Miss JA World for September
MISS Jamaica World beauty pageant will be held this year, according to co-franchise holder Dahlia Harris of Crown of Beauty Jamaica Limited.
“Yes. There is a pageant this year. We are just going to do it later in the year,” Harris told the Jamaica Observer.
“We will have the eliminations in September and the grand coronation in October,” she continued.
Harris shared that prospective entrants will be part of a boot camp to prepare them for the Miss Jamaica World journey.
“We did a lot of the preparations early last year, so by the time we selected a winner, she would have been ready to go. This year we’ll be doing boot camps before we even do the eliminations, so that when we people enter, they have an understanding of what is required in the competition,” Harris disclosed.
She continued, “Beauty with a Purpose is becoming more and more a priority for the Miss World Program. So absolutely there is also focus on physical beauty, poise and grace. We also look at things like walk, poise, make-up, and voice and speech.”
“I feel like once the boot camp is done, you will have an understanding on whether you’re ready for the competition,” she continued.
Jamaica began sending delegates to the international Miss World competition since the late 1950s. The term Miss Jamaica World was coined in 1978 when Mickey Haughton James staged the first pageant under that name. Two years prior, through his Spartan Health Club banner, he sent delegates to the international pageant.
James had the franchise until 2012 and resumed its leadership in 2017. In 2018, Crown of Beauty Jamaica Limited, through its principals Harris, the late theatre practitioner Aston Cooke and entertainment mogul Weston Haughton, took over the franchise.
Jamaica has, over the years, won the Miss World title on four occasions — 1963, Carol Joan Crawford; 1976, Cindy Breakspeare; 1993, Lisa Hanna; and 2019, Toni-Ann Singh.
Twenty-eight Jamaicans have made the top 20 at the Miss World finals with 20 making the top 10.
The current Miss Jamaica World title holder is Khalia Hall (2021).