Uproar over the "N-word"

TikTok video of “Miss Universe” causes a scandal

"Miss Universe" Victoria Kjaer Theilvig at the Empire State Building

(Bild: APA Pool/Getty Images via AFP/GETTY IMAGES/Roy Rochlin)

Trouble for Victoria Kjaer Theilvig! The newly crowned "Miss Universe" has unintentionally caused a mega scandal on social media because she carelessly moved her lips in sync to a Jay-Z song lyric - including the controversial "N-word" - in a TikTok video.

In the now-deleted clip, recorded at New York's Empire State Building, the 21-year-old lip-synced an excerpt from Jay-Z's hit "Empire State of Mind". According to the New York Post, the passage in which the rapper uses the controversial "N-word" was also featured, for which the young beauty was immediately attacked on a massive scale.

Black people hurt?
Critics accused her of making unthinking use of a word that has a deeply rooted and hurtful meaning for many black people around the world. 

Theilvig had a spokesperson for the Miss Universe Organization explain that she had not been aware of the problematic content. "We promote respect, inclusion and cultural awareness," the spokesperson emphasized in a statement.

Victoria Kjaer Theilvig at the Empire State Building

(Bild: picturedesk.com/MediaPunch / Action Press)

First Danish "Miss Universe"
Theilvig, who was the first Danish woman in the history of the competition to win the title in Mexico City in November, is currently celebrating her triumph. But the scandal shows just how much public figures are under scrutiny - and how important sensitivity remains when dealing with language.

Trump Jr. and Musk fans
However, she may also have been targeted from a specific political direction when she was on tour in the US. After all, US entrepreneur and Trump confidant Elon Musk and Donald Trump's son Donald Trump Jr. publicly declared themselves to be big fans of the blonde after her victory.

The Tesla billionaire shared a meme on his platform X with the words: "The internet is stunned after an attractive biological woman with a healthy weight won the Miss Universe pageant." Trump Jr. celebrated enthusiastically: "Biological and objectively attractive women are allowed to win beauty pageants again. WE'RE BACK!!!" 

More inclusion
The competition, which has been held since 1952, has taken steps towards more inclusion in recent years. A year ago, married and divorced women as well as mothers were admitted for the first time, and in 2018 a trans woman took part for the first time with "Miss Spain".

This year, for the first time, there was no maximum age limit for participation after this was lifted by the organizers. Previously, only women between the ages of 18 and 28 were allowed to compete for the beauty crown. The oldest competitor in the Arena Ciudad de México was the Cameroon-born "Miss Malta", Beatrice Njoya, who is 40 years old and has three children.