Miss World 2005

 Miss World 2005

Miss World 2005, the 55th Miss World pageant was held at the Crown of Beauty Theatre in Sanya, People's Republic of China on December 10, 2005. Nine former Miss World titleholders and chairwoman of Miss World Organization Julia Morley judged the pageant. Miss World 2004 María Julia Mantilla of Peru crowned her successor Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir of Iceland. 102 contestants from all over the world competed for the crown. The six "Regional Queens" were chosen by the judges while the twelve semi-finalists were determined by public or viewer votes through the Internet and as well as telephone and SMS voting. Three contestants were "Fast Tracked" to the semifinals with the remaining twelve determined by the global vote. The contestants also paid a visit to Wenzhou, Beijing and Shanghai.

Unnur Birna Vilhjalmsdottir - Iceland
Unnur Birna Vilhjálmsdóttir was crowned Miss World 2005 on December 10, 2005 in the Beauty Crown Theatre located in the Chinese beach city of Sanya. For the past year Unnur has been studying anthropology at the University of Iceland and next autumn she will commence her studies in law as she plans to graduate as a lawyer, as well as an anthropologist. During the summer of 2005 Unnur Birna temped as a police officer at Keflavík International Airport. She is the chairman of the college social club and teaches dance. She enjoys acting, singing, all types of dancing, snow-boarding, hiking, camping, horsemanship and has a special talent for choreography and playing the piano. Her mother, Unnur Steinsson, won the Miss Iceland pageant in 1983 and was a finalist at the 1983 Miss World pageant. Unnur's mother was 3-4 months pregnant during the 1983 pageant. This was against the pageant rules and warrants disqualification. However, this was not found out until after the pageant was over. Unnur is the third Miss World from Iceland, the former two were Linda Pétursdóttir in 1988 and Hólmfríður Karlsdóttir in 1985. Unnur's reign only lasted 9 months because the pageant was scheduled for September 2006.