(CNN) – Shenice Palacios from Nicaragua was crowned Miss Universe 2023 at the annual beauty pageant, which was held on Saturday evening in the capital of El Salvador, San Salvador, while Antonia Porsild from Thailand took second place as runner-up.
Credit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
National pageant winners from 84 countries competed in this year’s Miss Universe contest, which was judged by a panel that included supermodel Halima Aden, “Queer Eye” star Carson Kressley, TikTok influencer Avani Gregg, and two previous pageant winners. Beauty Universe, Janelle Comej from Trinidad and Tobago. (Miss Universe 1977) and Iris Mittenaere from France (Miss Universe 2016).
Shenis Palacios’s coronation momentCredit: Hector Vivas/Getty Images)
Twenty semi-finalists were announced at the start of Saturday night’s proceedings following the results of the preliminary competition (and voting by global followers), and after the swimsuit round, the field was narrowed to 10 – eliminating the first ‘curvy’ contestant to reach the semi-finals of pageant, Miss Nepal, as well as the first contestant to choose the burkini as her swimwear, Miss Pakistan.
Then the evening gown round reduced the number of contestants by half again, before reaching the winner of the title for the year 2023.
