Par
Anne-Laure Petit-Hénon
Published on
Dec 1 2024 at 7:31 p.m.
See my news
Follow News
Saturday December 14, 9 p.m. They will be 30 regional misses, dressed in their most beautiful finery, to participate in the big show, the grand finale: the election of Miss France 2025.
But before arriving on the stage of the Arena du Futuroscope, in Poitiers, these 30 young women had to go through different stages. And prepare to become, perhaps, the new Miss France.
A pre-selection before the elections
Before becoming Miss France, you have to go through several stages. And these upstream steps are managed by the regional delegationsresponsible for electing a miss in each region represented in the beauty contest.
Yves Roger is vice-president of the Miss Burgundy committee. He explains to actu.fr the selection process for its regional miss, but which applies to all delegations. “The Miss Burgundy committee covers four departments : Côte-d'Or, Nièvre, Saône-et-Loire and Yonne. In each of these departments, every year, he emphasizes, we organize a casting before holding an election in each department. »
It all starts with a casting. “Applications for departmental castings vary. This year, in total, we had a little less than 100 applications”, analyzes Nadine Preece, Miss France delegate for the Limousin Region.
But the candidates “did not always have the required criteria”. Indeed, to participate in this casting, you must meet a few criteria, in particular those in force to become Miss France:
- be 18 years old;
- be registered in the civil registry as female;
- measure 1.70 m without heels;
- not having had plastic surgery;
- and have a pied-à-terre in the region where we present ourselves.
After this casting, 10 to 15 young girls will be selected per department to participate in the first election, at departmental level.
On the way to the regional elections, and no (always) need to have been elected
Once the departmental elections have passed, head towards the regional. “Once the departmental elections are over, I am doing my selection of around fifteen candidates for the election of Miss Limousin”, explains Nadine Preece to actu.fr.
Among these candidates for the regional election, the departmental misses, often their runners-up, but not only.
Sometimes, I retain candidates [des élections départementales, NDLR] which were not accepted by the public. In fact, the miss is elected by the public in the room, so if one of them comes with more people, she has an advantage. We need to rebalance and I'm looking for girls who have the potential to go further.
Candidates that Nadine, and the other regional delegates, are preparing to become a regional miss, a candidate for Miss France. Even a future Miss France.
Intensive preparation
Speaking in public, having general knowledge, marching, knowing how to dress and apply makeup… So many SKILLS what a Miss France must have and therefore, what a regional miss must acquire.
For this, each committee has its strategy.
For the preparation, we leave the hand to the former Miss Burgundy who are responsible for the coaching.
But on the Limousin side, a marathon is being prepared: “At the end of June, the candidates for the regional election take part in a integration stay of five days. »
And if there are fun activities to unite the group, there are also a lot of work : photo shoot, choreography, beauty, eloquence… many partners are working to prepare them to become Miss Limousin.
And once she is elected (by a jury and the vote of the public present in the room), “all those who were there during the stay work only with the miss and give her a personalized preparation », explains Nadine Preece.
Prepare to influence
Because the regional committees have one objective: that it is their miss who wins the ultimate crown. And if the preparation of the latter is important, so that their miss is present in the top 15selected by the Miss France jury, there is one factor over which they have no control: the viewer vote.
Because unlike the departmental and regional elections, the big evening of the show broadcast on TF1, millions of viewers choose their Miss France by telephone.
The role of the jury on election night
Initially, there are 30 regional misses. The first 15 finalists are chosen, before the evening, by a jury made up of members of the Miss France company and various partners. The top 5 misses are selected 50% by the jury present on television and 50% by the public, by telephone or SMS. Then Miss France is designated only by the vote of viewers.
So you might as well start influencing the votes as soon as possible, by making the regional miss known. “We have to motivate Burgundy to vote,” smiles Yves Roger. And this involves in particular a media tour. “When she was elected, Miss Burgundy made the rounds of radio stations and newspapers. »
This also happens through social networks. “We share lots of information, everything that is positive,” continues the vice-president of the Miss Burgundy committee.
During its preparation, we do lots of photo shoots with Miss Limousin. We put these photos in the bank to bring them out later and continue to publish before the election, to promote them.
Afterwards, as in sporting competitions, in the area of voting, there is a certain chauvinism. “There are very reactive regions [par rapport à d’autres] », note Yves Roger.
This is the case, for example, of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais regionwhich has four Miss France in 9 years: Camille Cerf in 2015, Iris Mittenaere in 2016, Maëva Coucke in 2018 and Eve Gilles in 2024. Contacted by actu.fr to give us the secrets of their success, the regional committee did not respond to our requests.
Will the Ch'tis and other Flemings still mobilize for Sabah Aib this year? Response in a little less than two weeks.
Follow all the news from your favorite cities and media by subscribing to Mon Actu.
