Xuxa

Maria da Graça Xuxa Meneghel ( SHOO-shə, Brazilian Portuguese: [maˈɾi.ɐ da ˈɡɾasɐ ˈʃuʃɐ mẽneˈɡɛw]; born Maria da Graça Meneghel on 27 March 1963) is a Brazilian TV host, actress, singer, and businesswoman. Nicknamed "The Queen of Children", Xuxa built the largest Latin and South American children's entertainment empire. In the early 1990s, she presented television programs in Brazil, Argentina, Spain and the United States simultaneously, reaching around 20 million viewers daily. According to different sources, the singer's sales range between 30 and 50 million copies. In 2025, the record label Som Livre, with which the artist recorded almost all of her albums, gave her an award for her more than 28 million copies sold only in Brazil, during her career, and 10 billion streams to date. 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.

Early life and education

Maria da Graça Meneghel was born in Santa Rosa, Rio Grande do Sul, to Alda (née Flores da Rocha) and Luís Floriano Meneghel. Xuxa is of Italian and Polish descent on her paternal side and of German, Swiss and Portuguese descent on her maternal side. Her paternal great-grandfather emigrated to Brazil from the northern Italian town of Imer, in the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol, around the end of the 19th century. In 2013, Xuxa obtained Italian citizenship by jus sanguinis.