Miss Grand International

Miss Grand International, also known as Miss Grand, is an international beauty pageant franchise that is based in Thailand. It consists of the annual national pageant Miss Grand Thailand, as well as the international competition Miss Grand International, to which participating rights are licensed to organizers in other countries. The franchise has been owned and run by a Thai stock exchange-listed company with the same name, also known as MGI PCL, since its inception in 2013, with Nawat Itsaragrisil as the president.
The current Miss Grand International is Emma Mary Tiglao of the Philippines. Her title marked the first back-to-back victory in Miss Grand International history.

History

Miss Grand International was founded in 2013 by Nawat Itsaragrisil, a Thai television host and producer. The pageant was founded in Thailand amidst a political crisis, inspiring the organizers to use the slogan "No mob, Stop the Wars" as part of its identity, later rephrased to "Stop the War and Violence" in the following year. The pageant aims to promote peace by being against all kinds of conflicts.
The pageant has primarily been focusing on humanitarian issues with the reigning titleholders dedicating their year to work as the organization's spokesperson as well as involved in the charity events related to the said campaigns. For instance, corresponding with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to raise funds available for humanitarian aid, visiting and donated necessities to the internally displaced people in the refugee camps, being the guest speaker at the related events and act as the ambassador of the NGOs, or taking part in any projects of the local charitable organization in the visited countries. Before 2021, the winner of the contest, together with all runners-up, often serve as the campaigners of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, to promote the tourism industry of the pageant-based country.
The contest features contestants selected by licensees in each country. Its first three competitions were held in Thailand under the sponsorship of the country's government and televised worldwide via Channel 7, while subsequent events have also taken place overseas, and was broadcast via the local television channels together with the social media platforms including its official YouTube channel and Facebook page.
In 2019, the pageant was being held in Venezuela amid the country's political crisis; several candidates withdrew from the competition due to security concerns and visa regulation problems, such as South Korea, Cambodia, and Laos. Later in 2020, the pageant was also scheduled to be held in Venezuela on 25 October but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was postponed to 2021 and the venue was moved to Bangkok, Thailand.
On December 4, 2025. Miss Grand International announced of the first-ever MGI All Stars.

Contestant selection

The contestants of each edition of the pageant were selected by the franchise holder in respective countries or territories, through either a national contest, internal casting, or being hand-picked. In its first decade, due to being a newly established pageant, almost half of the participating contestants were appointed; no national pageant was held. Nonetheless, in pageant-popular countries, especially in the Far East and the Americas, annual national pageants are usually being held to crown a winner for the Miss Grand International pageant. For example, Miss Grand Cambodia, Miss Grand Malaysia, Miss Grand Nepal, and Miss Grand Paraguay. Some of the participants were the runner-up or obtained the title in other national pageants, e.g. the delegates from Femina Miss India, Binibining Pilipinas, Miss Mexico, Felvidék Szépe, etc.
Despite not being considered an economically popular event in Europe and Africa, many countries have conducted national pageants separately for Miss Grand, for instance, Albania, Kosovo, Spain, France, Italy, and South Africa.
In Spain, Italy, and several countries in Asia, each administrative division holds a preliminary competition to choose their delegate for the national pageant. Moreover, in some provinces of Spain, Malaysia, and Thailand, third-level divisions' pageants are also held to determine delegates for the provincial competition, in which winners hold the title "Miss Grand " for the year of their reign. Unfortunately, cultural impediments in the swimsuit competition have precluded some countries, such as ultraconservative and Muslim countries, from participating, while some countries have not participated because of a lacking of funding.
Although the title of Miss Grand pageant was global registered copyright, some national or local pageants unrelated to the Miss Grand International has been observed such as the Azerbaijan model search contest named "Miss and Mister Grand Azerbaijan" which was organized by Elxan Pashayev since 2018, '"Miss Zimbabwe Grand", headed by Farai Zembeni since 2019, the pageant finalists participate in various continental contests in Africa, as well as the local pageant in the Bahamas, "Miss Grand Bahama", established in 1970, which the name "Grand Bahama" refer to the third largest island in the northernmost region of the country.

