# Miss Grand Kosovo

Miss Grand Kosovo was a national Beauty pageant in Kosovo founded by a Pristina-based event organizer chaired by Sherif Pacolli, Lens Production. The pageant winner represents the country at its international parent contest, Miss Grand International. From 2014 to 2018, the pageant was held in parallel with the Miss Grand Albania competition as Miss Grand Albania & Kosovo, but after Aleks Tanushi of Aleks Fashion Events (A.F.E.) took over the Albanian franchise in 2018, it was instead organized as a stand-alone pageant from 2019 to 2021.
The contest was dissolved in 2022 after Pacolli lost the license to another national pageant chaired by Eduart Deda, Miss Universe Albania & Kosovo, in which one of the pageant runners-up was elected Miss Grand Kosovo. The national contest, which was previously defunct in 2012, "Miss Kosovo", was brought back by Pacolli as his replacement contest in 2022.
Since its first participation at the Miss Grand International pageant in 2014, Kosovo never got any placement at such an international contest.

## History

Kosovo participated at the Miss Grand International for the first time in 2013 by the appointed representative Lirie Sejdija, a Pristina-based professional model. Later in 2014, after Lens Production, headed by Sherif Pacolli, acquired the license, the inaugural competition of the Miss Grand Kosovo pageant was finally happen, which the twenty-one years old Switzerland-based licensed practical nurse Naile Thaqi was announced the winner at a contest held at California Resort in the city of Lipljan on 20 July 2014, outclassing 19 other finalists. The event was broadcast nationwide by the local television channel named RTK Live. Since then, the contest was organized annually until 2021, when the license is no longer belonged to Pacolli. (Except for 2020, in which the titleholder was appointed to the position.) In 2022, the Kosovo's representative was elected through the Miss Universe Albania and Kosovo pageant, which was organized by Eduart Deda.
The contest was usually held at California Resort, located in Lipljan city, Pristina district of Kosovo, only the 2015 edition that was held in the head office of the First Channel. In 2018, the original winner, Bernadeta Nikolla, resigned the title, Nikolla stated that after acquiring the title, the national organizer asked her to pay €20,000 EUR if she wants to participate in the Miss Grand International 2018 in Myanmar and she has also been accused by such an organizer that she is undisciplined and has not been worthy of representing the country in the race, caused her to engage the lawyer for the case and found that the organizer has no license as well as no right to send any country representative to the aforementioned competition. After Nikolla resignation, the organizers appointed their affiliated model, Songyl Meniqi, to join the contest in Myanmar instead.

## Editions

The following list is the edition detail of the Miss Grand Kosovo contest, held annually from 2014 to 2021.
| Year | Edition | Date | Final venue | Entrants | Winner |
| 2014 | 1st | 20 July | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 20 | Naile Thaqi |
| 2015 | 2nd | 31 May | Objekti i First Channel Studio, Pristina | 13 | Dardanie Thaqi |
| 2016 | 3rd | 1 July | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 17 | Anxhela Dashi |
| 2017 | 4th | 28 February | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 10 | Nora Muja |
| 2018 | 5th | 26 May | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 14 | Bernadeta Nikolla |
| 2019 | 6th | 23 June | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 14 | Arlinda Prenaj |
| 2021 | 7th | 11 June | California Resort, Lipljan, Pristina | 15 | Mejreme Hajdaraj |

## Representatives at Miss Grand International

| Year | Miss Grand Kosovo | National Title | International Performance | International Performance | National Director | Ref. |
| Year | Miss Grand Kosovo | National Title | Placement | Other awards | National Director | Ref. |
| 2013 | Lirie Sejdija | Appointed | Unplaced | | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2014 | Naile Thaqi | Miss Grand Kosovo 2014 | Unplaced | | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2015 | Dardanie Thaqi | Miss Grand Kosovo 2015 | Unable to compete | Unable to compete | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2016 | Anxhela Dashi | Miss Grand Kosovo 2016 | Unable to compete | Unable to compete | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2017 | Nora Muja | Miss Grand Kosovo 2017 | Unable to compete | Unable to compete | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2018 | Bernadeta Nikolla | Miss Grand Kosovo 2018 | Resigned | Resigned | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2018 | Songyl Meniqi | Appointed | Unplaced | | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2019 | Arlinda Prenaj | Miss Grand Kosovo 2019 | Unable to compete | Unable to compete | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2020 | Frontina Gashi | Appointed | Unplaced | | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2021 | Mejreme Hajdaraj | Miss Grand Kosovo 2021 | Unable to compete | Unable to compete | Sherif Pacolli | |
| 2022 | Edona Aliu | Miss Grand Kosovo 2022 | Withdraw during the competition | Withdraw during the competition | Arjeta Osmani | |
| 2023 | Rinesa Murati | Appointed | Unplaced | | Arjeta Osmani | |
| 2024 | Engjëllushe Zhuniqi | Runner-up Miss Universe Kosovo 2024 | Unplaced | | Arjeta Osmani | |
| Notes $^a$ Resigned. $^b$ Took over the title after the original winner resigned. |||||||

## Controversy

After the sash reception and welcome ceremony of the Miss Grand International 2022 pageant in Bali, the representative of Kosovo, Edona Aliu, who currently works as a model in Zürich and had previously obtained the Miss Grand national title at the Miss Universe Albania and Kosovo 2022 pageant in June, was absent from various pageant activities, including the rehearsals, sportswear competition, Balinese costume parade, as well as the swimsuit contest, but the organizers did not make an official announcement for such an incident, sparking a lot of debate on various digital platforms. The Paraguayan online newspaper, La Nación, as well as the Mexican website, Glam Star, published the media released by a Venezuelan "Jesús Hernández", who claimed the reasons for such an incident were either the winner of the contest was already elected within the first few days of the activities, or she is anti-animal cruelty and brings animals to detention, and the pageant activity that takes the candidates to the Bali Safari upsets her and causes her to withdraw, or she is tired and prefers to enjoy the vacation in Bali instead. Many Vietnamese media outlets have also reported this.
However, the pageant organizer later issued a clarification statement on October 11, citing that her health issues precluded her from participating in pageant-related events and that she withdrew from the competition three days earlier following medical advice with the organizer's approval. Meanwhile, Edona has not spoken out about the withdrawal.