The Big Four is a term that refers to the four major international beauty pageants for women. These are Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss International and Miss Earth. The group was first described by the China Daily newspaper in 2004 as "the world's four major beauty contests", and the Chosun Ilbo newspaper in 2010 described them as "the world's top four beauty pageants".
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The Big Four pageants
The Wall Street Journal, BBC News, and global news agencies such as Reuters, Agence France-Presse, collectively refer to the four major pageants as "Big Four" namely:
Miss World pageant is the oldest surviving major international beauty pageant. It was created in the United Kingdom by Eric Morley in 1951. Since his death in 2000, Morley's wife, Julia Morley, co-chairs the pageant.
Miss Universe is an annual international beauty contest that is run by the Miss Universe Organization. The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills. The pageant became part of Kayser-Roth and then Gulf+Western Industries, before being acquired by Donald Trump in 1996 and is currently owned by WME/IMG.
Miss International, also called "Miss International Beauty". The contestants are expected to serve as "Ambassadors of Peace and Beauty", showing tenderness, benevolence, friendship, beauty, intelligence, ability to take action, and great international sensibility. The ultimate goal of the Miss International beauty pageant is to promote world peace, goodwill, and understanding.
Miss Earth is an annual pageant organised by Philippine-based Carousel Productions through the Miss Earth Foundation. The non-profit organization aims to promote awareness levels and knowledge on current environmental issues and what actions can be done by power of broadcasting and other media campaigns globally where the annual winners are expected to spend a year delivering talks to schools and other organizations and work on projects with other institutions, including Greenpeace, World Wildlife Foundation, and United Nations Environment Program.
Most victorious countries
The first country to win all four major international pageant titles was Brazil, when it won Miss Earth 2004. Brazil has won two Miss Universe crowns, two Miss Earth crowns, one Miss World crown, and one Miss International crown.
In winning Miss Earth 2005, Venezuela became the second country to win titles for each of the Big Four pageants. It has produced seven Miss Universe titles, seven Miss International titles, six Miss World titles, and two Miss Earth titles. By winning Miss Earth 2013, Venezuela became the first country to win all four pageants multiple times.
The third country to win all titles of the Big Four pageants was the Philippines after winning Miss World 2013. The Philippines currently has six Miss International crowns, three Miss Universe crowns, three Miss Earth crowns, and one Miss World crown. By winning Miss World 2013, Miss International 2013, Miss Earth 2014 and 2015, and Miss Universe 2015, the Philippines became the fastest country to win all four major titles by achieving the feat in a span of only three calendar years. And by winning Miss International 2016, the Philippines has the longest winning streak of any Asian country. In a period of three days from October 27–29, 2016, Philippines is the only country who held three of the Big-4 crowns: Pia Wurtzbach was Miss Universe 2015 (until January 30, 2017), Kylie Verzosa is the newly crowned Miss International 2016 (October 27, 2016) and Angelia Ong was Miss Earth 2015 (until October 29, 2016). No other country has ever achieved such a feat before.
The following countries have won all the titles of the Big Four pageants: