Grandma beauty contest in Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach babushkas compete to be this year's most fabulous grandma

Russian intrigue, timeless glamour, and rowdy entourages collide in the New York "Your Highness Grandmother" pageant.

Grandmother Faina Konusova poses for a portrait during a break in competition at the National Restaurant in Brighton Beach, New York. She immigrated from Moscow in 1998 and says: "I love America. All my songs are about love."
PHOTOGRAPH BY ALEXEY YURYNEV

The disco lights are spinning. The crowd is on their feet and clapping to the pulsing beat of Celine Dion’s “I’m alive!” and grandma Polina Vockoboynik—with the help of her backup grandma dancers—is executing her ribbon dance routine with panache.

Her audience is a boisterous crowd of families: more than 300 children, grandchildren, and friends of 12 competing grandmas hailing from all stretches of the former Soviet empire. But there are three people Vockoboynik must impress the most—three grandpas squeezed behind one table strewn with voting ballots and an array of Russian appetizers known as zakuski, mulling her score.

It’s the 17th annual Your Highness Grandmother Pageant, and it feels as if all of Brighton Beach–the beating heart

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