MISS MALIAKA'10 TAKES OFF

The search for who takes the baton from Miss Gezelle Addai, winner of last year’s Miss Malaika Beauty pageant, kicked off last Friday night at the Royal Richester Hotel in Accra.Sixteen (16) pretty ladies, aged between 18 and 25, were unveiled as the contestants to ‘battle’ for the ultimate this year, which are a brand new KIA car, the opportunity to become the country’s ambassador of Malaika and other souvenirs.One after the other, the glamorous ladies lined up on a dais set up for that purpose, having earlier delivered snippets of riveting catwalks to the admiration of their patrons.This year’s event will be the eighth season of the pageantry since 2002 when it was introduced by CharterHouse, and the contestants will be housed for the next 13 weeks at the Royal Richester Hotel to work their ways out to the crown.Since a high premium is placed on intelligence in determining who becomes the next queen, the contestants throughout the season will undergo drills in varying forms, to determine their eloquence, elegance, intelligence-quotient (IQ) and self-confidence.There will also be cooking sections, alongside grooming sections to improve their public-speaking capabilities.As an early indication of their preparedness for the season, the contestants wowed their audiences when they exhibited their talent in styles during a fashion show with clothes designed by renowned designers in Ghana.Launching the event, Ms. Anitabel Asante, an Event Manager at CharterHouse, explained that the “motive behind this contest is to give young ladies the platform to show their talents and the ideas they have for the country.”