The formerly reigning Miss Universe, Andrea Meza of Mexico, crowned her successor, a Bollywood actress, in the Israeli Crimson Sea resort city of Eilat. The pageant was held in the middle of the night time, wrapping up at 5 a.m. nearby time (10 p.m. EST) to accommodate the primetime plan in the U.S.

The pageant incorporated traditional shows of countrywide costumes, evening gowns and swimwear, as well as a collection of job interview questions to check contestants’ general public speaking expertise.

But it also drew attention in current weeks for other factors.

A grassroots Palestinian-led boycott had urged contestants to skip the event to protest Israel’s cure of the Palestinians.

In the end, only Malaysia, a predominantly Muslim place with shut ties to the Palestinians, did not deliver a agent, citing the global COVID-19 scenario. The South African governing administration, which also strongly supports the Palestinian result in, withdrew guidance for the country’s agent in excess of her participation.

In an job interview final thirty day period, Meza urged contestants to leave politics out of the pageant, indicating the gathering was meant to deliver together girls from different backgrounds. “When you are in there you neglect about politics, about your religion,” she told The Related Press at the time.

Sara Salansky, an formal with the Israeli Tourism Ministry, claimed the nation was selected to host the contest earlier this 12 months because of Israel’s prosperous coronavirus vaccination method.

The contest also experienced a last-minute hiccup with the arrival of the omicron variant, which pressured Israel to shut its borders to foreign holidaymakers late final month.

Most of the Skip Universe contestants have been presently in the place just before the new regulations came into impact. But these who arrived afterward were being specified particular permission to enter, albeit with a necessary 72-hour quarantine period.

All over the operate-up to Sunday’s contest, all contestants ended up examined for the coronavirus just about every 48 hrs and necessary…