Xuxa

Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel ( ; ; born Maria da Graça Meneghel, 27 March 1963) is a Brazilian presenter, actress, singer and businesswoman. Known as the "Queen of Little Ones", Xuxa built the largest Latin and Southern American children's entertainment empire. In the early 1990s, she presented television programs in Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the United States simultaneously, reaching around 100 million viewers daily. Xuxa has sold over 30 million copies of her records worldwide, which makes her the highest-selling Brazilian female singer. Her net worth was estimated at US$100 million in the early 1990s. Also successful as a businesswoman, she has the highest net worth of any Brazilian female entertainer, estimated at US$400 million. Biography Early life Maria da Graça Meneghel was born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, to Luís Floriano Meneghel and Alda Meneghel (née Alda Flores da Rocha). Xuxa is of Italian and Polish descent by paternal side and of German, Swiss, Dutch and Portuguese descent by maternal side. Her paternal great-great-grandfather (Ettore Meneghel) emigrated to Brazil at the end of the 1800s from the northern Italian town of Cison di Valmarino, in the region of Veneto. In 2013, Xuxa obtained Italian citizenship by descent.