MONROVIA — Every young girl has a time in her life when she dreams of being a Princess or Queen. Royalty out of a fairy tale or a Disney movie. The desire to be a Cinderella and a royalty in her own world has shaped her mind into a safe space where fairytales do come true. A fantastical figure loved and respected not only for her beauty, but her character and her ability to change situations; bad to good and create a magical experience. We see the princess themed parties; parents naming their daughters, Princess or Queen.
Report by By Edwin Elic-Jaleiba, Contributor
The physical manifestations of the desires for all of our sisters and women to be seen as royal figures. The Miss Liberia Beauty pageant has been a beacon for young Liberian women wishing to be recognized as a Queen for 6 decades. Of course, there are other pageants; church programs, school, university and now a multiplying array of queens and pageants. In spite of this, no pageant generates excitement quite like Miss Liberia. There is no QUEEN more than Miss Liberia; the Queen among Queens in Liberia.
Miss Liberia was historically the main event, when it came to showbiz. Having it all; fashion, pomp, pageantry, elegance, entertainment, thrills and disappointment. The tragic civil war interrupted all this; stalling so much progress in Liberia, with Miss Liberia being no exception. Intermittently the pageant was held, each time allowing young women to hope and dream and allowing some of them to aspire to be known as the most beautiful, eloquent and talented “Royalty” in Liberia. That start and stop era of Miss Liberia is now at an end. For the first time in almost a decade, on July 23, 2022, Liberia prepares to see 15 beautiful young women grace the stage at the historic Centennial Pavilion. From Bomi to Sinoe – coast to coast, history is about to be made in Liberian pageantry.
Fifteen exemplary members of Liberian Royalty are ready to take the stage and see which one of them merits the title and name of Miss Liberia. Their names roll of off one’s lips, Linda Doe – Bomi County; Georgia Bemah – Bong County; Faith Collins – Gbarpolu County; Julia Moore – Grand Bassa County; Joicet Foday – Grand Cape Mount County; Kindness Wilson – Grand Gedeh County; Favour Torpor – Grand Kru County; Tracy Nagbo – Lofa County; Lelai Yekelorde – Margibi County; Alice Quaye – Maryland County; Willimena Browne – Montserrado County; Rebina Carson – Nimba County; Veralyn Vonleh – Rivercess County; Kariah Dorley – River Gee County; & Antoinette Benson- Sinoe County. Fifteen beautiful young ladies, the epitome of the qualities of their respective counties, carrying the hopes of their people. The hope to boast of being able to say we produced Liberia’s Queen. The hope of producing an illustrious young lady who can represent Liberia adequately and ably on the national and global stages.
After a nationwide audition process that took the team from XL-Entertainment across Liberia conducting auditions out of Monrovia for the first time, Zubin Cooper CEO of XL-Entertainment told us a bit about what to expect. “There will be transparency, validity of the voting process. With a round by round update of what we shall be doing allowing the public to be au courant of what is happening. As we published the voting results of the Kick-Off we shall do with the grand finale. We wish to take it a step further and update as far as possible as we go along, to enable the public to see what is occurring. We also intend to air it on as many platforms as possible so that as many people as possible can see and ascertain for themselves the qualities of their respective Queens.”
As with any competition there are expectations of the Queen and what she should be and how she should conduct herself. Especially as this year’s theme is, Celebrating Liberia, Its Culture and Tourism”. XL-Entertainment let us know that the next Queen would have certain guaranteed characteristics that lived up to the theme; she would be a civic leader, engaged in charitable acts, someone who would articulately represent Liberia and her county. A custodian of our traditions and behavior, epitomizing our inherently Liberian qualities and spirit.
One of the major objectives of this year’s Miss Liberia is to sell Liberia’s culture and tradition to the rest of the world through Miss Liberia and showcase the pageant as a national unifier. The final rounds will see public voting continue, followed by a night of presentations on July 16, 2022 that will be streamed live on the nation’s broadcaster LNTV, KMTV, TAMMA TV, and JujuAfrica TV. And on July 23, 2022 the Queens will take the stage, showing their best in Swimwear, Talent, Elegance and brains; before we finally crown a new queen; a worthy successor to Queen Wokie Dolo, a new Miss Liberia.
