This Time for Africa! Angolan Beauty Queen Leila Lopes wins the 2011 Miss Universe crown
Posted on Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 at 8:17 AMBy BellaNaija.com
Just a few hours ago, an African beauty queen emerged as the winner of the 2011 Miss Universe pageant. Leila Luliana da Costa Vieira Lopes, a 25 year old student from Benguela dazzled the judges with her poise, beauty and grace.
Yes, she is beautiful but Leila totally set herself apart when she answered the interview question about which of her physical trait she would change, she said
“Thank God I’m very satisfied with the way God created me and I wouldn’t change a thing…I consider myself a woman endowed with inner beauty. I have acquired many wonderful principles from my family and I intend to follow these for the rest of my life.“
Other beauty queens in the top 5 were Olesia Stefanko from Ukraine (1st Runner-Up), Priscila Machado from Brazil (2nd Runner-Up), Shamcey Supsup from the Philippines and Luo Zilin from China.
Miss Panama, Sheldry Saez won the Best National Costume Award; Miss Montenegro, Nikolina Loncar was voted by the fellow contestants as Miss Congeniality and Miss Sweden, Ronnia Fornstedt won the Miss Photogenic prize.
The 60th Annual Miss Universe Pageant hosted by Bravo TV’s Andy Cohen and NBC’s Natalie Morales was broadcast from Credicard Hall in São Paulo, Brazil.
BN and BN commenters predicted that Miss Angola was the strongest contestant from Africa and we got it right! This is the first time a beauty queen from Angola has been crowned as Miss Universe! Congrats to Leila.
The Crowning Moment
Miss Universe 2011 – The Film
Photo Credit: AP Photo/Andre Penner
Tags: Leila Lopes, Miss Universe
This beautiful girl totally deserved it! She’s both beauty and brains!
SHE IS THE SECOND COMING OF AGBANI DAREGO!! SHE IS SO GORGEOUS. AND BEAUTIFUL!! WELL DESERVED!! THE BEST LOOKING WOMEN RESIDE IN AFRICA !
Congrats
Weldone Mr. TRUMP!!!
She’s so pretty
1st?
MBA!
LMFAO
ROFL
LOL!
wow! this is great. and from time past,she has been predicted as the most favorite for the crown.
congratulations to her. african women are making us proud.
first, agbani, now leila.
enjoy your reign ,your highness!
I knew it!
The Angola Babe is Super hot!
Congrats Girl.
!
yes!!!! am so glad cos i supported her from day one. congrats dearie.
She made history and she is a true representative of the continent. Black is beautiful!
She sure deserved it. Congrats to Miss Angola. It was not Sophie Gemal’s day but Nigeria placed 9th in national costume..just thought I’d mention it
awwww she deserved to win. congrats angola
THATS GREAT! finally enough with the Europeans and Latinas of European descent. lol. time for Africa. and i also think cause they were in Brazil, and Angola has ties with Brazil (language and all) but she is great! Glad she won. she was my next pick after Nigeria, of course.
Baby…will you marry me? Say yes, else…..I go……!
I knew it…am so happy for her…. Congrats
i know beauty when i seen one, the angola chick is the most beautiful at least among her fellow african contestants & the rest of the contestants. Congratulations u deserve it you are beauty & brain!
I predicted her as my winner… Congrats Girl
Nice. Congratulations Leila, and chin up, Sophie! We’ve got space to love you both…
Oh Yes! she def deserved it…so on point with everything!
Beautiful girl! you deserve to win.
Congratulation Miss Angola we are proud of you beauty.its time for Africa
I knew it. dere was somfin abt her. Congrats Ms Leila. You have made Africans very proud.
she’s really a BEAUTY queen..congrats
Congrats Leila.
Black is truly beautiful.
i know she is.
yes oh. congrats dear
Congrats Miss Angola..that is one HOT babe…..and i am a smoking HOT babe as well o, got to acknowledge your kind
…and Sophie gemal, you are HOT !!!, Naija still loves you even if you didnt win, i hope more opportunities open up to you as you get back to you as you come back to Naija.
she is so beautiful and she looks like agbani……..mbgn n Guy Bruce has to step up seriously>>>>>GO LEILA YOU ROCK
yea! so happy she won cos i voted for this beauty!!!!!!
Did You vote for Miss Nigeria as well? Hmmm…
Anyway, I’m glad she won! Miss Nigeria was my first choice (for obvious reasons), But I am so happy the crown went to Miss Angola after Nigeria was out of the running!!!
She is gorgeous, and her response to that question was superb!!!
Waow,black is beautiful.am so proud of u my lady.u’v got d beauty nd d brain.congrats dear.am proud 2 b african nd black.
Am so happy for her. me and my family shouted yer=yesterday night, hope we don’t get a ticket for disturbance this morning. i felt so happy. the most interesting part of it was the way the people of Brazil supported her, you would have mistaken her for miss Brazil.
