Helena: The Miss United Nations Pageant!

This past weekend I attended the first ever Miss United Nations Pageant at UVU (Utah Valley University) in Orem, UT! I went at the invitation of my friend, Patti, who knows one of the contestants personally! I had actually met Nilli once as well. Her full name is Nilufur Sherzod and she is from Tajikistan. She lived with Patti as a renter for about 2 years! She is very talented and absolutely gorgeous! As one of the main drivers of the UVU International Modeling Club, she was a very prominent part in also getting this pageant started.

The two MC's of the pageant were KSL radio personality and Mormon Tabernacle Choir member, Nikoyo Iyamba and popular performer/singer and also Tabernacle Choir Member, Alex Boye'. They were great together and their rhetoric was sometimes very funny, as Alex can get very animated!! He did some hilarious comedic interpretations of pageant contestants, black audience members, as well as poking fun of himself a lot! Ms. Iyamba has her own line of couture clothing, Nkoyo Bridal, which was modeled during the program. Mr. Boye' performed and handed out copies of his new CD!

It was really fun to see the 9 contestants walk out in native costumes! I wondered what Miss US would wear! Unfortunately, she wasn't represented b/c of a personal tragedy. It must have been a truly tragic event for her to miss out on a chance to win the first Miss United Nations at UVU! I hope everything goes well for her.

Here are some of the fun native costumes!

We were then entertained by each of the contestants in the talent competition and they were very talented! I loved some of the native dances! We saw Flamenco, and various dances from Brazil, Africa, Japan and others. There was one pianist and one singer. They were very brave! Many of these young women had only just learned English within the last few months. They were truly international, coming right from their countries of origin.
Voice of Africa performed some riotous dancing and drum solos!