January 23, 2009

Thursday Night Preliminary Winners -- Congrats to Vermont and New York!!!

Okay, I was at the preliminary competition last night, and I have to say I was SO impressed!  The show starts out with an honest-goodness DANCE number with all 52 contestants strutting their stuff to Madonna and Justin Timberlake! I was very impressed, because it was a total throwback to the days of big opening production numbers in the 80’s – let those girls show their stuff, I say!! It looks great!

Coming out on top in talent last night was Miss Vermont, Ashley Wheeler for her a cappella vocal rendition of “God Bless America”.  Receiving props in Lifestyle and Fitness in Swimsuit was Miss New York, Leigh-Taylor Smith.  Here’s an interesting fact:  Vermont has NEVER won a preliminary award in the history of the Miss America Pageant!  So an extra “WAY TO GO” for Ashley Wheeler for bringing her state to the forefront! 

Okay, since the prelim didn’t start until 8 p.m. VEGAS time (11 p.m. in Atlanta where I live), I was a little worried about how awake I’d be by the end of things. There are a lot of contestants and a lot of competitions to get through.  But I didn’t need to worry – when I sat in my FOURTH ROW seat (with my jaw hanging open at how close I was!) and the show started, I was so amazed at what I was seeing. 

Keep in mind, people – this is the first Miss America Pageant I have EVER been to as a spectator, and the first I’ve been to since I competed in 2001.

During the introductions, I found myself tearing up with excitement for what the girls had to be feeling…  I remember that energy and optimism, and know I’ll be a complete mess on Saturday night...  The contestants gave cute and funny intros, a couple of my favorites being:
Michigan – I can’t remember her exact words now, but she said something about coming from the state with the basketball team with the most wins and the football team with NO wins, and then she shrugged really endearingly and said weakly, “Go Lions….”  It was adorable, and I laughed out loud.
Arkansas – “If your man won’t give you a diamond, you can come to my state and dig up your own…”  Seriously, she might have even gotten a big ‘ol “HA!” out of me on that one.Too funny.

One side comment here:  These girls are FIT. And TINY. Wow, they are really tiny!  I don’t mean to sound surprised because I know that they are generally in-shape type of people, but they have come to this pageant PREPARED. You go girls, I am truly inspired.

So, talent was first – and while I’m not going to sit here and give you the blow-by-blow of each girl, I’ll mention a few things that stuck out to me:
South Carolina – she played that cute Gershwin song on the piano that you hear on the United Airlines commercials (Rhapsody in Blue).  She did a good job of playing the piano while still giving the audience a little “look” every so often – it was really entertaining!
Minnesota – she sang “You Don’t Own Me”, and honey, I BELIEVED her!  She owned that stage, and really commanded the song.  Props, girl!
Michigan – she did a jazz dance to “Big Time” by Linda Eder (I loooove me some Linda Eder!).  She did these repeated one-legged turns (forgive my lack of proper dance terms… I know I’m terrible!) in the middle of the stage over, and over, and OVER again and remained in the same spot the whole time!  I’m no dancer, but from my musical theatre background I know enough to know that is NOT easy. So again, props, girl!

Swimsuit was so different than it was when I competed.  We would calmly walk to the center of the stage, pose in front of the judges and do a slow turn… then leave. These women were posing, strutting, and staring down the judges like they were DARING them to even THINK about not giving them a 10.  They meant business!

Evening gown was also so much more contemporary than when I competed – it was refreshing to see.  There were a lot of the “liquid beading” gowns, and I gotta say that I luuuurve those things! They make the girls look like glamorous screen sirens. Kansas had a very simple black gown, and she accessorized it with huge gold necklaces draped around her neck. I thought it was a definite “non-pageanty” choice, and I loved it.  Again, you go girl.

There were also on-stage questions. The on-stage question counts for five percent of the total preliminary score. The question was focused on the contestant’s platform, which is great because it gives  the girls a  chance to show us why they chose what they did, and how they speak in front of large groups of people.  They also wore amazing little cocktail dresses – a nice plus for the fashion lovers in the crowd!

Okay, so what can we expect to happen on Saturday night??  Well, in a short answer – who knows?  Will all the girls who won a preliminary competition automatically make it into the semifinals? I can say that winning a preliminary absolutely does not guarantee you a spot in the final 15 – think about it – it’s just one area of competition and you are only competing against your group, so there are certainly no guarantees!

So those who did not win a prelim shouldn’t be discouraged – there are plenty Miss Americas out there who didn’t win any preliminary competitions at all, so really anything can happen. And since I didn’t get to see all three groups perform in all competitions, I certainly can’t give my opinion of who I think will be there in the 15. There is one thing for sure: This is an outstanding group of women, and I am confident that the Miss America who comes out of this group will be a great one.

So stay tuned, because I will post all the results as soon as I can – by first thing Sunday morning!

Comments

[Nicole]

Hello ADC - basically, there is a Miss Virgin Islands because someone applied to the Miss America Organization to run a state franchise for the Virgin Islands and was approved. This has not happened as of yet for Puerto Rico, and that's why there is no representative from there.

[L ee]

Congrats to Miss Ohio...you are a beautiful classy all American girl!

[ADC]

Quick question. Why isn't Miss Puerto Rico here but the Virgin Islands is?