Miss Universe 2011 crown goes to Miss Angola, Leila Lopes

In a live telecast that reach over a billion viewers around the world, Miss Angola, Leila Lopes 25, was crowned Miss Universe 2011 on Monday at the Creditcard Hall in Sao Paulo, Brasil, defeating off the competition from 89 contestants.

The venue was fully booked, Lopes dressed in a beige gown impressed judges with her catwalk that was out of this world and also by highlighting with in Portuguese the importance about family values.

She was followed by Miss Ukraine Olesya Stefanko while Miss Brazil Priscila Machado was the second runner-up the third runner-up went to Miss Philippines Shacey Supsup and Miss China , Luo Zilin rounded up the top five at the 60th Anniversary of this beauty pageant, considered by the experts as the most significant pageant in the world.

Leila Lopes replaces Miss Universe Ximena Navarrete of Mexico who won the title in 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As part of her winning she will get a luxury New York apartment with living expenses, a one-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy, jewelry, clothes, shoes and an undisclosed sum of money. Leila will be sharing the apartment with Alyssa Campanella Miss USA 2011 and Danielle Doty Miss Teen USA 2011

The best in swimsuit were Misses Australia, Bahamas, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Curacao, Greece, Kosovo, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Perú, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad & Tobago, USA, Ukraine and Venezuela. Venezuela's Vanessa Goncalves clearly has the best body.

The most beautiful gowns were worn by Misses Angola, Aruba, Bahamas, Bolivia, Cayman Islands, China, Egypt, Estonia, Ghana, Israel, Kosovo, Malaysia, Panama, Paraguay, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Ukraine, Venezuela and USA. There's no question that the gown worn by Miss Puerto Rico, designed by Puerto Rican designer Harry Robles, was the conqueror.

The judges of the event included; Amelia Vega, Helios Castroneves, Connie Chung,; Isabeli Fontana; Vivica Fox, Adrienne Maloof, Lea Salonga, Farouk Shami, Italo Zanzi

The evening's hosts, Natalie Morales a news anchor for NBC’s “Today” and Andy Cohen the host and executive producer of “Watch What Happens: Live," at Bravo, displayed genuine chemistry as they kept the action flowing. Ms. Morales kept pace with the contestants, changing dresses three times, while Mr. Cohen remained sharp and cheery trough the entire event.

The commentators of the event were Style Network’s “How Do I Look” Jeannie Mai and Shandi Finnessy, Miss USA 2004, Jeannie and Shandi provided skybox fashion commentaries throughout the LIVE telecast.

Swimsuit Competition

Brazilian native pop singer Claudia Leitte turns the heat up throughout the performance of her new single “Locomotion Batucada” during the swimsuit competition.

Evening Gowns
Accompanied by Brazilian singer and song writer Babel Gilberto, who added a touch of bossa nova  to the ambience, singing her single hit “Close Your Eyes” the contestants lit up the night in their evening gowns. Continuing in her winning ways Miss angola shone brightest in a beige evening gown she scored highest with an 8.913

The Miss Congeniality 2011 award went to Miss Montenegro, Nikolina Lončar and the Miss Photogenic 2011 award went to Miss Sweden, Ronnia Fornstedt 

The best National Costume went to Miss Panama Sheldry Sáez

The 16 Semi-Finalists:
- Miss France, Laury Thilleman, 20

- Miss Kosovo, Afërdita Dreshaj, 25
- Miss Colombia, Catalina Robayo, 22
- Miss China, Luo Zilin, 24
- Miss Angola, Leila Lopes 25
- Miss Australia,  Scherri-Lee Biggs, 20
- Miss Puerto Rico, Viviana Ortiz 24
- Miss Brazil, Priscila Machado 25
- Miss Netherlands, Kelly Weekers, 21
- Miss USA, Alyssa Campanella 21
- Miss Ukraine, Olesya Stefanko
- Miss Panama, Sheldry Sáez, 19
- Miss Costa Rica, (Johanna Solano, 18
- Miss Portugal, Laura Gonçalves, 22
- Miss Philippines, Shamcey Supsup, 25
- Miss Venezuela, Vanessa Gonçalves, 25