Miss Grand International 2021

Location and date

On 31 August 2021, the Miss Grand International organization publicized the promoted media on their social platforms citing that the grand final of the 9th Miss Grand International will take place in Phuket, Thailand, on 4 December 2021, while the ancillary events will commence prior, including; the national costume parade, the swimwear competition, and the preliminary round. All such events were set to launch after the registration date, which was scheduled for 17 November.^[1][6][7] However, the COVID-19 pandemic in Phuket caused all convention centers and theaters in the province, which once had the potential to host the important event, to be abandoned, and suffered a facility shortage.^[13][14] As a result, the organizer inevitably decided to reschedule most of the main events except the swimsuit competition, to be held in Bangkok instead.^[3]

Later on 6 October 2021, the organization additionally detailed the schedule of the preliminary activities on the island of Phuket as well as the main event in Bangkok;^[15] however, some ancillary activities was cancelled due to the opposing political views between the organizer and the pro-military government local community; which caused the application for property use to be revoked.^[16][17][18] The local government also declined to facilitate the event arrangement in the province.^{[16][17][18][19]}

Selection of participants

Of all fifty-nine participating candidates, only sixteen were determined through the Miss Grand national pageants, including Cambodia,^[20] Chile,^[21] Belgium,^[22] Ecuador,^[23] France,^[24] Italy,^[25] Japan,^[26] Liberia,^[27] Nicaragua,^[28] South Korea,^[29] Spain,^[30] Malaysia,^[31] Paraguay,^[32] Puerto Rico,^[33] Northern Ireland,^[34] and United States,^[35] while the representatives of Albania, England, Kosovo, Scotland, and Wales, who were also elected through the Miss Grand national pageants, did not enter the international contest for unknown reasons.^{[36][37][38][39]}

Three countries, the Dominican Republic,^[40] Mauritius,^[41] and Germany,^[42] sent their other pageant's main winner to compete. The remaining candidates were either appointed or obtained the title as a supplemental award at other national pageants, such as Manika Sheokhand of India, who was named Miss Grand India 2021 after finishing as the first runner-up in Femina Miss India 2020.^[43]

Initially, seventy-one contestants confirmed their participation but twelve withdrew, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[39][44] Meanwhile, the original representatives of Argentina,^[45] Germany,^[46] Japan,^[47] Liberia,^[27] Nigeria,^[48] Panama,^[49] and Russia,^[50] were replaced by their runners-up or the appointed candidates after the resignation, dethronement, or changing of national licensee.^{[26][27][49][51][52]}

Placements

§ – Voted into the Top 10 by viewers and awarded as Miss Popular Vote

Special awards