Main pageant

Miss Grand International is the platform's annual international beauty pageant. Its inaugural edition was held in Bangkok in 2013 under sponsorship from Thailand's government and featured 73 participating countries; the inaugural titleholder was Janelee Chaparro of Puerto Rico. In 2016, the pageant was held for the first time outside Thailand, at Westgate Las Vegas, Las Vegas, US, on 25 October. Since 2015, the grand final is usually held on 25 October each year. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 and 2021 editions of the pageant were delayed, the 2020 edition was first scheduled to be held on 25 October 2020, but was postponed to 27 March 2021, and the venue was also moved to Bangkok, Thailand, similar to the 2021 edition which was held in December 2021, two months behind the traditional schedule.
Since the inception of the pageant, there have been two instances where the reigning Miss Grand International was unable to fully perform her duties, prompting the organization to appoint the first runner-up as the successor. The first occurred in 2015, when Claire Elizabeth Parker of Australia took over the title after Anea Garcia of the Dominican Republic. The second took place in 2024, when Christine Juliane Opiaza of the Philippines succeeded Rachel Gupta of India.
The current Miss Grand International titleholder is Emma Mary Tiglao of the Philippines, who was crowned on 18 October 2025 at MGI Hall, Bangkok, Thailand making her the second woman from the Philippines to win the crown, also marking the first back-to-back win in Miss Grand history.

Edition	Date	Final venue	Host country	Entrants	Ref.
2013	19 November	Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani, Nonthaburi	Thailand	71
2014	7 October	Indoor Stadium Huamark, Bangkok	Thailand	85
2015	25 October	Indoor Stadium Huamark, Bangkok	Thailand	77
2016	25 October	Westgate Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada	United States	74
2017	25 October	Vinpearl Convention Center, Phú Quốc	Vietnam	77
2018	25 October	The One Entertainment Park, Yangon	Myanmar	75
2019	25 October	Poliedro de Caracas, Caracas	Venezuela	60
2020	27 March 2021	Show DC Hall, Bangkok	Thailand	63
2021	4 December	Show DC Hall, Bangkok	Thailand	59
2022	25 October	Sentul International Convention Center, West Java	Indonesia	68
2023	25 October	Phú Thọ Indoor Stadium, Ho Chi Minh City	Vietnam	69
2024	25 October	MGI Hall, Bravo BKK Mall, Bangkok	Thailand	68
2025	18 October	MGI Hall, Bravo BKK Mall, Bangkok	Thailand	77
2026	October	TBA	India	TBA

Pre-pageant activities

The pre-pageant activities of Miss Grand International usually consist of three main events, the swimsuit competition, a national costume parade, and the preliminary contest. The swimsuit competition is organized at a separate venue to determine the winner of the Best in Swimsuit award while the national costume and the preliminary round of each edition are usually held at the same venue of the grand final round. All aforementioned events are live streamed via the pageant's Facebook and YouTube accounts. In the preliminary round, all contestants will compete in swimwear and evening gowns in front of a panel of preliminary judges. Each round of the preliminary competition and the Swimsuit competition will determine the winner of Best Evening Gown and Best in Swimsuit awards which will be announced later on the final stage of the contest as well as the winner of other special awards including Best National Costume and Miss Popular vote. Moreover, the scores from all ancillary events, preliminary competition, together with a closed-door interview portion and the swimsuit competition, also determine the Top 20 finalists during the grand final telecast of the pageant.

Awards

Grand Final

The grand final of the pageant is usually broadcast worldwide on television and the social media platforms of the pageant. As the tradition of the pageant, twenty semi-finalists are chosen from the initial pool of contestants through observation during the entire pageant, a closed-door interview, swimsuit round as well as a preliminary competition, which featured contestants competing in swimsuits and evening gowns. However, the "Country of the year" was first introduced in 2020 edition, which was selected by the audience on social networks. The winner of this category automatically enters the twenty finalists regardless of all previous scores. The top 20 would then compete in a swimsuit competition, with 10 of them advancing to the top 10, this number eventually was reduced to nine with the 10th semi-finalist being the Top Popularity Winner determined through mobile voting, all 10 semi-finalists would then compete in an evening gown and give their speeches with a 'Stop the War and Violence' theme.
After the speech round and evening gown competitions, the judges then select the top five to compete in the question-and-answer portion, where all entrants will be asked the same question about an ongoing global situation; such as the management of COVID-19 pandemic crisis, the 2016 United States presidential election, and the ongoing socioeconomic and political crisis in Venezuela. The judges select the winner based on their answer and their previous accumulated scores, then the host will sequentially announce the fourth, third and second runners-up. The last two candidates of the top five finalists will then stand in the center of the stage, and one will be named Miss Grand International.
The summary of the pageant selection process is shown below.