This is the first time in history Ghana has won an international pageant. Very unprecedented!
Abena Akuaba Appiah, often called Abena Akuaba,
a model, TV presenter, musician and actress has made Ghana proud by
becoming the first Ghanaian to win an international pageant.
Abena
emerged as the winner of the 2016 Queen Beauty Universe which took
place at the Holiday Polynesia Hotel in Malaga, Spain with participation
of 30 countries. The closest Ghana has become was Naa Okailey Shoot
placing third at the 63rd edition of the Miss World finals in 2013.
How did the journey start?
Abena
was selected by the national director for the Queen Beauty Universe
Ghana and couple of other young girls from Ghana to be screened and
evaluated.
After the entire process, she emerged as the winner to
represent her country at the international pageant, Queen Beauty
Universe in Malaga, Spain. Her evaluation started when she touched down
in Spain.
After 10 days of meeting other contestants to enjoy the
wonders of Benalmadena, the host city with different leisure
activities, singing, dancing followed by parades in traditional
costumes, swimwear and gala, Abena was proclaimed as the most beautiful
woman in the universe.
Aside that, Abena also won Miss Elegance at the event.
Always wanted to be a queen
According
to Abena, it has always been her dream to be a queen whiles growing up.
She was bullied and teased in school so she made it a priority to gain
an international platform to allow her voice to be heard as she fights
for young girls who are going through what she went through.
Abena
stated that the competition was very tough and what kept her going was
the fact that she had to make her country proud and also wanted to prove
to young girls around the world and especially Ghana that everything is
possible.
Past experiences
Beautiful Abena
is not new so far as beauty pageants are concerned. She has quite an
experience in participating in beauty pageants. She won Miss Universe
Ghana 2014 and competed in Donald Trump’s international pageant Miss
Universe in 2014. She also participated in Miss Ghana and Miss Earth.
Abena
has participated in international modeling competitions such as, Top
Model Ghana 2013 and Top Model of the World 2013 where she emerged top
15 out of 60 countries respectively.
She has also modeled for
most of the top name designers around the world such as crème de la
crème from the United States, Andres Aquino from Spain, Sushma Patel
from India, Catalan from France, late Kofi Ansah from Ghana, just to
name a few.
She is a brand ambassador for Garner hair products in
the United States. She has taken part in fashion show with Contour
Fashion Week, New York Fashion Week, Vlisco, Woodin, Da Viva and GTP.
She
was X-Factor finalist, Ghana’s version in 2012 and has recently stared
in an American movies set to be released next year. She also stared in
the American TV series Afri-Americans, Abena has done TV commercials for
Surfline LTG, Lydia contraception pills etc.
She has 5 singles to her credit and still working on her album.
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