An onstage mix-up at the Miss Grand International pageant has gone viral after one contestant was mistakenly announced as a finalist — only to be told moments later it wasn’t her name that had been called.
During the pageant’s announcement of the Top 20 finalists, host Matthew Deane called out “Miss Grand Paraguay,” sending cheers through the crowd. Hearing what she thought was her country, Miss Grand Panama, Isamar Herrera, covered her face in joy and confidently strutted down the runway, striking a pose before joining the other finalists.
But her celebration was short-lived. Moments later, Deane corrected himself, saying, “Aaah, I beg your pardon, I announced Miss Grand Paraguay,” blaming the loud noise of the excited audience for the confusion. The real Miss Grand Paraguay, Cecilia Romero, then stepped forward to take her place among the finalists.
Herrera was visibly embarrassed as she walked off the stage, realizing she hadn’t made the cut after all.
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The moment quickly spread online, sparking a flood of sympathy and secondhand embarrassment from viewers. “Could they not stop her sooner?? Poor girl,” one fan commented on X. Another noted, “Even the cameraperson heard Panama or Canada because they zoomed in on one of them.”
Others were less forgiving, with one viewer writing, “I heard Paraguay clearly,” while another added, “I would have died of embarrassment.”
The awkward moment joins a long list of pageant mix-ups that live on in internet history — from Steve Harvey’s infamous Miss Universe blunder to this latest case of mistaken identity on one of the world’s biggest beauty stages.
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