A beauty queen was left red-faced after she awkwardly saw another contestant take her place as a finalist in an international competition after a mix-up in names
12:28 ET, 23 Oct 2025Updated 12:28 ET, 23 Oct 2025
The blunder happened at the Miss Grand International 2025 | Grand Final
A beauty queen found herself suffering an awkward blunder when one of her competitors accidentally stole her spotlight.
A clip of the horrendous mishap has now gone viral as Isamar Herrera was seen standing alongside 76 contestants vying to be named Miss Grand International in Bangkok, Thailand. The competition organizers were naming the 22 finalists, on October 18, when the 31-year-old contestant representing Panama threw her fans to her face in surprise and began walking down the stage.
The remaining contestants and the crowd all watched her in silence as she headed to the platform at the front and posed for 10 seconds lapping up her big moment. Miss Grand Panama found herself interrupted however, when host Matthew Deane approached her to point out the error.
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He said, “Aaah, I beg your pardon, I announced Miss Grand Paraguay. There is a lot of noise in this hall, packed full of fans from all over the world.” Herrera was then forced to make way for Paraguay’s representative Cecilia Romero to take her spot.
The blunder shocked the crowd
The moment left several of the contestants awkwardly looking around, as many others applauded and showed their support for Romero to try and salvage her big moment. As a further 10 finalists were called to finish out the full 22 in the final cut.
Sadly for Herrera she did not get announced as a finalist, leaving viewers of the mishap feeling even more sympathetic for her over the mishap. Watching the clip on social media many shared their concerns for both Herrera and and Romero.
One fan wrote, “Panama, Canada, Paraguay, sound the same, don’t condemn her,” as a second said, “Maybe she didn’t really understand because of language barrier.”
The show of support for Herrera continued as fans urged her not to take it too badly and to take part again another time.
One user commented, “You were a good candidate, impeccable every time you came out, and you deserved the classification. I’m sure better things will happen in your life.”
Miss Paraguay was the rightful finalist
The 22 finalists taking part in the competition represented countries including Belgium, Brazil, Colombia, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Martinique, Mexico, Paraguay, Spain, Tanzania, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Venezuela and Zambia.
The ultimate winner of Miss Grand International, Emma Tiglao, of the Philippines, was eventually crowned after the multi-week contest.
The win marks the second year in a row that a Southeast Asian country has won the pageant. The winner, a 30-year-old news anchor, fended off first runner-up Sarunrat Puagpipat of Thailand, Spain’s Aitana Jiménez as second runner-up, Ghana’s Faith Porter as third runner-up, and Venezuela’s Nariman Battikha as fourth runner-up.
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