Thomas Tan
Melissa Aurellia Claretta Quek, an 18-year-old Taylor’s University double degree part-time student was crowned the new Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020 after beating out 13 beauty contestants in the pageant finale.
Melissa, who is of mixed German, Thai, Indonesian and Chinese heritage, was crowned by last year winner Kishweni Jaganathan.
The 166 cm (5’ 5”) tall beauty who was born in Penang and now resides in Kuala Lumpur also grabbed the Miss Popular subsidiary title.
First runner-up honors went to customer service officer Poorani Rajoo, 23, from Klang, while Vinthiya Vasu, a 22-year-old student from Puchong, Selangor, finished as second runner-up.
Melissa and Poorani, being the champion and first runner-up of the state level pageant will go on to take part in the national level pageant, the Miss Grand Malaysia 2020.
A total of eight subsidiary titles were also awarded :
Best National Costume – Vinthiya Vasu
Best Evening Gown – Goh Jia Rong
Best Catwalk – Saranyahletchmie Kunasegaran
Best Advocacy – Sandji Dhaliwal
Miss Body Beautiful – Lindsey Yap Li See
Miss Congeniality – Jocelyn Lee Jia Xin
Miss Popular – Melissa Aurellia Claretta
Miss Photogenic – Angelica Tan
The state-level Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020 final took place on 15th March 2020 at the Swiss-Garden Hotel Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur.
A total of 14 finalists competed in various challenges such as sport wear, national costume and evening gown. The Top 5 gave their most skillful answers during the Q&A session. Additionally, the contestants participated in group dance numbers.
For the Miss Grand Malaysia (MGM) 2020 finals, there will be a total of 24 finalists competing for the title. Six states (Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak) will send two top winners each to the national level for a total of 12 finalists. The other 12 finalists will be chosen from wild card entries from the state-level competitions.
The MGM organization announced that the Miss Grand Malaysia 2020 final scheduled on June this year had been postponed to a later date because of the spread of the coronavirus.
In an interview with Citizen Journalists Malaysia (CJMY), Melissa said she was delighted about her win as her hard work and enormous effort had paid off.
“I feel very grateful and beyond blessed and believe me, it’s worth all the stress and endless hours of blood, sweat and tears, and the vigorous challenge and training sessions spent.
“I couldn’t be more proud than getting to stand on Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur stage and to finally speaking up to the public about my story in my advocacy, and of course my proudest moment is to be crowned as Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020,” she said.
“My sincere thanks to the Almighty for giving me the strength and determination to succeed. Also, a huge thanks to everyone who are so supportive of me throughout my entire journey of Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020. They will always be in my heart and my thoughts,” she added.
Melissa will be using her skills and experience to make an impact for the upcoming Miss Grand Malaysia finale, and she’s expecting to give it her all.
“To begin with, I’ll continuously prepare myself to be better to ensure that I’m ready for the national stage and I’ll make sure to give it my 200% to prove my worth in Miss Grand Malaysia.
“I would also want to inspire other girls out there with my main message in mind: ‘if I can do it, so can you!’, and be a great role model to the younger generation out there and inspire them to be themselves.
“I would also use the MGKL platform to start up an initiative for what I’m passionate about, mainly protecting young female adolescents from a mental, physical and emotional standpoint,” she said.
Melissa is studying hard to have a bright future and she also has all of the best plans and intentions with her.
“There are three main goals in my mind after I’m done studying. First is to pursue additional career-focused schooling or certification. Next is to grow and raise fund from my current part-time job as manicurist and catwalk guru, and use my title as Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020 and MGKL platform to grow a community group targeting and helping orphans. I’ve been surviving all by myself now since 14 years old, so I can somehow relate to them and I want to help them feel better and to let them know they are strong and not alone,” she said
Melissa is a very active person and loves outdoor activities such as hiking, rock climbing and kayaking. She also loves the fashion world and enjoys dancing and cooking in her free time.
Although Poorani did not win Miss Grand Kuala Lumpur 2020, she felt happy to make it to first runner-up finish.
“I’m obviously glad to have placed first runner-up. It’s not easy and requires great effort and hard work to compete in Miss Grand. It’s a good feeling.” Poorani said about her win.
“Till now, I’m quite upset that I missed the question during the Q&A part. Instead of facts, I gave examples but I’m grateful for all the experience. Even though I won first runner-up, Miss Grand still gave me an opportunity to work harder and I will do my best for the national level Miss Grand Malaysia competition,” she said.
The 170 cm (5’ 7”) tall beauty from Klang said she felt stressed out and will be taking a short break to release the stress and explores her favourite foods, then back to track to prepare for the national level Miss Grand Malaysia 2020.
“It’s going to be a different ball game. Competition is stiff and contestants are serious. This win taught me a good lesson. It motivated me to do better. Expectations keep rising on me. I’ll try to be something different from other pageant sisters and work on my lapses, and set a goal for myself. It’s really stressful but time to work hard to achieve,” she added.
The pageant experience had helped Poorani to step out of her comfort zone and reach her true potential.
“I’m proud of my Miss Grand pageant sisters. The friendships created and memories that I’ll remember forever. Never forget my people Khairul, Ash, Buchie, Linda and their sacrifices for us. I believe I made my family and friends proud. This is just a beginning of a new chapter in my life. I’ve got a long way to go,” she said.
Poorani wants to be a successful woman in every aspect of her life and leave a legacy behind.
“My aim in life is to live a simple and peaceful life. Then I want to entertain people and making people laugh in the aspects I can, and try to terminate any sort of violence and build humanity. I want to be remembered and revered long after I’m long gone.
“Alone we only can bring small changes. Let’s unite and hopefully we can make everyone have equal rights and happiness in their life including animals. Kindness is the best form of humanity. Be the reason someone smiles. Be the reason someone feels loved and believes in the goodness in people,” she added.
The Klang-ite loves dancing and enjoys high intensity workouts. Her ambition is to become a successful motivational speaker one day.
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