10:29: Right after the national costume competition, the contestants entered the swimsuit competition. This year's bikini has a skirt, the main colors are purple and yellow.
10:27: Vietnam's representative - Miss Ky Duyen wears a national costume design including a Nhat Binh shirt, embellished with butterfly motifs and studded with stones. Her prop is a hand-held parasol, which when opened will simulate the image of "a chrysalis turning into a butterfly".
The costume is inspired by the butterfly parasol of the Nguyen Dynasty in the 20th century, honoring the ingenuity and meticulousness of ancient artisans.
10:19: The representative of Thailand brings a costume inspired by the image of a warrior. She is one of the highly rated contestants in Southeast Asia, often appearing in the rankings of beauty websites.
9:45: Many impressive national costumes of India, Cuba, Indonesia… were elaborately made, bearing the characteristics of each country. Some designs of representatives of Australia, Croatia, Cyprus, Finland… were commented to be quite simple, like a normal evening gown.
9:08: The National Costume Competition begins. Contestants perform in alphabetical order by country name.
8:55: The Miss Universe homepage announced that some representatives from Ireland, Malaysia, Cameroon... have made a breakthrough in the audience vote rankings. The winner of this category will go straight to the top 30.
8:45: The Miss Universe organization announced that 22,000 tickets to the semi-final day at Arena CDMX have been sold out.
The semi-finals of Miss Universe 2024 will take place from 9:00 a.m. on November 15 and 17 (Vietnam time) at Arena CDMX in Mexico City.
Nearly 130 beauties from countries and territories around the world will compete in three categories: swimsuit, evening gown, and national costume.
Vietnam's representative at Miss Universe 2024 is Miss Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen. She was once in the Top 4 beauties with the highest number of followers, with 1.7 million followers.
Because of the large number of contestants, Miss Universe has to divide the contestants into groups to perform. The swimsuit and evening gown competitions will be divided into groups, arranged by continent and not in alphabetical order.
The semi-final night will also feature a national call-out. Before that, the contestants will rehearse and participate in the Miss Universe 2024 crown announcement ceremony.
The Miss Universe 2024 final will be held in Mexico on the morning of November 17 (Vietnam time). Miss Sheynnis Palacios - the reigning Miss Universe will hand over the crown to her successor.
Transgender billionaire Anne Jakrajutatip - owner of Miss Universe - said the schedule of the new Miss Universe 2024 will start in Miami, followed by New York, Bangkok (Thailand), Palawan (Philippines) and Jakarta (Indonesia).
The winner will travel to New York to participate in Christmas and New Year celebrations. Ms. Anne shared that the new beauty queen's activities will last all year, so the crowned beauty needs to maintain good health and mentality to complete her mission during her term.
This year, Ky Duyen will have to compete with an unprecedented number of contestants in the history of Miss Universe.
When she entered the competition, she was included in several lists of potential candidates for the crown.
Before the Miss Universe 2024 semi-finals, prestigious beauty sites continuously announced prediction lists for the top 30 and top 20.
Beauty site Missosology also released the third ranking. In the top 30, Miss Nguyen Cao Ky Duyen was not mentioned.
In the list evaluated by beauty site Global Beauties, the top 20 also lacks Ky Duyen. She is also not on the list of additional predictions.
The fact that Ky Duyen is not highly rated in the world experts' prediction rankings puts her in a difficult position. Although Ky Duyen has shown investment and careful preparation to shine in this international race.
A big challenge for Ky Duyen is that recently, Vietnamese representatives competing in the "Big 6" beauty pageants (ie the 6 biggest beauty contests) such as Miss Supranational, Miss Earth, Miss Grand International all failed to make it to the top. Only Thanh Thuy was crowned Miss International 2024.
The two previous representatives of Vietnam, Bui Quynh Hoa and Ngoc Chau, did not advance far, so the audience's expectations for Ky Duyen increased, because Miss Universe is the most fierce beauty contest on the planet.
