Guyana has in the past made major inroads at the Miss World Pageant but never at the Miss Universe contest. However, the new franchise holder for the Miss Universe contest is not only confident of staging a pageant with a difference but that the queen will stamp her authority at the event billed for May on the island of Puerto Rico.
A new spin to this year's Miss Guyana Universe pageant, expected to be staged at the National Cultural Centre on April 13, will be a grand ball for the queen and delegates after the pageant where they would be serenaded by international artistes.
Negotiations are also in the final stages to have two former Miss Universe queens appear at the pageant.
This year's franchise holder is McNeal Enterprises, run by businessman Odinga Lumumba. He has established a committee to aid in the preparations.
The committee members are coordinator, Nickolet Trotman, designers Michelle Cole, Pamela Fox and Pat Coates, physical fitness instructor, Regina Spencer, pageant organiser and beauty salon owner, Pamela Dillon, commercial interior designer, Supriya Singh and Clem David and Steve Ninvalle as the public relations officers.
Trinidadian Lester Rauseo will be entrusted with the task of training the sixteen contestants.
This is not the first time Guyana will be seeing Rauseo at work as he was intimately involved in the last Miss Guyana Universe pageant hosted in 1999. That year's queen, Morvinia Sobers, participated in the Miss Universe contest which was held in Trinidad.
Speaking to Stabroek News on Friday, Ninvalle said that the committee is aiming to have a pageant with a "difference."
Flashback: the 1971 pageant to choose Miss Guyana sa Miss Coca-Cola Nalini Moonasar (centre) being crowned as the queen. The first runner-up was Minerva Leow (left) while Miss Chronicle Faye Clarke was third.
Though these are sentiments that were heard before from the coordinators for the 1999 Miss Guyana Universe and last year's Miss Guyana World pageants, Ninvalle assured that steps have been taken to ensure that this contest will be the talk of the town long after it is staged.
The pageant will see some sixteen girls participating and these girls must have a minimum of five CXC subjects with at least a Grade Two in English A.
Ninvalle said that the committee is hoping to attract contestants from across the country. Applications would be available for potential contestants by next Monday and the coordinators would be visiting the various regions and distributing applications. Contestants must be between the ages of 18 and 27, unmarried and have no children.
According to Ninvalle, five finalists will be chosen from the 16.
Prior to the pageant the swimsuit competition will be staged and points from this will be collated with the scores from the other segments on the night of the pageant.
This together with television and radio programmes, where the contestants will be asked questions by members of the public, are novel features. Points from the question and answer programmes will also be used in choosing the queen.
It will be a night that the contestants are unlikely to forget as they will be the centre of attraction at the grand ball. A venue for the ball has not been identified as yet but Ninvalle said it will be a canopy style affair catering for some three thousand persons.
The ball will be spiced with the electrifying voices of international singers, including Jamaican reggae singer, Freddie McGregor and a band called `QT' also from the land of reggae. The public relations officer said that the committee is also negotiating with Trinidadian soca singer, Machel Montano and a Grammy award winning singer.
The franchise holder is hoping to make the event an annual one and hopes that it will be a tourist attraction as Guyana attempts to invigorate its tourist industry.
The organisers have not yet decided on what prizes will be given to the winners of the pageant but it has been promised that the girls will not have problems securing what they win. Also they would not be saddled with the responsibility of finding sponsors as the co-ordinators will assist in this aspect.
So Guyanese can sit back and relax and wait for a pageant of a lifetime, or so the organizers promise.
Guyana has been quite successful at the Miss World in the past, although never capturing the ultimate prize. In 1967 Shakira Baksh placed third at the Miss World and in 1971 Nalini Moonasar copped fourth place at the pageant. That was the last time Guyana placed at any pageant although last year's Miss Guyana World, Olive Gopaul was widely acclaimed for her performance at the pageant held in South Africa.