I’m relieved finally. They are all beautiful in their own right but she was really outstanding. I mean out and standing.lol
Also shout out to Sophie at least her traditional custom made top 10
South Africa is also proud of you Miss Keep up the good work
Well deserved! a lot of Nigerian ladies would have answered the question like this” I WOULD LOVE TO CHANGE MY HAIR TO BE LIKE BRAZILIAN HAIR!
looool
she deserves it………………was rooting for nigeria tho.
http://lucianochinwe.blogspot.com/
i aint surprised at all. congrats babe..a very brilliant answer.
The girl is beautiful no doubt. She has some portuguese blood as is common with most wealthy/priviledged Angolans. Not so spoil teh moment though I want to see it from a different perspective. The Trump is a real estate mogul and with a booming construction industry in an oil rich country, bet he is on his private jet to close some deals in Angola and the red carpet shall be rolled out. It’s just the way the cookie crumbles ladies..it is business. Period!
So your point is that she didn’t deserve to win even though she was leading in fans’ polls. A lot of people voted for her without knowing anything about Donald Trump or his business with Angola because she has the characteristics of a true beauty queen. Simple! I’m pretty sure that if Miss China or Miss Canada had won, you would have come to some insane conclusion as well. Homo sapiens.
Homo Sapiens!!!! OMG. loooooool. You’re something else.
Trust me dear…your votes and polls don’t count in the final decision making…much as they make people like you believe..
I support you dear…though she is really beautiful and elegant, to be honest. But again, truth be told, first it was Agbani during the oil rich Nigeria and trump sure got his deal…Angola is the new “-ish” in the oil production business and there goes Leila. Smart Trump….smart!
abgani won miss world not miss universe smartass.
Packing gel hair style really helps africans,it was the same Agbani had on
lollll… packing gel hair indeed. Maybe we should all replace our brazilian weaves with packing gel then.
LMAO!
You really should cos brazillian hair or as i call it “the ayamatanga factory hair” is no good. I have never used it and will never.
Lol. havent heard that in a while
Congratulations, girl!!
Yori, I think its absolutely wrong for you to try to take anything away from this girl. She is a beautiful African woman. And, there are beautiful African women with no European blood in them, so don’t try to peg it down to Portuguese blood. Congrats Miss Angola. Beauty and Brains. Epitome of African beauty!
The lady was born in Angola by Cape Verdean parents (both portuguese colonies). That she has portuguese blood taks nothing from her just like many northern Nigerians have Arabic/Berber roots
Yaaaayyy!!! Tall dark chocolate sister!!! Am so proud of you, this is a good representation of what beauty is all about – Smart & Calm. For all those clamoring that she is of mixed heritage, you seem to be forgetting ur Nigerian representative is the same?! And hers is more pronounce than Miss Angola!
Congratulations Miss Angola, I picked this girl from the beginning and she won..every inch a beauty queen. I am one proud African right about now!
Hurray girl, let your family be blessed.
Congrats gurl wish u d best all through ur Reign.
I am so happy for her. She is very beautiful.I think its deserving.
Miss Yori, that is not true. She spoke Portuguese because it’s the national language of Angola. And if you watched the whole pageant, you would notice that she was leading in the fan polls. Even though she wasn’t from Brazil, the people loved and cheered for her! So don’t make out stories you don’t know. She is beautiful, intelligent and she deserved it!
The first time I saw all the contestants, I just said…she’s the winner and it was like …are you serious when I said it? But the truth is that , she is black beauty, her hair, smile, chin bones, body structure…I know sexy beauty and brains when I see it…been watching pageants every year but there was something about Angola that made me say..she’s my winner
abeg wey our miss universe(Nigeria)
Im so glad she won… She and Flaviana Matata (The daringly bold & bald queen from Tanzania) are now my favs.
i hope this has taught naija…MISS WORLD AND MISS UNIVERSE PAGEANTS DONT WANT LIGHT SKINNED AFRICAN BABES!!!1…THEY NEED CHOCOLATE!see agbani,now leila….plus i think this packing gel hairstyle has goodluck in it oo…it was agbani’s hairstyle at miss world n she won,now leila’s hairstyle and she won!*just saying*…hope ben bruce sees this!
Well said. Naija and their complex — black indeed is beautiful.
what complex? The winner of mbgn was dark skinned, sophie was a runner up in case you have forgotten.
hajiya, I thought the same exact thing about the hairstyle! that style shows your true beauty and features, and both Agbani and Leila had the same thing!
A lot of ignorant comments about Ms Angola’s portuguese ties. To piggyback on Essie’s comment, Portuguese is Angola’s national language
and massive brazilian support was not only because she spoke portugusese but a reflection of racial frustration suffered by black Brazilian majority.
