Miss Malaika In September

THE first Miss Malaika Pan-African beauty pageant to be staged in Ghana in September this year is expected to be unique in more ways than one.First, it will be the first time that Ghana will host a country event to select a Miss Malaika Ghana who will then go on to represent the country at the “Miss Malaika” continental pageant. For the last two years, contestants from Ghana had been handpicked to participate in the pageant.

Again, it will be the first pageant in Ghana to take on a television reality show format and will involve public voting to weight the contestants.To be launched next week, “Miss Malaika Ghana 2003” is billed to run over a seven-week period on TV3, and will provide an exciting, new, innovative and non-traditional way of staging the beauty pageant as the event is moved to a wider public domain.

According to the organisers, Charter House Productions, while often it is the climax that is shared with the public, the 2003 Miss Malaika Ghana will from the onset, emphasise on the backstage activities of its participants who will be selected from Accra, Takoradi and Kumasi. The participants who must be single ladies of African origin between the ages of 18 and 26, and sizes 10 and 14, with no height restrictions, no implants, and must have completed Senior Secondary School, at least, will take part in a competitive pageant which provides them the opportunity to recognise the potential of their beauty and talent, and will not be judged on Western standards and criteria.

“We are very excited about this new concept which will see the goings-on of the participants in a live television footage showing off their various skills and creativity as well as how they interact with each other while in camp, says event director, Mrs Theresa Ayoade.Following the new rage in television programming, which involves showing uncut footage of participants in real-life situations, which have been successfully used to promote pop music world-wide, raising record TV ratings to new heights, the novelty of the 2003 Miss Malaika Ghana event is set to make it a hit.

According to Mrs Ayoade of Charter House Productions who won the franchise to organise the Ghana edition of the international pageant, research showed that there was a “Miss” beauty pageant fatigue with the public and this meant that in order to create the maximum excitement for any such event they needed to re-position it as one that will be attractive both to the public as well as to our sponsors.”