Miss Panama beauty queen Isamar Herrera’s awkward onstage blunder goes viral — leaving viewers mortified

Painful-to-watch footage of a beauty contestant has gone viral, after the young woman made an awkward onstage blunder that has left people mortified.

Isamar Herrera, the representative for Panama, had been competing in Miss Grand International, a multi-week contest held in Thailand, when she made a blunder she’ll likely never live down.

During the pageant’s coronation night, the 31-year-old hopeful was standing on stage alongside 76 other contestants from around the world, as a host called out the women who had made it to the final 22.

At one point, Herrera can be seen stepping forward, with the cameras focusing in on her as she smiles and celebrates her “win”.

The young hopeful then proceeds to walk forward, as the crowd around is excruciatingly silent.

It quickly became clear why.

In the chaos and excitement of the moment, there had been a terrible misunderstanding, with the announcer taking to his microphone to quickly clarify the mistake.

“Aaah, I beg your pardon, I announced Miss Grand Paraguay,” he said.

“There is a lot of noise in this hall, packed full of fans from all over the world.”

She then has to awkwardly return to her spot as the real winner, Paraguay’s Cecilia Romero, proceeded to walk the stage in celebration.

The beauty contestant’s mishap has since sparked an avalanche of support on social media, with one video on TikTok amassing almost 5 million views alone.

“Panama, Canada, Paraguay, sound the same, don’t condemn her,” said one.

“Maybe she didn’t really understand because of language barrier,” reasoned another.

As someone else added: “I’m from Paraguay and I felt very sorry about what happened.”

Others noted the video was “painful to watch” before adding: “Hope she gets over it.”

“You were a good candidate, impeccable every time you came out, and you deserved the classification. I’m sure better things will happen in your life,” agreed one more.

“Poor girl, wish someone had told her before she reached the front,” mused another.

Thankfully, she appears to have taken the mishap in her stride.

“These things happen. It was a mistake and this is a competition,” she said after.

“You have to know how to lose and recognise the triumph of others.”

Emma Tiglao, 30, of Pampanga was crowned the eventual winner of Miss Grand International 2025.

Rounding out the winners were Thailand’s Sarunrat Puagpipat as first runner-up, Spain’s Aitana Jiménez as second runner-up, Ghana’s Faith Porter as third runner-up, and Venezuela’s Nariman Battikha as fourth runner-up.