Beautiful black Brazilians were marginalized and were not fairly represented even at beauty pagents. Brazil has always selected White women to represent
their country in pagents. It was very natural for the black brazilian to identify with Ms Angola being that a large number of Brazilian blacks traced their roots to Angola….
See Dr Louis Gates series on Blacks in Latin America – Brazil: A radical paradise ? (http://video.pbs.org/video/1906000944/)
Sauce, thanks for this invaluable link to Prof Gates work. I am more familiar with late Dr. Ivan van Sertima’s work and will add this to my collection. Back to the disctrimination thing you make a good point..it is also practised by the very same ‘afro-portos’ against indigenous black Angolans , Mozambicans etc
This is Beauty
I did not say the girl is not beautiful, I concurred and I stand by my comment and urge all to study the history of Angola (wikipedia is not enough). The colonisers were not just there teaching them portuguese, they sowed several seeds and most visible Mozambicans, Angolans, Guinea Bissau and Cape-Verdeans are mixed.
Yori wait o, so will I be right when I say that I am part British even though it has been decades since the Brits colonized Nigeria and possibly/allegedly interbred with our native folk? My hair just happens to curl more than my sister’s even though she is lighter than I am … Leila doesn’t have to be part anything to be a beautiful African woman. That Angola was colonized by Portugal doesn’t mean every woman in Angola at the time slept with a Portuguese man thereby transferring mixed blood to their offspring generations later. If my great grandmother was sold into slavery and shipped to Costa Rica, does that make me Costa Rican by association even if the rest of the family never left Nigeria? She’s black, beautiful, Angolan, and she won. Kpomkwem.
To be fair, the British did have an offhanded way of ruling (indirect-rule) and tended not to intermarry or relate much with the natives. I think you’d find more part-lebanese people in Nigeria than part- british (sophie gemal, the bruce family, patrick doyle, etc).
The portuguese were a totally different breed. Not surprised that all their colonies such as cape verde and angola have multi-racial segments, particularly in the upperclass/elite.
I am guessing all nigerians are mixed then since we were colonized by the English.
hmmmm. . . ALOT of people know that Portuguese had more interaction with natives. But the point is why bring it up? Why cant she just be a beautiful black woman? She certainly doesn’t look more Portuguese than African and she sure doesn’t look Mixed- If she were really “DARK LIKE HER PARENTS esp her FATHER” you most likely wouldn’t even mention admixture with Portuguese. PIC of her family. . http://mmb.smugmug.com/MissUniverse2011/Coronation-Party-Kiss-and-Fly/i-KBkJqbF/0/XL/20110913FernandoGenaroFotoaren-XL.jpg Look pretty African to me.
Yay! Happy a black beauty won. I had a bias against Miss Universe pagent cos I felt they usually pick the winner from Latin America & Europe. Glad to know they changed their modulus operandi this year by allowing fans to vote their choice for Top 15(same thing for Agbani when she won in 2001).
She is a queen in all ramifications; i just hope I get to watch it on Nigerian TV(Stv) later since it wasnt shown live. I wouldnt be surprised if their is foreign blood in her ancestry cos of her nose(straight), which is not common with blacks. All the same, she is a BEAUTY!
mixed blood or not. she is gorgeous and she won.. congrats love. i pray your dreams comes true….
Well after watchin d last MBGN, I must say our standards of gettin a beauty queen in naija has gotten to its nadir. I mean d taraba chic dat won, she is okay but sorry to say, she aint a queen and d judges(don’t really knw wat got to dem dat nyt) after lookin @ 36 ladies dey chose mis taraba!!! Wat d * edited for excessive profanity* were dey lookin @? B4 naija can win any international pageant again, I fink we nid to really go bk to our drawin boards and find out wats happenin coz after miss abgani(God bless her) we’ve been gradually goin down. Is it dat dere is now politics in pickin sum1 to represent naija internationally again? *sigh* miss angola is dayum hot and frm d look of tins, angola’s mode of selectin a beauty queen is on d high standard. Africa we too try. But naija, mehn, we aint winnin dis year if we continue like dis. We shud ruminate on hw to find a real queen. Shikena….
Yori is right but also wrong. There is ALOT of people in Lagos who are mixed with Portuguese/brazilian and look no different(racially) than her. Would you call them mixed ? most likely not because the african features are dominant. shes pretty and looks black. Being mixed with Portuguese has nada to do with it Miss Portuguese was there and LOST. SHES BEAUTIFUL AND BLACK
lol sorry “Miss Portugal” LOST
Yay!!!! the crown did not miss road. phew. lol
…i knew she had it in her…. very beautiful girl….. congrats to her
I watched the pageant live and I must say that there is nothing like a live show. Pictures don’t capture the essence of a person. Miss Angola was in it to win it and she had that “it” factor that translated across the tv. Every time they called out the women that would be going on to the next stage of the competition, I called out Miss Angola. When she was asked her final question, the camera focused on her face and I admired her beauty. She just glowed. Thirty minutes before they announced the runner ups and the winner, I had narrowed the field down to Miss Angola and Miss China. But I knew the night belonged to Miss Angola. Miss China was striking, but her answer to the final question was incomplete.
