It has been a tight battle between the Philippines’ Maine Mendoza and India’s Shivani Paliwal during the finals of “100 Asian Sweethearts 2019” online poll. In the end, the Now United member from the most populous democracy in the world emerged as the winner on December 31, 2019. Shivani garnered a total of 242,233 votes beating 26 other finalists from across the region.

The 18-year-old dancer and influencer catapulted to global fame after making it as one of the members of the international pop group Now United which is being managed by Simon Fuller, the creator of the Idol brand. She is admired in her home country, India, and has a huge fan base in Brazil.

Last year, Shivani ranked 97th in 100 Asian Sweethearts 2018 edition.

This year’s runner-up was last year’s winner, Maine Mendoza from the Philippines.

The Filipina social media queen was leading the finals until Shivani took over the lead in the last 8 hours of the poll. Maine garnered a total of 213,528 votes or 35.23%

Completing the Top 5 are Lalisa Manoban of Thailand (#3), Kisses Delavin of the Philippines (#4), and Mahiro Kawamura of Japan (#5).

Here are the complete results of the final poll:

And here are the Top 10 countries that participated in the poll:

Watch the video below: