were chosen to move forward: Costa Rica, Ukraine, China, Ecuador, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Spain, the United States, Nicaragua, Switzerland, India, Brazil and the Philippines.
Best national costume went to Miss Nicaragua, Nastassja Bolívar, who is known as the 2011 winner of Univision’s “Nuestra Belleza Latina” beauty contest.
Only Spain, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, the United States, Ukraine, Ecuador, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic made it to the top 10.
From there only Ecuador, Brazil, Spain, Venezuela and the Philippines remained in the running for the crown.
Steven Tyler asked the top five contestants questions which ranged from “What would happen to the world if we could no longer use the Internet?” to the one posed to Miss Venezuela: “What is your biggest fear and how do you plan to overcome it?”
The evening’s soon-to-be winner responded: “We should overcome all our fears and this in turn would make us stronger. As soon as we overcome our fears, we can face any challenge.”
The night came to close with Brazil as the fourth runner-up, Philippines taking third runner-up, Ecuador as second runner-up, and Spain being named first runner-up.
With that, Gabriela Isler won Venezuela’s seventh Miss Universe crown and the first since Stefanía Fernández took the title in 2009.
The contest, whose slogan is “confidently beautiful,” was first held in 1952 in Palm Beach in the United States. It still requires the women not to be married or pregnant.
