Amelia Vega

Amelia Vega

Beauty pageant titleholder
Born	Amelia Vega Polanco November 7, 1984 (1984-11-07) Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Title(s)	Miss Dominican Republic 2002 Miss Universe 2003
Major competition(s)	Miss Dominican Republic 2002 (Winner) Miss Universe 2003 (Winner)
Spouse	Al Horford (2011-present)
Official website

Amelia Vega Polanco (born November 7, 1984 in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic) is a Dominican model and beauty pageant title holder. She became the first Dominican woman to be named Miss Universe, in 2003. At the age of 18, she was the youngest winner since 1994.

Vega's father, Otto Vega, is a general medical practitioner with offices in New York City and Miami. Her mother, Patricia Polanco Álvarez, is a licenced Pilot and was also a previous national titleholder who represented the Dominican Republic in 1980 at the Miss World pageant. Vega is the niece of the Grammy Award–winning singer Juan Luis Guerra and the wife of NBA player Al Horford. They got married on December 24, 2011 .

Miss Universe

The competition

After winning the Miss Dominican Republic Universe title, Vega represented the Dominican Republic in the Miss Universe 2003 pageant held in Panama City, Panama on June 3, 2003. She became the only titleholder from this country to win the title.

Vega was crowned in Panama. She wore a white evening gown during the competition, which featured strings of beads on the sleeves.

As Miss Universe 2003, Vega traveled extensively working with internationally recognized HIV/AIDS organizations including the Global Health Council, Cable Positive, amfAR, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and God's Love We Deliver. As a celebrity spokesperson, she was responsible for working with the international media to generate a better understanding and acceptance of AIDS/HIV epidemics and its prevention while helping to increase awareness, funding and resources for these key organizations.

As Miss Universe, Vega represented the Miss Universe Organization. Her "sister" 2003 titleholders were Tami Farrell (Miss Teen USA, of Oregon) and Susie Castillo (Miss USA, of Massachusetts).

Vega is the third among Miss Universe winners who also won the National Costume competition. Thailand's Porntip Nakhirunkanok won the award in 1988 and eventually won the crown then, Wendy Fitzwilliam of Trinidad & Tobago also won the Best National Costume and went on to win the 1998 Miss Universe crown.

Post-crowning

After moving to an apartment in New York provided by Donald Trump which was part of her overall prize package as the new Miss Universe titleholder, Vega visited over 30 countries around the world including: Germany, Switzerland, Ecuador, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Vega returned to her home country several times, and was awarded an honorary medal in the 2003 Pan American Games, held in Santo Domingo. Later that year, Vega co-hosted the Festival Presidente de Música Latina.

Career

Vega has appeared in the cover of several magazines, from her local country's Mujer Unica and Oh! Magazine, up to internationally known Cosmopolitan, Caras, InStyle, Vanidades, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, and Selecta. She also has been the lead image for campaigns made by the beauty cosmetics company Cover Girl, for the past 4 years.

Vega debuted as a singer with her uncle "Juan Luis Guerra" in Madison Square Garden and American Airline's Arena. After her reign as Miss Universe came to an end, Vega worked as the host of the reality show Voces de América, that aired on the Telemundo network. She also hosted several editions of "Festival Presidente" where more than 60,000 people attended, Later she hosted "Suegras", a reality show broadcasted in "USA" and Latin America. Her film debut was in 2005, co-starring in the film The Lost City directed by Andy García. She had a special in Homie Spumoni, a motion picture starring Donald Faison. and Whoopi Goldberg, among others and was scheduled and released in summer 2008.

In 2010 she became the host of the Mexican reality show "Segunda Oportunidad" with the Chilean Rafael Araneda

She also performed the video of "Mi corazoncito" of Dominican bachata music group Aventura.

Music

After recording her first demo at 15 years old and starting her artistic career on musicals in her hometown at the same age, Amelia's first single "Pasa Un Segundito" was released by iTunes on April 26, 2010. It became a top Latin song in just two days. A couple month later she surprises with her environmental song Smog, She announced on her Twitter account that her complete album "Agua Dulce" will be released on August 30, 2011 first on iTunes. She is being promoting her music during the past months in, Puerto Rico, Ecuador, Panama, Dominican Republic "where she opened the concert for Mark Anthony And Chayanne in font of a crowd of 50,000 people".

Business

Vega is as well concentrated on the development of her business career. She owns two Boutiques in Miami, Florida where she resides, named "Essence By Amelia Vega"

Book

Vega is on the cover of the only book the Miss Universe Organisation has published, which is called Universal Beauty. Donald Trump named her his favorite Miss Universe ever, he even mentioned her in one of his books.

Filmography

• Homie Spumoni (2006) .... Amelia Vega as (Chanice)
• The Lost City (2005) .... Minerva Eros

Charity Work

She cooperates to several charity foundations to the date as, Go Red For Women, Inisiatica Ser (Breast Cancer) Global Health Council, Cable Positive, amfAR, the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, and God's Love We Deliver.

External links

• http://www.AMELIAVEGA.net
• http://www.twitter.com/AmeliaVega
• http://www.facebook.com/AmeliaVega.net
• http://www.youtube.com/AmeliaVegaofficial
• http://www.myspace.com/AmeliaVegaofficial
• Amelia Vega at the Internet Movie Database
• (Spanish) Miss Universe 2003-related Website
• Amelia Vega, at the Fashion Model Directory