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Xuxa born (Maria da Graça Meneghel) on March 27, 1963 in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil is Brazilian television actress, singer and children's television show host. Her various shows have been broadcast in Portuguese, Spanish, and English languages.
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Personal Life and Family

Xuxa is of German, Austrian, Italian, and Polish descent and was the first Brazilian to appear on Forbes Magazine's list of richest artists in 1991, taking 37th place with an annual gross income of US$19 million. Xuxa has dated Pelé and the late Ayrton Senna, both regarded as important figures in Brazil. Xuxa's personal life has often been very public and sometimes scandalous. She had a daughter, Sasha, on July 28, 1998. Her birth was televised live. Sasha studies at one of Brazil's most expensive schools, the bilingual "Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro" (EARJ), also known as American School of Rio de Janeiro, with a tuition of about $2,000 a month. Xuxa's maternal habits are often criticized, particularly as she has been very indulgent with Sasha, throwing her lavish parties. One, for instance, involved a rented theme park, which cost around $1,000,000.

Rise to stardom

Her father Luiz Floriano was a military man, and got stationed in Rio de Janeiro when she was 7. At age 15, she was followed home by a magazine publisher who spotted the pretty blue-eyed blonde in the train and invited her to audition to be a model. A year later, she was on the cover of a Brazilian magazine.

In 1980, Xuxa posed for another magazine with other Brazilian models and the great soccer legend Pelé. The smitten athlete wooed the young model and the two embarked on a six-year romance, which propelled her career forward.

While performing at nightclubs, she graced the centerfold of Playboy magazine's Brazilian edition in December 1982, which led to her being cast in the motion picture Amor Estranho Amor (Love Strange Love, IMDB page) in which she plays a prostitute who seduces a 13 year old boy. Some scenes with underage actors in this movie would not be allowed by current Brazilian laws concerning child pornography. Xuxa reportedly bought the rights for this movie in order to prevent its distribution. She was only 20 when she was given her own variety TV show, 'Clube da Criança' (Children's Club). She was an instant hit: her candor on camera and her way with kids caught the attention of Latin America's Portuguese media giant, Globo TV. In 1985, Globo TV took her as its own.
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Xou da Xuxa

Xou da Xuxa is probably the most famous children's show in Brazil and Latin America. It started in 1986. In the show, aired every weekday morning, Xuxa presented cartoon and games, did interviews and performed some of her songs. The show created a kid show frenzy in Brazil, and until late about 2001, more than 9 years after the ending of XOU DA XUXA, most TV networks had at least one kids show in the XOU DA XUXA-style. Not only in Brazil, but in most of Latin America, XOU DA XUXA-type shows became popular (show with a beautiful host, usually blonde, who presented cartoons, etc).

The audience of the show was of kids who jumped up and down during the whole show. Kids shook pompons throughout the show, marking of the trademarks of the show. But the biggest trademark was the pink spaceship. Every show Xuxa started getting out of the spaceship and at the end, she would go back to the spaceship (it remains so until today).

Every year she released a new album for kids, the 1988 one 'Xou da Xuxa 3' with her biggest hit 'Ilariê' (who was #1 in the radio in almost every Latin-America country) is her best-selling album selling 3 million copies in Brazil alone. 'Xou da Xuxa 3' is the best-selling album in Brasil history.

Xuxa starred in a new movie every year. They were all big office hits (they are hated by the press and by anyone over 5 years old, but she's the biggest movie star in Brasil and her movies are the biggest B.O. every year) with the Lua de Cristal from 1989 being the most popular one. The theme song for the movie was also a big hit. Her second biggest box office was with Super Xuxa Contra o Baixo Astral, that included her hit song Arco-Íris (Rainbow), a hit across Latin America that was the biggest box office success of all time in Brazil.
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Shows

Xou da Xuxa ended in 1993 due to Xuxa's desire to invest more time in her international career, which included Spanish and English versions of Xou da Xuxa as well as various shows in the U.S. and Europe. During that year, she developed health problems attributed to stress; a typical week consisted of seven hours of taping for a month's worth of shows coupled with flying to Argentina where the Spanish version was taped.

