Xuxa (real name Maria da Graça Meneghel) born March 27, 1963 in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul is a Brazilian television actress and singer. She is a children's television show host and has had shows in English, Portuguese and Spanish. In 1993, Xuxa's show, Xuxa, premiered in English syndication but was cancelled soon thereafter in 1994.

Xuxa was the first Brazilian to appear on Forbes Magazine's list of richest artists in 1991 in 37th place with an annual gross income of 19 million dollars.

Xuxa has dated soccer super-star Pelé and the late Ayrton Senna, both regarded as important figures in Brazil.

Xuxa started her career performing at the Clube da Criança. She graced the centerfold of Playboy in the December 1982, Brazilian edition, which led to a role in a movie. She was famous because she was dating Pele and was a model, even appearing naked in several magazines in the early 1980's. Xou da Xuxa, a weekday morning show that featured musical performances, games, guests and cartoons was very popular. It ran from 1986 to 1993, with the last show being an emotionally-charged special that featured her dad. This was special because a case of infidelity on the part of her father led Xuxa to go public with the news and break off contact with him for several years.

Later she hosted a game show and sitcom, and in the mid 1990's hosted two more shows: Planeta Xuxa (Xuxa Planet), a teenage show with Xuxa playing a very controversial role in which she would interview stars about their sexual lifes. Xuxa Park, a modern version of Xou da Xuxa also had a brief run. Both shows had good ratings but were cancelled after a fire at Xuxa Park sent several kids to the hospital.

Recovered, Xuxa began the Xuxa Só para Baixinhos series (Xuxa Just for Kids), putting out CDs and a DVD with videoclips of the songs. Due to their popularity, she began her first tour since her show, Xou da Xuxa had ended. She won a Grammy for the 1st Xuxa Só para Baixinhos album and another for the 2nd. Currently there are five albums in the series with a sixth due shortly. The resemblance of many segments of the video productions of para Baixinhos to earlier Australian and American children's shows is striking... in some cases duplicating English language sequences shot-for-shot. How formal the connections between Xuxa's para Baixinhos productions are to these earlier shows is unclear; however, the most recently released para Baixinhos 5 does acknowledge a licensing arrangement with Sony for the Portugese version of the High 5 America song So Many Animals.

Xuxa began another children's show, Xuxa No Mundo da Imaginação (Xuxa at the World of Imagination) (2001), a show for preschool kids on weekday mornings. Marlene Matos, Xuxa's manager since the 80's and best friend, was against the idea because she thought doing a teenage-oriented show was better, so they had a fight and went their separate ways. The ratings at the beginning were good but later began to decline. The show was cancelled in 2004. During the time Xuxa was off the air, television network TV Globo was in 1st place. But Xuxa, being one of the most popular TV personalities couldn't be fired, so a new show premiered, TV Xuxa, with more cartoons and educational content and less Xuxa. The show was also a hit during the first weeks but is now again losing against rival network, SBT.

Xuxa personal life was always very public and sometimes a little scandalous. She had a daughter in 1998 and the birth was televised live. Her maternal habits are constantly criticized because some people say she spoils her daughter too much (giving her a $1,000,000 party and closing a theme park for another one). Sasha, Xuxa's daughter, studies at Brazil's most expensive school, the bilingual Escola Americana do Rio de Janeiro (EARJ - American School of Rio de Janeiro) with a tuition of about $2,000 per month.

Credit: en.wikipedia.org