Natalie Glebova Biography

Natalie Glebova was born in Tuapse, Russia. She is also a classical pianist and has won various regional gymnastic championships. According to an interview, she was born in a small town by the Black Sea in Russia called Tuapse. "It was there that I lived for some of my childhood with my parents (I’m an only child). My family moved to Toronto when I was 12 years old, and I fell in love with the city from the minute I arrived!"

As Miss Universe, Glebova represented the Miss Universe Organization. Her "sister" 2005 titleholders were Allie LaForce (Miss Teen USA, of Ohio) and Chelsea Cooley (Miss USA, of North Carolina).

As part of her year-long reign as Miss Universe, she resided in a Trump Tower apartment in New York City and assumed the role of HIV/AIDS awareness advocate. She attended the G8 Summit in New York City on August 11, 2005, which reflected on ending poverty in underdeveloped regions and ending gang activity and drug cartels in Colombia. In November, Glebova attended a special Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in Delhi and was on a week long tour of several Indian cities on an AIDS Awareness Program. In December, she attended the national pageants of Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic before going back to Thailand to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the 2004 Tsunami tragedy.

During Glebova's official "homecoming" to her hometown of Toronto, the Miss Universe was formally offered an apology by the city's mayor David Miller after the titleholder was barred from attending a "Tastes of Thailand" festival while wearing her sash and tiara nor being introduced as a beauty titleholder. A 1990 bylaw, which prevents sexual stereotyping of either men or women in public events, was strictly enforced and largely criticized by Miller and Miss Universe Organization president Paula Shugart. Shugart called the episode an "insult" to not only Glebova, but to the Thai government who named her an "honorary tourism ambassador". According to Shugart, this was the first time in Miss Universe's history that a titleholder was uninvited from a public event. Yahoo! News (The same bylaw was once invoked to bar Barenaked Ladies from a public concert at Nathan Phillips Square.)

As well as promoting charitable causes, Glebova had the opportunity to attend many entertainment events and VIP parties in New York, and throughout the United States. She participated in numerous photo shoots with photographer Fadil Barisha.

During her reign Glebova travelled to Africa in July to attend an AIDS Educational Tour with the Global Health Council, Malaysia in late September, the Bahamas and St. Martin. In late March 2006, Natalie visited Russia for the first time since leaving the country in her pre-teens. She participated in an HIV-AIDS Awareness campaign in Moscow and attended a Russian fashion show as a special guest.. She also made numerous trips to Thailand, where she commemorated the anniversary of the Tsunami and Canada, her home nation.

She also attended the national pageants of Ukraine in mid October, Puerto Rico in November, Dominican Republic in December, Czech Republic in February, Thailand and Nicaragua in March, Brazil in April. She also crowned Alice Panikian as her Miss Universe Canada successor the night of March 21, 2006. Alice finished 6th in Miss Universe.

Glebova was supposed to travel to Indonesia to crown Miss Indonesia Universe 2006 in late July, but because of Canada's travel ban to the Southeast Asian country, Glebova was officially replaced with Puerto Rico's Cynthia Olavarria, the First Runner-Up of Miss Universe 2005. Since the Miss Indonesia pageant's revival in 2000, this was the first time in which Miss Universe was unable to attend the coronation.

On July 23rd, 2006, Natalie crowned Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza of Puerto Rico as her successor.

Glebova works as a model and received her Bachelor of Commerce in Information Technology Management and Marketing at Ryerson University. She has also worked as a motivational speaker for grade school and high school students.

In her own words, Glebova also confessed that she was teased by her classmates while in school, in part due to her Russian accent. Thus, she hopes that her own immigrant story will help the other immigrants towards assimilation all around the world.

In May 2006 it was announced that Glebova, along with golfer Vijay Singh and pro tennis player Paradorn Srichaphan, would become a brand ambassador for Thailand-based beer brewers Singha Corp. owners of Boon Rawd Brewery.

Posted in: Natalie Glebova