Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Natalia Shmarenkova, known by her stage name Kamaliya, makes her acting debut in the Russian movie “Merry Widow,” due for release next year. She is also a professional singer. Oleksiy Boyko VUNG TAU, VIETNAM – If Ukraine had a secret weapon to undo its tattered international image as a cesspool of corrupt politics and a place of never-ending spats with neighboring Russia, it would be beauty.

Ukrainian women have wowed many men over the centuries and decades. Among them are John, Paul, George and Ringo – aka The Beatles – in their classic “Back in the U.S.S.R.” More recently, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden proclaimed Ukrainian women as the world’s most beautiful on his visit to Kyiv this summer.

However, despite international acclaim, only one woman has managed to embrace the global beauty title officially. Natalia Shmarenkova, 32, was crowned Mrs. World 2008, the international pageant for married women.

Her reign will come to a close on Nov. 22, when a new queen is chosen from nearly a hundred hopefuls in the pageant host city of Vung Tau. The picturesque resort area has 250,000 residents and white sands, fog-shrouded mountains and tropical temperatures near the South China Sea on Vietnam’s southern coast.

The wife of the Kyiv Post’s owner and publisher, Mohammad Zahoor, Shmarenkova raised Ukraine’s profile and gave her own career a shot in the arm with this victory. At home, Shmarenkova is better known as a pop singer, actress and model under the stage name of Kamaliya.

“I feel like the whole town lives with us,” Kamaliya said of the welcome that she and Mrs. World 2009 contestants received. Hundreds of posters and billboards with the Ukrainian queen’s image adorn the coastline. Vietnamese flew kites depicting the flags of contestants’ nations outside the Imperial Hotel, where the pageant will take place.

The concept of Mrs. World takes its roots in one of the oldest pageants, Mrs. America, founded by American entrepreneur David Marmel. While beauty is a key element, the idea is to measure the contestant’s commitment to family values and social engagement.

“All married women – young wives, mothers, even grandmothers – are eligible to participate,” said Kamaliya. “I remember competing side by side with businesswomen, charity workers and even politicians. We were all united to beat the prejudice that marriage wrinkles one’s career, beauty and social life.”

But even many beauty queens know, deep down, that pageants have an image problem. Kamaliya is no exception. The contests have earned a bad name among many people for vanity and bigotry. There is also the scuttlebutt that the titles are sold to the highest bidder. Nonsense, said Kamaliya, who is trying to change the perception.

“I know some people don’t believe I won the contest by myself. And I would probably never convince them of the opposite,” she said. “I just want them to consider that there are dozens of these competitions held annually. However, not a single Ukrainian - no matter how many oligarchs were propping her up - has managed to win the international crown.”

In other words, she earned that crown.

When beauty queens aren’t being trashed for their vanity, their intellects are called into question. Granted, many a contestant has stood on stage and answered “world peace” when asked about their hopes for humanity. While a wish for world peace may sound naïve from the manicured and lip-glossed stage beauties, the noble idea still hasn’t been achieved.

Korea is a case in point, divided since 1948. South Korea bought the rights to hold the Mrs. World pageant next year to raise the country’s profile, lure tourists and generally open doors to the world. Their efforts, however, keep being threatened by their kin, North Korea, a backwards dictatorship that has alarmed the world with its ambition to develop nuclear weapons.

Kamaliya has been invited to be a part of a peace delegation in attempt to promote South Korea’s friendly spirit and to see what she can do about improving neighborly relations. She has signed a contract to be an official representative and face of Mrs. World 2010, to be held in South Korea.

“The contest has opened up the whole new world of opportunities to me,” Kamaliya said. “I definitely grew up and gained invaluable experience. This pageant is like an army for the women.”

In the lobby of Imperial Palace hotel, the five-star home for 76 contestants, Kamaliya was the star of the evening when she arrived on Nov. 18 in Vung Tau. Amid the clip-clop of high heels and froufrou of evening gowns, she was giving advice, taking pictures and trying to guess the winner herself.

Summing up the achievements of the last year, she said she concentrated on her strong points and diversified into film.

She debuted in the comedy “Merry Widow” alongside popular Russian actors, which is expected to appear on the big screen early next year. The film takes after an eponymous operetta by the Austro-Hungarian composer Franz Lehar. Kamaliya plays the main part of a rich widow attended by a few admirers who are more than they pretend to be on the surface. The film has been produced by Hollywood filmmaker of Ukrainian origin, Volodymyr Horynzhy.

Now, she’s busy filming in “Lady’s Gambit,” a Russian comedy, where she has the female lead again. Kamaliya plays a seductive assistant who escorts her all-too-busy and married boss everywhere he goes.

The pageant victory helped her get noticed by Hollywood filmmakers and cast for a potential starring role in the coming film “The Accident,” to be produced by Klaus Menzel. Kamaliya was approved for the part of the singer from Eastern Europe, and will be acting with a constellation of such notable actors as Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep, and possibly Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas. Filming will start in spring 2010 in several locations worldwide.

Her husband, Zahoor is his wife’s staunchest backer in her quest for career development and community work. The Kyiv businessman, who is amassing a growing portfolio of real estate and media holdings in Ukraine, is convinced that Mrs. World is an alternative to the calls of decadence in other beauty contest that take into account only woman’s body and looks.

“Interviews make up 50 percent of success [unlike in other contests],” Zahoor said. “The key to success is family and how ladies achieve harmony within it.”

Title hopefuls are in their last days of catwalks and interviews with the judges. Women of all occupations, from a police officer to a singer from the Swedish band, Army of Lovers, will stand the test of beauty, family and marriage vows.

The Mrs. World show will be broadcast Nov. 23 – 24 to more than 60 countries in the Asian-Pacific region, but not, alas, in Ukraine.

Yuliya Popova can be reached at popova@kyivpost.com