Brazil’s Miss Bum Bum beauty pageant is back! Contestants lined up in Sao Paulo city center on Monday as the fifth installment of the annual competition was officially launched.

A total of 27 women, one from each of the South American nation’s states, are competing for the top prize. The 27 finalist are what is left of the original 500 that applied. From the 27, they will narrow it down to 15 finalists and put them up for a public vote in November.

This year contestants had to prove that they had not undergone surgery nor used chemical products.

'Bottoms' are a thing of national pride in Brazil, where some Carnival beauties have been reported to get their behinds covered by insurance companies.

The Miss Bum Bum contest is looking for the ‘rear of the year’.

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