Miss Grand Malaysia 2021 was the sixth edition of the Miss Grand Malaysia pageant, held virtually via Facebook Live on August 2, 2021.[1][2][3] Twenty-three candidates, who qualified for the national pageant either through state pageants or national auditions, competed for the title,[1][2] and a 24-year-old architecture student from Selangor, Lishallinny Kanaran, was named the winner,[4] while Malveen Kaur of Johor Bahru and Poorani Rajoo of Kuala Lumpur won the supplementary titles of The Miss Globe Malaysia 2021 and Miss Intercontinental Malaysia 2021, respectively.[1][2][3] Lishallinny later represented Malaysia in its parent international pageant, Miss Grand International 2021, in Thailand,[5][6] where she was placed among the top 10 finalists and also won the Best National Costume award.[7]
Initially, the pageant was scheduled to be held physically at the Bangi Avenue Convention Centre in Selangor but was switched to an online contest due to the domestic COVID-19 pandemic and the restriction of movement order announced by the Malaysian government.[1][2]
Background
In 2020, the Miss Grand Malaysia 2020 pageant was expected to be held physically at the Bangi Avenue Convention Centre in late June,[8] but it was postponed twice due to the COVID-19 pandemic, first to mid-October,[9] and then to January 30, 2021.[10] However, in early 2021, the situation of the outbreak had not improved, causing the organizer to canceled all pageant-related activities and instead arranged an ad hoc online challenge to elect the 2020 titleholder, and Jasebel Robert of Selangor was elected the challenge winner and gain the right to participate at the Miss Grand International 2020 in Thailand, while the remaining candidates were qualified to compete at the 2021 national contest automatically.[11]
In 2021, the organizer planned to hold the actual annual contest to select the country representative for the 2021 Miss Grand International pageant; the pageant boot camps were performed for several days, and it was almost reached the grand final competition, which was scheduled to be held at the Bangi Avenue Convention Centre in Selangor, but due to the increase of COVID-19-infected cases in the country, the organizer canceled all physical pageant activities, and held the pageant virtually instead.[1][2][12]
Regional pageants
In addition to the former Miss Grand Malaysia 2020 finalists who automatically qualified for the 2021 national stage,[11] the regional preliminary pageants in Sabah and Sarawak were also held.[13] In both such states, division-level pageants were also held to determine the local representatives for the state-level contest.[14] To complete the 24 finalists, the central organizer also organized an audion in Kuala Lumpur as well as ran the wild card system to additionally select the contestants.
The state preliminary pageants of Miss Grand Malaysia 2021 are detailed in the table below.
State preliminary contests of Miss Grand Malaysia 2021