As for the person trying to spoil things by claiming that Miss Angola is mixed as if to attribute her beauty to some alleged and unproven Portuguese ancestry, go and kick rocks. Like someone said, Miss Portugal was there and LOST.
Since her win i have been reading up a lot on Angola and looking them up on youtube. Mehn – they are gorgeous. Just gorgeous women in Angola. See its allways the quiet ones who are unassuming. Yet the LOUD BOISTEROUS FAKE HAIR FAKE EVERYTHING UGLY ONES are always the loudest. The loudest as though in africa no other country surpases them. I am glad Angola won. They are utterly gorgeous beings.
Maybe you ppl will learn to shut for once instead of pretending no other african country exist in africa apart from yall.
Concentrate on getting 24 hrs uninterrupted electricity
You sound frustrated. No one here is downing Miss Angola or any African country for that matter.
One of the most classiest and gorgeous looking women in africa . Check out Leilas interview from the past and the other lady with her.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTgqlqWCAoA&feature=related
I love you angola and i shall learn some portuguese and come to the football next year
Oh i just notice the other lady Lesliana Pereira is Ms Angola 2008. Mehn these ladies are gorgeous and have such classy poise
she is so beautiful she deserves the crown! i am proud of you!. congratulations sweety!!
yay luuv the african beauty,she sure deserved it
very kool i must say. luv uuu plenty
A beautiful diva, she looks just like me……………so happy for u darling
can u c d similarities btw her n agbani?
She is so beautiful, the pictures got me smiling
This up do hairstyle that Leila Lopes wore seems to be the winning style. Both Miss Trinidad & Tobago 1998 (Wendy Fitzwilliam), Miss Botswanna 1999 (Mpule Kwelagobe) won the Miss Universe title with this up do hairstyle. Also, Miss Nigeria 2001 (Agbani Darego ) had an up do hairstyle and she won the Miss World title.
well deserved
Like someone said, standards of beauty in our country have unfortunately been rubbished. Ask which part of the country has the prettiest girls and most people will say the Hausa/Fulani girls. Why? Straight nose, lighter skin, curls in the hair more defined, generally cos they look more Arab. Reminds me of one time I attended a wedding and this woman said she was Hausa. The lady seated next to her actually told her she was not Hausa because she had none of the characteristics mentioned above. The Hausa lady was very good natured, she laughed and told the other lady that her comment showed she knew nothing about Hausas.
well am not surprised….i knew she had the looks cos she is the most beautiful girl from Africa in the whole bunch and she kinda look like agbani.
WHY human beign go fine like this ….while some people crest woh woh?….can you imagine her searching for a job if she was nigerian…abi dem go jus dash her the wok…no need for interview. God is goooooood abeg…see beauty
Congratulations to Miss Leila. BTW, what’s up with the Portuguese blood theory that people have been chipping in??? It’s like saying every Nigerian has English blood…exactly please stop.
You really should! brazillian hair or as i call it “the ayamatanga factory hair” is no good. I have never used it and will never.
She is indeed a queen, a title well deserved.
Wat a beauty,well deserved.
Wat~a~beauty,……well~deserved.
Miss Universe! Congrats to Leila. She is really a BEAUTY queen.. Naija too is proud of you.
Enjoy’ you deserves it .
hmmnnn she deserved it…congrats leila
CONGRATS LEILA
hajia u sound myopic! gosh..am shuwa from borno am a proud beautiful african woman,,light skin or dark wea all africans cut d crap about skin colour its just annoying wen people talk like u!
She is stunning. I love my African Queens.
WHILE OTHER AFRICAN COUNTRIES WERE BUSY SENDING CO LOURED GIRLS..ANGOLA SELECTED A REAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE WHOLE AFRICA CONTINENT..BLACK IS BEAUTY …OBLIGADO ANGOLA !!!!! ORGANIZERS OF MISS UNIVERSE GAVE AFRICA THE STRONG MESSAGE ..LOVE YOUR SKIN AND STAY ON BY BELIEVING YOURSELVES!!!1 OBLIGADO MR TRIUMP!!!OBLIGADO!!!
Sooo freaking proud!!!
http://the-white-list.blogspot.com/
madam, can i date you ?
yaay! was her number one fan..she deserves it… wish i could give her a bug hug
I’m speechless. This woman is GORGEOUS, STUNNING, PRETTY, EVERYTHING. One of the most beautiful women I’ve seen. I’m a girl but if my man is drooling over her, I won’t blame him. This is true representation of natural beauty.