Miss Flavour 2011: What Went Down

The highly anticipated music and model event of the year Miss Flavour 2011 finally went down on Wednesday 9 November.

The night of beauty, brains, networking, great music and much more happened in the heart of the West End in the famous Cafe De Paris. It was no ordinary Wednesday.

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Doors opened at 9pm and in no more than 15 minutes the venue was soon filled with a hyped up crowd of witnesses for the epic night. The Flavour team, friends and supporters for the Miss Flavour contestants dispersed themselves around the VIP area whilst others swarmed the stage for a good view of the show. Amongst the crowd was DJ Tim Westwood, singer McLean, Lethal B, Sway, Egypt, Shystie, members from Anuvahood and of course our sponsors; BET, Sleek Make Up and Luster Products.

The beautiful Sarah Jane Crawford hit the stage with fellow BBC 1XTRA DJ Charlie Sloth to present the show as the judges took their seats. The lovely contestants soon bounced onto the stage to Beyonce’s ‘Run The World’, modelling quirky ‘I Love Me’ t-shirts – designed by Flavour co-founder and editor Annika Allen and Avit Clothing’s Hannah Kingaby. Without missing a beat, the beautiful Miss Flavour 2010 Neetu Sahota kicked off the night dancing on stage to ‘Look At Me Now’ in true Flavour style.

We then got to the bit that the dudes had been waiting for – the bikini round. The 14 contestants hit the stage to some sultry music, strutting down the catwalk to many a whistle and cheer. Judges Adam Deacon, Jamal Edwards (SBTV), Arnold Oceng and BB (Dirty Sexy Things) thoroughly appreciated this process, with approving looks all round.

Comedian Axel then came under the spotlight to make us smile. I was wary at this point, as up and coming comedians can be a hit or miss, and when they miss, it generally isn’t pretty. Luckily for us (and him) Axel surpassed my expectations and I actually laughed from my belly at times – along with the rest of the crowd.

The rather sweet and very talented Sam Garrett followed joker Axel to entertain us with his guitar and his smooth voice, mellowing the crowd out whilst we waited for the ladies second round the pose off, where they doned t-shirts that said Black Girls Rock.

Next up for the ladies was the evening wear round. The girls seemed more comfortable with this round and just when I thought I had seen the best dress, the next one wowed me – no doubt all of the ladies could work the runway.

The Fuel Girls hit the stage in a fiery fashion in ripped tights and brave bikinis, writhing around the stage much to the happiness of the males in the building and fascination from the ladies. Not only did they dance with fire pois, the fire grazing their bodies without a mark, but one girl came on stage with a chain… with another girl attached to it with a neck choker. They then blew fire to the roof, stunning some, and amusing others (like me) as you watched the audience duck and dive. You kind had to see it to believe and appreciate it.

We also spotted Katie D’Souza who won the ‘Miss Popular’ on the website on the run up to the event. She looked fabulous on the runway along with the other contestants.

Our lovely Miss Flavour contenders came on to perform their third and final round – Q&A. This can be the scariest part if you aren’t prepared, but the ladies handled it with ease and we got some interesting answers, albeit one or two head scratchers… By this point the crowd was very hyper and poor presenter Sarah tried her best to calm the crowd so the contestants had the full audiences attention. Under the circumstances, it was a hard task. You really began to see which girls stood out as some wowed the audience and some, unfortunately, kept them in their own conversations.

Chipmunk came on stage to thank Flavour for supporting him in his career, which was sweet. He went on to perform ‘Every Gyal’ from the ‘Transition’ album to a pumped out crowd who were singing the lyrics along with the rapper at a deafening level. The performance was shut short due to a sound error, but Chipmunk pulled it off as the audience enjoyed singing along to ‘Champion’.

It was a shame to not see more of Chip Diddy Chip, but the night was not defated for a moment and carried on smoothly, as we saw Miss Flavour 2010 winner Neetu come back into the spotlight to enjoy her last moments of Miss Flavour glory. She spoke about her future plans, whilst sharing her thoughts on what qualities the next Miss Flavour should possess.

As the time came for the winner to be announced, Flavour founders Annika Allen and Leonard Foster came to the stage to say their thank you’s. We all took a moment to cheer for 5 years of Flavour Magazine, remembering the amazing things that Flavour has achieved over the last 5 years.

The moment of truth finally arrived, although it felt as if it had come to soon. The 14 ladies came on stage, nerves and excitement radiating through the room. 14 ladies soon became 6 as the judges scores came in.

The final 6; namely Ann Nalumansi, Amy Aniselle, Natalie Deegan, Helen Lawal, Malika Said and Janine Yates were then narrowed down to just 3. Tensions got high and screams got louder as the final 3 were called. 3rd place was the stunning Helen Lawal, 2^nd came Natalie Deegan… and then as the beautiful Amy Aniselle, 23, was announced the winner, confetti blew across the room and Amy got her crown. She was understandably overwhelmed and in tears of happiness – which made me think even more that she truly deserved it. We look forward to seeing what Amy does next. Look out for Amy on the front cover of Flavour soon!

Flavour Magazine would like to thank our sponsors BET International, Sleek Make-Up, Luster Products, BDM, Palmers Cocoa Butter, Storm London, Model Me Inc, Spotlight, Krisp and VNC.