Victoria Kjær Theilvig is Denmark’s first Miss Universe winner

She bested over a hundred contestants to get the crown.

On Sunday, November 17 (Manila time), the 73rd Miss Universe pageant was held at the CDMX Arena in Mexico City, Mexico.

Touted as the biggest show in the history of the annual beauty contest, 126 contestants from all over the world were gathered to compete for their chance to become the next queen, succeeding 2023 winner Sheynnis Palacios of Nicaragua.

After multiple phases of elimination, only five remained to participate in the question-and-answer portion of the evening.

They were the candidates from Nigeria, Mexico, Denmark, Thailand, and Venezuela.

Then, the 21-year-old Danish delegate Victoria Kjær Theilvig was asked, “How would you live your life differently if you knew nobody would judge you?”

Theilvig replied, “I would never change how I live my life. We learn from our mistakes. We learn every day. We learn something new and we gotta take that, bring it to the future, and that’s why I live each day by each day and I just gotta stay positive. So no, I will not change nothing.”

For the common final question of the final five, the organization asked: “Miss Universe has inspired generations of women. What do you want to say to the ones watching you now?”

“My message to all the world that is watching out there is: no matter where you come from, no matter your past, You can always choose to turn it into your strengths.”

She continued: “It will never define who you are You just gotta keep fighting I stand here today because I wanna change, I wanna make history. And that’s what I’m doing tonight. So never give up, #lways believe in yourself and your dreams. And that is exactly what you’re going to do.”

By the end of the competition, Victoria was able to win over the judges with her performance during the finals night as she was crowned the 73rd Miss Universe.

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She is the first-ever Danish woman to do so, as well as the first-ever to receive the ‘Lumière de l’Infini’ crown designed by Filipino jewelry company Jewelmer.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Chidimma Adetshia is first runner-up, followed by host country Mexico’s representative Maria Fernanda Beltran.

Crowd favorite Suchata Chuangsri continued the Southeast Asian country’s finals placement with a third-runner up finish, with Venezuelan candidate Ileana Marquez hailed as fourth runner-up.

Theilvig is not a stranger to world of pageantry, as she previously represented Denmark in the 2022 edition of Miss Grand International, where she ended in the top 20 of the year that saw Brazil’s Isabella Menin win the MGI crown.

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