XUXA, the English version of Xou da Xuxa, proved unpopular with U.S. audiences and was cancelled after the first season. The Portuguese and Spanish versions were more than 2 hours in length, while the English version was condensed to 30 minutes. The enthusiasm that the live audiences held was noticeably lacking in the English version.

XUXA PARK was a Spanish gameshow she presented that held good ratings. The theme song of the show, 'Sabor de la Vida' ('Flavor of Life'), was a big hit in Spain, topping the song charts. Her 'Xuxa Park' album also sold well, being certified gold. However, the show was cancelled after TeleCinco decided not to renew the show's contract.

XUXA PARK (Brasil) - The Brazilian Xuxa Park didn't have any relation with the Spanish one. It aired from 1997 to 2000 on Saturday mornings and was a modern version of Xou da Xuxa. It was cancelled after several children were injured in an on-set fire. After the incident Xuxa became depressed and didn't appear in the media for several months.

Xuxa Hits - Intending to target a teenage audience, Xuxa Hits aired just after Xuxa Park on Saturday mornings. The show had musical guests and games and was later moved to Sunday and renamed 'Planeta Xuxa' (Xuxa Planet).

Planeta Xuxa - The show was a big hit and was shown on Sunday afternoons with musical guests. It ran concurrently with Xuxa Park. The most popular segment was 'Intimacy' where Xuxa interviewed a celebrity about their sexual habits. The show went on hiatus after the fire on Xuxa Park; it came back and was later canceled due to Xuxa's desire to work with children once more.

Xuxa no Mundo da Imaginação (Xuxa in the World of Imagination) - Xuxa no Mundo da Imaginação arose from Xuxa's desire to return to produce children's programming. The show premiered in 2002 and aired weekday mornings. It was the lowest-rated Xuxa show, highlighting the Globo morning block's ratings loss to the SBT morning block for the first time in years.

TV Xuxa - Xuxa repackaged 'Mundo da Imaginação' as TV Xuxa in an attempt to boost its ratings. In this show, presented on weekday mornings, she did segments on nature,internet and art, but the main segment was the game `Battle of the Titans'. The show also included a "Day's topic" which was explored and explained by Xuxa. During the show, she also presented cartoons. After a few seasons, the show was remodeled and came back wiith new segments, games and cartoons, but remained much the same as the old show.
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Children's entertainer

Reinvented as a children's entertainer, Xuxa began the Xuxa Só para Baixinhos (Xuxa Just for Kids series, releasing CDs and a videotape with song clips. She also began her first tour since the end of her Xou da Xuxa show, and won two Grammy awards.

In 2001 Xuxa began a new children's show, Xuxa No Mundo da Imaginação (Xuxa at the World of Imagination), a show for preschool children on weekday mornings. The show was initially successful, but following a dispute between Xuxa and her manager, Marlene Matos, ratings for the show began to decline, resulting in the show being pulled from air in 2004. Xuxa, however, being one of the most popular Brazillian TV personalities at the time, was kept on and a new show, TV Xuxa was launched, containing more educational content and cartoons, and less of Xuxa than previous shows.

In her children's shows, she consistently wore tight clothing, showing her belly, legs, and even parts of her buttocks, and in her first LP (also targeted at children), she revealed her breasts on the cover by wearing a translucent shirt.
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Actress

Xuxa is also an actress and, together with comedy group Os Trapalhões, she has the 9 biggest Box Office hits in Brazilian history. In 1989 she starred for the first time in a movie with the comedy group Os Trapalhões in A Princesa Xuxa e Os Trapalhões (Princess Xuxa and The Messed-Up Guys), which was another hit.

The following year, she starred in two movies: Xuxa e os Trapalhões em 'O Mistério de Robin Hood' (Xuxa and The Messed-Up Guys in 'The Mystery of Robin Hood') and Lua de Cristal (Crystal Moon). The second was her biggest box office hit, spawning her hit single 'Lua de Cristal'.

