Miss New York Kira Kazantsev Won the Miss America Pageant

Miss New York Kira Kazantsev beat all the other beauties on Sunday night to win the Miss America pageant.

Not Available Lead
Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

Not Available Lead

Manhattan in the house! 

Miss New York Kira Kazantsev took home first place in the Miss America Pageant on Sunday, making it three straight for the Empire State. So basically, New York is the mid-Nineties Chicago Bulls.

Kazantsev locked down the competition by singing Pharrell. Here, I'll let AP break it down: "[She] sang Pharrell Williams' "Happy" while sitting cross-legged on the stage and banging a red plastic cup on the floor." Sounds next level.

Kazantsev also scored brownie points with the judges by naming sexual assault in the military as the thing she'd want female U.S. Senators to press their male counterparts on. That answer was good enough to edge out Miss Virginia, Arkansas, Florida, and Massachusetts.

Beating the South in a beauty pageant—that's not easy to do.

[via ABC]

Latest in Pop Culture