Priscilla Merielles and Drita Ziri have won Miss Earth close to two decades apart, but the two queens share a common belief for the international pageant that aims to help protect the planet.
Speaking with Inquirer Entertainment at a recent event with the reigning queens, Meirelles shared how amazed she was to see how the candidates get better every year.
‘We can see that the level goes up, and up, and up. I honestly don’t know where it’s gonna stop,’ said the first Miss Earth winner from Brazil, who was crowned 21 years ago in Manila in 2004.
‘When it comes to speaking your mind, and have a beautiful heart, I think that’s a universal language. And I do think that all the Miss Earth winners, and majority of the candidates do carry that kind of trait,’ Meirelles continued.
Ziri, Albania’s first Miss Earth winner who was crowned in Vietnam in 2023, is back in Manila and talked about the pageant’s legacy at the recent preliminary judging.
‘I think that each queen has brought someting different, but every queen stood to the core of Miss Earth, which is environmental awareness,’ the host and model told Inquirer Entertainment.
She also said that the Miss Earth pageant has held onto its purpose ‘in the best way possible,’ contributing its platform for the ladies to serve as ‘beauties for a cause.’
Meirelles shared the same sentiment when she said, ‘The most significant legacy of the Miss Earth pageant is actually to empower women with brains to come forward and advocate for what matters, which in my opinion is really Mother Earth.’ She looked back on her childhood in Brazil, growing up surrounded by greeneries and breathing fresh air, and how today’s reality no longer reflect that environment.
‘The way that it can actually make an impact being a beaty pageant, being this kind of platform that attracts a lot of eyes because of the beauty of the girls, but what they bring home are much more than that. It really is the power of changing people’s hearts, and make them act and do something about it,’ Meirelles explained.
She also expressed her gratitude to Carousel Productions, the organizer of the Miss Earth pageant, for treating her like family. ‘Thank you for embracing me, for believing in me. It’s very important as a reigning queen that you have that support, and you have kindness around you. And that’s what made it possible for me to stay in this country, to love this country,’ she said.
After relinquishing her crown to Venezuela’s Alexandra Braun in Manila in 2005, Meirelles embarked on a career in the Philippine entertainment industry and later established her own family in the country.
The Miss Earth pageant is marking its 25th year of promoting environmental awareness. Reigning queen Jessica Lane of Australia is set to crown her successor tonight, Nov. 5, at the Cove Manila club of Okada Manila in Parañaque City.
Event host and development consultant Joy Barcoma is hoping to post the Philippines’ fifth Miss Earth victory, following Karla Henry (2008), Jamie Herrell (2014), Angelia Ong (2015) and Karen Ibasco (2017).