ORLANDO, Fla. (WKRN) — After dozens of women spent several days demonstrating their beauty, grace, fitness, talents, and public speaking skills, the judges crowned a new Miss America Sunday night.
The 2025 Miss America preliminary competition kicked off on New Year’s Day at the Dr. Phillips Center for Performing Arts in Orlando, Florida, followed by the talent preliminaries on Thursday, Jan. 2 and the finals on Sunday, Jan. 5. Officials said a total of 52 young women vied for the crown, including contestants from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
Miss Tennessee Carley Vogel certainly made the Volunteer State proud! She earned one of the preliminary talent awards for “Miss America’s Got Talent” on Thursday, receiving an engraved platter and a $3,000 scholarship after pouring her soul into singing “Climb Every Mountain” from “The Sound of Music,” according to the official Miss America Instagram account and competition footage.
When she was announced as a preliminary talent winner, Vogel told Hometown Productions she felt pure shock, joy, and happiness. She said “Climb Every Mountain” felt like a testament to her journey in life, adding that she dedicated the performance to her grandmother, who died a month before she left for the competition.
Three days later, Vogel was named one of the 11 semifinalists in the running for Miss America 2025, all of whom repeated the fitness, talent, on-stage interview, and evening gown portions of the competition for a massive audience in the Florida venue and online.
Per her biography on the Miss Tennessee website, Vogel is a senior majoring in music business and minoring in musical theatre at Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU), which sponsored her “My Scholarship Journey” ad page in the Miss America program book. As an accomplished vocalist, she’s sung the National Anthem more than 200 times and performed almost every genre of modern and classical music, including opera, Broadway, and country.
In addition to being an extraordinary singer, Vogel is also an advocate for liver health and living organ donation, according to her bio. Since age 12, she’s partnered with the American Liver Foundation to help teach people how to live a healthy lifestyle. She’s also partnered with Donate Life Tennessee to raise awareness about the more than 100,000 people awaiting organ donations.
During the interview portion of the semifinals on Sunday, Vogel was given the topic of “misinformation,” which she used to discuss the misinformation surrounding organ donations.
After strutting across the stage in their stunning evening gowns, the 11 semifinalists lined up to find out who would be in the top five for the coveted crown. Miss Tennessee was one of them!
The five finalists completed one more on-stage interview before the judges cast their votes for Miss America 2025.
The fourth runner-up was Miss Ohio Stephanie Finoti, the third runner-up was Miss Florida Casana Fink, and the second runner-up was Vogel. Miss Texas Annette Addo-Yobo and Miss Alabama Abbie Stockard faced each other as they held hands on stage, waiting to see who won.
In the end, the title went to Stockard, whose jaw dropped in surprise while Addo-Yobo jumped up and down excitedly. Stockard then received her new sash from the 2025 Miss America’s Teen, Peyton Bolling of Arkansas, and the 2024 Miss America, 2nd Lt. Madison Marsh of Colorado.
