Miss Amsterdam 2019 is Rowena van Waveren

After 3 hours of pageant Rowena van Waveren was crowned Miss Amsterdam 2019. For this organization it is their 3rd Miss Amsterdam, but in fact already in the 60’s the first Miss Amsterdam pageants took place.
The show was a dynamic one but was also a copy of last years finals. The opening speech was done by Tanja Jadnanansing, a politician and chairperson from Amsterdam Zuid Oost.
She spoke about how she saw the participants grow in their role as a beauty queen.
She spoke about the empowerment of women and girls. So why do we get the feeling during this speech that it’s degrading to women and girls to wear swimwear at a beauty pageant? Why are beauty pageants that still have this great round that show the healthy physics of women who are confident and proud of their body, considered not to be of these times?
The Miss Amsterdam pageant has indeed no swimwear round but the winner will represent The Netherlands at an international pageant where there is a swimwear round. It was not only us who had this feeling but several other people from the audience felt the same.
After this speech a spectacular opening was done by the girls lead by Sherefa Yorks, winner of the SBS6 program “Dancesing”. The girls were wearing shiny silver dresses.
After the opening the girls changed quickly into their pitch outfit. All participants introduced themselves by giving a pitch. The girls that really stood out at with their  pitch were: Celesta, Claudia, Michantely, Magali and Caylin.
Because Amsterdam has over 180 nationalities and the queens also have their ancestors from all around the world, the girls showed this by wearing a national costume. We saw costumes from countries like Dominican Republic, Ireland, Ghana, Congo, Suriname, the Dutch Antilles, Turkey, Egypt and The Netherlands.
It were Michantely, Claudia, Magali, Celeste and Yasmin who impressed us the most with their outfit and their presentation. But also Maya, Zoë and Immanuele were very charming during this round.
The last round of competition to decide the top 5 was the evening wear. All the girls were absolutely beautiful in the glamoureus dresses.
The judges, including model and socialite Kim Feenstra and Miss Holland 1984, Nancy Neede had a hard task to decide who would make the top 5. Who stood out during the finals? There were many girls that would make a great finalist. Of course the girls that impressed us during the two rounds could make it but we also have te be aware about what the organization is looking for and how the judges could vote.
The girls that could make it in our opinion were Michantely, Claudia, Caylin, Zoë, Magali but also the girls that did not really stood out but were very charming like Rowena, Maya and Chantal could well be in the top 5.
We were the most surprised by the beauty and the charisma of Celesta, she could take it all this evening if it was up to us.
So you could imagine our surprise when she did not make the top 5 at all. Especially as she had won two special awards: Miss Photogenic and Miss Parade of Nations.
The top 5 were: Rowena, Zara, Michantely, Zoë and Ciana. The top 5 were all asked a question by one of the judges. It was at this round that we noticed Ciana. During the first two rounds she did not really stood out but after the answers were given, it was Ciana who did gave the best answer with a lot of attitude.
After a last show by Sherefa the judges returned with the final verdict. Miss Amsterdam 2019 is Rowena van Waveren. Her runner-ups are: Zoë Jaarsma (1st ru) and Ciana Mayam (2nd ru).
We already saw Rowena at the Miss Beauty of Utrecht 2017 and at several fashion shows. Rowena has the looks of a beautiful model. During her speech tonight she shocked the audience when she showed that she had lost one of her fingers during rope climbing wearing a ring.
She will now represent The Netherlands at the Miss Global in Mexico. The lovely Miss Amsterdam 2018, Janice Babel represented The Netherlands at Supermodel International 2018 and became 4th runner-up.

Overal a great show that looked a lot like the 2018 edition. The RAI was not sold out, but there were a lot more people in the audience than last year.

We would like to congratulate the winners and the organization on a job well done.

Rowena’s official picture and the moment she was crowned.