In 1999 Xuxa appeared in Xuxa Requebra (Xuxa in Shake It), a movie that was a critical flop but a big hit with the audience. Targeted at teenagers, the movie was still a hit with the audience and next year, a movie in the same style (no story line, lots of advertisements, lots of popular actors/groups/singers making cameos) was made, called Xuxa Popstar.

Then, in 2001 she did her first children's movie in twelve years, Xuxa e os Duendes. A fantasy movie, it not only had many cameos, but also a story line and no advertisements, a first for Xuxa's movie. The movie was a hit and a sequel was made for the following year.

In 2003 she did another fantasy movie, Xuxa em Abracadabra and in 2004, Xuxa e o Tesouro da Cidade Perdida (Xuxa and the Treasure of the Lost City). As of 2005, Xuxa is about to release her first animated movie.

Next film is named Gemeas (Twins) will be the first time which Xuxa make a villain.The movie will be launch in January of 2007.
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International career

In the 90s, Xuxa became very popular in the whole of Latin America, widening her appeal among Spanish-speaking audiences, when she recorded a programme in Argentina, Show de Xuxa, which was also popular when broadcast in Chile, Mexico and other 16 Latin American countries. She also recorded a programme in Spain in 1992, Xuxa Park, which achieved a huge success.

In 1993 Xuxa hosted an English language series in the United States, "Xuxa", but it did not achieve the popularity Xuxa had enjoyed throughout Latin America and Spain. Xuxa did not master the English language, which was her greatest barrier to success. However, the show was sold in many countries throughout the world, among them Japan, Israel, Russia and some Arab countries. Many parents were taken aback by her seemingly open displays of sexuality and lack of modest clothing as well as her practice of putting on bright red lipstick and kissing the cheeks of prepubescent males at the end of each show. Also in 1993, she taped "Xuxa Park" in Spain. The theme song of the show spent 8 weeks on the top of the charts and her CD charted gold. Her international ambitions ended after she taped 22 episodes of her American show in a month. After she was hospitalized for several days due to exhaustion, she decided to give up her international career.

In the United States, where knowledge of the Portuguese language is generally limited, school children have been known to refer to Xuxa's unusual name as "the name full of s's, but has none."[citation needed]
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Brazilian icon
Xuxa's childhood home, now a pseudo-museum in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
Xuxa's childhood home, now a pseudo-museum in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil

Xuxa is a Brazilian icon, who was part of the childhood of many young people born in the 1980s and 1990s. She is still popular with children today, who listen to her CD collection 'Só Para Baixinhos'.

Her third album is the best-selling album in Brazilian history, selling almost 4 million copies. The album included the hit Ilarie, which went to Number 1 across Latin America and it was the bestselling single and most-played song on the radio in 1989. Xuxa's biggest singles were during her Xou da Xuxa era, the biggest of them all being Ilariê, but she was also successful with Lua de Cristal; Tindolelê; Brincar de Índio and Arco-Íris.
The Disneyesque monument to Xuxa in downtown Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul - the city is Xuxa's birthplace
The Disneyesque monument to Xuxa in downtown Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul - the city is Xuxa's birthplace

She had a multiplicity of licensed products since the 80s, from bubble gum to televisions, Shampoos, soap, food, books, clothes, shoes, dolls, toys, video games and board games. Just about anything could be found with her face on it in stores in Brazil and across Latin America.

Her revealing clothes were not a big controversy in Brazil, which has traditionally been more relaxed about nudity than North America or Western Europe, and most of Brazilians didn't see anything wrong with the clothes she wore.

Xuxa is one of the richest Brazilian entertainers. In 1991, she was one of the 40 Best Paid Celebrities in the World according to Forbes. She was the only Latin American on the list. Xuxa is one of the richest women in Brazil, with a net worth of more than US$160 million.

