Face of reality: Mich. singer crowned Miss America

LAS VEGAS - Miss Michigan Kirsten Haglund, 19, an aspiring Broadway star, was crowned Miss America 2008 last night in a live show intended to display the 87-year-old pageant's hipper look.

Haglund, of Farmington Hills, Mich., sang "Over the Rainbow" to clinch the title. She beat Miss Indiana Nicole Elizabeth Rash, the first runner-up, and Miss Washington Elyse Umemoto, the second runner-up, for the $50,000 scholarship and year of travel that come with the crown.

Haglund, who studies music at the University of Cincinnati, grew up in a pageant family. Her mother is an active volunteer, and her grandmother Iora Hunt competed for the crown as Miss Michigan 1944. Hunt was in the audience last night.

As her platform issue, Haglund promised to advocate for awareness of eating disorders, an illness from which she has recovered.

The crowning at the Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip was televised for the first time on TLC. It capped a four-week reality series,

Miss America: Reality Check

, that followed the contestants as they were pushed to shed the dated look of Miss Americas past and adopt a more updated style.

The show was the latest in a series of efforts to find an audience with a younger demographic after more than a decade of declining ratings.

The 52 newly made-over aspiring beauty queens sported updated hairdos, sassy attitudes, and red-carpet-worthy fashion throughout the competition.

Usually tame by modern TV standards, the swimwear competition kicked it up a notch. Most contestants wore black bikinis, and some struck provocative poses and twirled as the audience howled. Contestants also wore blue jeans and added humor to the traditional opening number, the parade of states.

Producers had hoped a new confident attitude would show through on the catwalks, and Miss Utah Jill Stevens, an Army medic who served in Afghanistan, didn't disappoint.

"Home of the country's highest birth rate - as long as the Osmonds don't move," she announced.

Stevens made it to the final 16, who were selected via text-message voting by viewers. Judges chose the subsequent finalists.

Miss Utah didn't make it to the final 10, but she took the disappointment with pluck. She dropped and gave the audience push-ups before joining the other also-rans.