Miss Shreveport, Miss Union Parish win swimsuit and talent preliminaries
Bonnie Bolden
Miss Shreveport Emily Randon won swimsuit and a $500 scholarship and Miss Union Parish Anna Blake won talent and a $1,000 scholarship on the first night of Miss Louisiana 2018 preliminaries.
Blake said she's been playing piano for the past 17 years and took lessons from her mom. She's worked all year on her piece, Beethoven's Sonata No. 21, Opus 53.
"We pulled some of the best parts of that piece to fit it into the time limit and just made it really exciting," she said.
Blake says piano is the center of all music and a beautiful talent for anyone to develop.
Randon is a ballet dancer who also spends time in the gym. She encourages everyone to stay healthy and active and says getting started is the hardest step.
She said it's important for people to find something fun to do that keeps them moving.
The 33 contestants are divided into Jazz and Blues groups for competition. Jazz group, which consists of 17 contestants, completed the talent portion and on-stage questions. The other 16 contestants in Blues group did their evening wear and swimsuit competitions.
The overall competition is scored as follows:
- Interview: 25%
- Talent: 35%
- Swimsuit: 15%
- Evening wear: 20%
- On-stage question: 5%
The second night of pageant preliminaries starts at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Monroe Civic Center’s WL “Jack” Howard Theater. The Miss Louisiana Pageant will air live from 8-10 p.m. June 23.
Louisiana Gannett's Bonnie Bolden will be posting about the pageant live @Bonnie_Bolden_, and the site will have stories, photo galleries and more as soon as possible after the events.
Coming this week:
- 7:30 p.m. Friday: Preliminaries:
- Blues group does talent and on-stage questions
- Jazz group does evening wear and swimsuit
- 8 p.m. Saturday: Finals (Televised live around the state)
- Sunday: Follow us online for an interview with Miss Louisiana 2018
Miss Louisiana 2018 so far:
- Gallery:Miss Louisiana luncheon at ULM
- Story with video and gallery:Miss Louisiana pageant week starts in Monroe
- Gallery:Monroe welcomes Miss Louisiana contestants
- Story:Bonacquisti looks back on year as Miss Louisiana
Want to watch it live?
Tune in at 8 p.m. Saturday on one of the following channels:
- Monroe: KNOE, Ch.8 (CBS)
- New Orleans: WUPL, CH. 54 (WWL-My Network TV)
- Lafayette/Lake Charles: KATC-CW (CW)
- Alexandria: KLAX, Ch. 31 (ABC)
- Baton Rouge: WBTR, Ch. 41 (WBRZ-Inde)
- Shreveport: KPXJ, Ch. 21 (KTBS-CW)
- Morgan City-Thibodaux-Houma: KWBJ, Ch. 39 (WB)