Miss Venezuela Irene Esser has been waiting in the wings for more than a half a year now, and is about to have her patience tested even more since Miss Universe 2012 is coming in late with a December date pegged for the finals. Regardless, do you think she is a definite bet to become Venezuela’s 7th MU titleholder? Will she equal her namesake’s achievement (Irene Saez)? Will she make up for the failure of her predecessor – Vanessa Goncalves – to advance beyond the Top 16? Is it fair to say that she is setting an ultra-high benchmark for this year’s edition? Or are we hyping yet another candidate who will not shine well in Donald Trump’s eyes?
normannorman.com 
no words….except….GORGEOUS!
Sash factor in deed, but it’s such a pressure being crowned Miss Venezuela,so much expectations from pageant fans and critics. I’d rather be called Miss Indonesia,no sash factor issue,no pressure at all. At least, I can move well, be myself and be noticed because of my personal traits and natural beauty.Than being Miss Venezuela, who’s always on the spotlight,center of scrutiny and bashing, and left stressed because I can’t even eat my favorite chocolate because of the cameras, waiting for me to commit mistakes, 24/7.
She’s more like a safe bet. No “wow vavavoom” factor this time. I watched her perform in swimsuits and evening gown in last year’s MV and boy… she’s got the skill in projecting and modelling- reminds me of Dayana ’08.
ITA, she’s the archetype of Dayana Mendoza! I’m really excited for her,tbh 🙂
Just an observation, not only from here but from other sites. Why is it that (some) Filipinos are heralding these “mestisas” from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Malaysia, etc. yet are “demanding” that our representative be “ethnic looking”, “exotic Pinay”, “dusky”, etc., etc., etc.? When the possibility of sending a Filipina (European/American) mestisa to MU arrives, the great debate/argument happens with the sending of someone “exotic” from The Philippines and with a “Filipino Name” (not talking about MI or any of the other international pageants, just MU). Yet, these same people fall all over themselves with the representatives from Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Mexico, etc., etc., etc. who are European mestisas. They will even place them over our own “exotic Filipina”. Mind boggling. If you love their European mestisas so much, why not love our European/American mestisas as much to send them to MU?
One more observation, all the “buzz” and “favorites” and “ones to beat”, remind me a lot of Miss Peru from the last MU edition (2011). Remember all the “buzz” around her and what her outcome was? I think that, for the moment, we need to quit fawning over pictures and wait and see what all these representatives look like, act like, and how their communications skills are once they arrive at the MU venue. It’s amazing how opinions can change drastically once we view them upon their MU arrival. However, with only pictures to go by, I guess it’s the only way to start “arm chair judging” the girls. I only ask that we take a deep breath and hold any opinionated judgement. Let’s give them all a chance to “evolve” and let’s give our own Janine that very same chance. Besides, laying all your cards out now (pageant-wise), is not a very good idea. Start laying them out just before arrival at MU, start dishing them out with vigor once there, and then pray that the magic is there for you (our representative) when coronation night has arrived.
Just my humble opinion…
Nicely put, Philip. 😉
wow shes setting the bars high imo. Haha one hella competition this year
True, Hotaru. Very true.
I predict Venezuela’s going to make a big comeback at MU this year. Irene Esser (who will be turning 21 and is part German) is particularly competitive even at the national pageant where she was rightly pegged as the early favorite. Another one to watch is 19-year Bodine Keohler who will be representing Puerto Rico who at 6-feet tall is beautiful and imposing. Malaysian 19-year old Kimberley Leggett (a mix of Brit-Dutch-Malaysian) at 5’10” is another stunner and could land her country their first MU semifinalist spot in more than 2 decades. And the list of stunning 2012 MU candidates go on and on. All in all, Miss Universe will be very competitive this year. I sincerely wish Janine all the best and for her to do well, but I honestly think her chances of even making it as a semifinalist at MU is remote. I can only hope that perhaps next year’s BBP batch will be a lot better than what we saw this year.
I don’t have an answer for you, however, I think she is a much better candidate for her country than the last two that were sent (please, no bickering about this, it’s just my opinion and I’m not bashing the previous two winners. They were beautiful in their own right.). She is a more natural (looking) beauty and hopefully, they will leave her that way. Perhaps the placements of their two previous winners was a wake-up call for them. Their current Miss World winner may have helped set a new standard for them.
Is this representative the “one to beat” come MU 2012? I hate those kinds of questions. Why? Last year, I never heard anyone ask if Miss Angola was the one to beat? 🙂
I agree. I hope they do leave Irene Esser’s nose alone since it looks perfect the way it is (although the Venezuelans did right with Ivian Sarcos’ nose job — it won them Miss World). As for Miss Angola, actually, she was one of the early favorites and was deemed as the African candidate to beat.
Yes, Angola’s a front runner amongst the African delegates last year but she was almost invisible during the arrival and prior to the finals night – it was really her lucky night! 🙂
Of late, Venezuela churns out better candidates who are ‘minimally’ enhanced. It only goes to show that beauties should not be altered too much to ‘preserve’ their true fighting powers.
Up to this point, I still think that Irene’s the one to beat with Bodine in second with a very tiny margin. Her classic-elegant beauty will be unnoticed come Miss Universe, that’s for sure! I can’t wait to see how she would look like in December – hopefully with less cosmetic changes from the national pageant .
Venezuela, PR and Ecuador are my top 3 at this point though 🙂 #justsharing haha
*will not be left unnoticed*