Catriona Gray, the Philippines’ Miss Universe 2018 contender, was a vision of a beautiful female warrior in her national costume that pays homage to the diverse culture of the country’s three major group of islands.
But, despite her flawless performance where she showcased the hand gesture of a “babaylan” (priestess), Gray revealed her struggle with the malfunctioning lights of her Christmas lantern-styled outfit before and during the beauty pageant’s national costume competition held in Pattaya, Thailand on Monday night.
In an Instagram live video, the 24-year-old beauty thanked her fans for their “amazing feedback” on her costume and explained that it was meant to light up.
“A lot of you were asking if it was meant to have lights. Yes, it was,” Gray said.
Explaining why the parol had no lights when she hit the stage of the national costume parade, she narrated: “My parol was meant to light up, but for some reason—I don’t know why—before the show. I was trying to turn it on, and it wouldn’t turn on, and then I tried to turn it on again and it did turn on and it turned on twice in a row, so then I left it. And then just before I went out on stage, I tried to turn it on again, and again it wasn’t working.
“I’m not sure if the wires just got moved during the transport here to Thailand, or what happened… But it just so happened that on the day itself and on the time that I walked out on stage, the lights, they weren’t working,” she added.
Gray did not hide her disappointment over the malfunction, as she would have loved to show the full effect of what her team had done just to synchronize the lights in her costume. She also expressed her frustration when she struggled to drag the costume because the wheels were not running smoothly.
“I was initially supposed to carry it, but the weight was just too heavy. It was on my shoulders so we just had to put it on wheels. The wheels that we prepared for is for the flat floor, tiled or wooden floor, just a smooth floor, and I didn’t expect that the floor for the national costume competition would be carpet so when I walked on the carpet, the wheels were not running smoothly, and it’s really hard to pull,” she said.
Gray ended her video by saying that she just wanted to be authentic and to showcase Filipino artistry on global stage.
The Filipino-Australian television host, model, and singer is one of 94 contestants vying for the crown in arguably the most prestigious beauty pageant in the world. If she wins, Gray would be the fourth Miss Universe from the Philippines after Pia Wurtzbach (in 2015), Margarita Moran (1973) and Gloria Diaz (1969).
READ: From world to universe: Catriona Gray finds her beauty