Suzette Charles - Miss America Talent Competition

To call Charles' voice "nice" is to understate the obvious. It's closer to spectacular than nice.

hey everyone -- i think Vanessa's fantastic career as a dynamic singer and actress has proven "who should have won" that year -- suzette has a nice singing voice, but Vanessa has enormous gifts and star quality -- she is also an outstanding mother and an all-around delightful (and GORGEOUS) woman

I don't think she's performing anymore. According to the Miss America organization, she's married to an opthalmologist, Leonard Bley, whose practice is in New York City, and has two children, Hannah and Ilan.

The microphone looks bigger than her. I am a Vanessa fan but Suzette's vocal was outstanding. Where is she now?

suzette versus vanessa: to me the edge was given to vanessa williams because she was a double winner in both talent and swimsuit preliminaries. suzette did not win her swimsuit competition. this is not to take away from her enormous talent, though. i personally think if both girls had competed the same night in talent prelims, suzette would have bested vanessa.

It's amazing how similar these posts are to American Idol. People always assume negative things about a contender's attitude when it's obvious their favorite is inferior.

Suzette Charles' performance is the best vocal I have EVER heard on the Miss America pageant! She went from the bottom to the top of her range with no scooping or tonal changes. Very hard to do!

I respect Vanessa's win as it's an overall scoring process, but vocally she ain't in the league. I know singing. This is it!

Williams sang "Happy Days Are Here Again," right? I thought it was forgettable, but if we're debating who should have won, I'd say Williams should have. She's more accessible, and Charles was rather aloof. You need for a spokesmodel which is pretty much what Miss America is. Unless you have a voice with the kind of control and power Charles had. Then we're talking about a whole different thing that Miss America is. I'll never forget this moment in the pageant's history.

I dont know how were related because I blacker than night and shes white mixed with african american and italian

Thats my cousin i think 5th shes related either to my grandmother or grandfather I forgot

Her performance was good, but Vanessa Williams was slighty better, moreover, Vanessa had a better body overall.

The Miss America Pageant has several competitions that a contestant has to perfom in. Overall, as someone who watched the pageant that year, I would have to say that Vanessa Williams outdid Suzette Charles, not by much, but I would have selected her.

I think the judges made the correct choice.

PBS has her at 5'3". That statuesque business can't be altogether true. Susan Powell, who won the title three years earlier, was 5'4". Gretchen Carlson, Miss America 1989, was 5'3".

She was too short. She is 5'2.

I remember that night I don't remember Suzette winning talent. She won talent the night of her prelim and so did Vanessa who was on a different night. Suzette just didn't fit the Miss America image in 1993. She wasn't statuesque enough.

This is the greatest moment the Miss America talent competition ever had to offer.

I watched this Miss America pageant that night and Suzette Charles had me spellbound during her talent segment. She brought a soulful style to the song. It was a historical moment to witness two African Americans win 1st runner up and the title for the very first time. I haven't seen this in over 20 years and bless you for posting it!