Nineteen year-old Mary Jose Hanin was crowned Queen at the Miss Lebanon 2003 beauty pageant, one of the most prestigious beauty pageants around the Arab world. Mary, who is a model, was chosen among 16 contestants surviving the 8 weeks of elimination by viewers. Every week a participant was eliminated by viewers votes and only 6 remained for the final moment.
According to the London based Elaph, almost every contestant went home with a title like best dancer, best dressed, and so on. Mary who went home with the number one title as Queen, began her modeling career four years ago when she one the title “Miss Elite Model 1999” by the well-known fashion company Elite. Since then she has won different titles at beauty contests and is known for her talent in ballet dancing.
Lebanese singer Nawal Al Zoughbi was the main surprise of the big event that took place Friday May 23, 2003. All sixteen contestants, even those who were eliminated previously participated in the event that proved to be a huge success and widely viewed around the world.
After the US-led war on Iraq ended, organizers of the pageant called all remaining contests that were sent home to return as soon as possible to the Grand Hill Hotel in Beirut, where they remained once more at the hotel until the final moment away from their homes and all outside contacts.
The organizers of the pageant had decided to attribute a new trend in choosing the new Miss Lebanon 2003 by featuring the contestants in different occasions a number of times live on TV before the final moment is set. The event was divided into several events in which the contestants were filmed live in order for the viewers to make their decision on who should remain to take part in the final event of replacing the current Miss Lebanon 2002, Christina Sowaya.
The first appearance of the contestants was on in February, which witnessed the presence of a large number of artists from the Arab world and abroad, and was filmed live in order to introduce the contestants to home viewers.
The second live filming of the contestants was during training sessions for dancing, walking and behaving with one another. Their stay was filmed randomly and aired live for approximately 40 minutes daily as a reportage.
A representative from LBC was present with the contestants from day one until the final moment making interviews and filming different instances of the girls. Special technical equipment was brought in from abroad for the occasion to help ease the mission of walking through the event step by step.
For weeks, casting of votes was made by viewers to eliminate one out of three contestants every Friday. A total of six remaining contestants will take part in the final event in which one will be chosen Miss Lebanon 2003 by a panel of judges. -Albawaba.com