In 1998, her daughter was born live on Jornal Nacional, the most important and most watched news shows in Brazil. Nine months before, she had announced live at Globo's Sunday show Domingão do Faustão that her dream would come true and she would have a child. She has an on and off relationship with model and heir Luciano Szafir, father of her daughter. In 1992 People Magazine includes Xuxa in annual list of the 50 most beautiful people in the world with Lady Dy, Elizabeth Taylor...
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Xuxa movies

Xuxa started her movie carreer in 1982 in the movie "Fuscão Preto". In the same year, she accepted to do the adult movie "Amor, Estranho, Amor". At the time, the only reason she was famous was that she was dating Pelé. The polemic movie had some respected actors like Vera Fischer and in it Xuxa seduced a minor. Xuxa is ashamed of the movie and one of the reasons her relationship with Pelé isn't very good is because according to her he was the one who made her agree to do the movie. Marlene Mattos, who was Xuxa manager and best friend for many years, bought the right for the movie and it's not avaible on video or DVD in Latin America.

Only one year later after doing the polemic movie, Xuxa started her carreer as a kids show presenter at Manchete. The same year she was invited to have a role in a movie with Os Trapalhões. Os Trapalhões were the biggest comedy group in Brazil and their show was a big hit with kids and grown-ups. Os Trapalhões movies were some of the biggest hits of Brazilian cinema.

So in 1983, she had a role at the movie Os Trapalhões e o Mágico de Oroz, a spoof of "The Wizard of Oz". She also had roles in two more Os Trapalhões movies: 1984 Os Trapalhões e a Arca de Noé and 1985 Os Trapalhões e o Reino da Fantasia

In 1986, she was already a big star on her own and Brazili's leading-net Globo, hired her to present Xou da Xuxa, a children show on weekdays morning. The show was a big hit and the album "Xou da Xuxa" sold over 2 million copies. She became one of the biggest celebrities in Brasil and one of the richest, with lots and lots of merchandise with her name and sold-out concerts and No. 1 albums.

In 1988, Xuxa was at her peak. Her song Ilariê was the Number 1 song in the whole Latin America and her album "Xou da Xuxa 3" sold over 3 million albums, becoming the biggest-selling album in Brazilian history. It was the right time to her first kids movie be released.

Super Xuxa Contra o Baixo Astral was a huge success, being the biggest box-office of the year. The movie did OK with critics, but Xuxa acting hability was heavily pained. The movie also helped the album sales because it had the hit single "Arco Iris" (Rainbow).

In 1989, the 2 biggest "movie stars" and entertainers of the time, Xuxa and Os Trapalhões, made a joint movie: A Princesa Xuxa e os Trapalhões (Princess Xuxa and the Trapalhões) and the movie was again a big hit.

In 1990, she had the biggest movie of her carreer. She starred the movie Lua de Cristal (Cristal Moon) and the movie had over 5 million viewers and spawned a number 1 single, "Lua de Cristal".

The same year, she did her last movie with Os Trapalhões (O Mistério de Hobin Hood).

At the summer of 1990, presenter Sergio Malandro, "Lua de Cristal" male lead, and the "Paquitas" and "Paquitos" (Xou da Xuxa dancers) made another movie, but without Xuxa (but produced by her). "Sonho de Verão" (Summer Dream), a youth-oriented movie, was a hit, but not as big.

She only did another movie 9 years later with "Xuxa Requebra". The movie was a big critical flop. It had no storyline and it was basically product placements and cameos of the singers and actors who were very popular at the time. But the movie was a big hit, being the most-succeful brazilian movie of the year, and she used the same formula for her next movie, "Xuxa Popstar".

In 2001, she decided to go back to doing children movies and she did "Xuxa e os Duendes". Since then, she release a new movie every year. "Xuxa e os Duendes 2" in 2002, "Xuxa Abracadabra" in 2003, "Xuxa e o Mistério da Cidade Perdida" in 2004 and her first animated movie "Xuxinha e Guto: Contra os Monstros da Cidade Perdida" in 2005. Her 2006 movie, "Xuxa Gêmeas", she will act as twins, one evil and one good.

Her movies are always the biggest critic flops of the year. Since 1999, her movies have weak or no storyline at all who don't make much sense, very bad writtenly scripts and a cast formed by the most popular actors, singers and presenters at the time.