What do Pelé, Senna and Happy Birthday have in common?
For anyone who has been living on the moon for the last 60 years I should explain, Pelé was Brazilian footballer – people generally agree that he was rather good. Ayrton Senna is widely regarded as the greatest Formula One driver of all time. But these two have more in common than their status as Brazilian sporting icons. Despite being born 20 years apart (Pele 1940, Senna 1960) they both dated the same girl.
Xuxa da Graça Meneghel, better known as just Xuxa. Her name is pronounced Shoosha.
And yet Xuxa is known in Brazil as a personality in her own right. As you can probably guess, looking at her picture above, she started out as a model.
She appeared on the cover of many magazines including what they call here revistas masculinas. When she was 19 she started dating Pelé – a move that gave her massive media exposure. I’ve no idea whether this was a calculated move or just a lucky coincidence – the cynic in me suspects the first option.
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| Xuxa and Pelé. This photo suggests to me that Pelé was a big fan of Happy Days. |
From what I can gather they didn’t part amicably – years later in interviews she would say he had incredibly ugly feet and he would refer to her only as “that blond TV presenter”.
Between 1988-9 Xuxa dated Ayrton Senna and although he had other girlfriends after this, is was Xuxa who was most accepted by his family (enough so that, according to wikipedia, she was “granted widow status” at his funeral).
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| Xuxa and Senna in 1988. Incidentally, if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Senna, the documentary on Ayrton’s life. Regardless of whether you’re interested in F1 (I’m not), it’s an amazing film. |
But as I said, Xuxa is not known simply as ‘that girl that dated Pelé and Senna’. In fact I was aware of her work long before I was aware of any of those amorous associations. Back in the 80s, Xuxa had a children’s television show Xou da Xuxa (Xou sounds like ‘show’, making the whole thing sound like ‘Show da Shoosha’ – Xuxa’s Show). Back then she made some pretty radical fashion statements:
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| 80s Icon. Please check this link for more crazy outfits – it’s pretty funny. |
And that’s where the link with birthdays comes in. I’ve been to quite a few birthdays here in Rio and whilst the first birthday song is always the tune of ‘Happy Birthday To You’ (with different lyrics), the following song is all about Xuxa:
It’s an incredibly sugary-sweet song about having cake and guaraná, enjoying your birthday with your friends and having happiness and love in your hearth. Urgh… Anyway, it seems to transport a large number of Brazilians back to the days of their childhood. Here’s a little tip. If you happen to know a Brazilian who isn’t living in Brazil anymore, why not secretly learn this song and then sing it to them on their birthday. They will either laugh, cry or both!
I think the Xuxa-Pelé relationship was beneficial to both parties. It also should be mentioned that the reason they fell out was due to Pelé revealing details about their intimate moments to a magazine. She called him an ugly king for doing that, as in it was an ugly thing to do. I think she is right: no class whatsoever from Pelé on that one.
Senna ruled, as did Arthur Fonzerelli.
Does 'ER' produce an 'uh' sound in British English (Xuxa-Shoosher)?
Yeah, I was thinking about that. For me, Shoosher, Shoosha and Shoosh-uh all sound the same. I know North Americans make more of a big deal of the 'Argh' sound of R – as in a pirate – argh! Non-brits should substitute Shoosh-a/Shoosh-uh
I was wondering about the ER….I was scratching my head for a minute there but I got it now.
One thing that annoys the crap out of me about her is her UTTERLY FAKE carioca accent. She is from Rio Grande do Sul (duhhhhhh…she's blonder than blonde itself!!) where they DO NOT have chiados. But miss Xuxa here is the epitome of an annoying pushed carioca accent. Good thing its FAKE.
Why?!??!?!?!?!
Abracos,
Alex
Hmmm, looking at my traffic stats, I guess I should change it to the non-UK version!
Regarding her Carioca accent, Wikipedia tells me she moved to Rio when she was seven. If she's anything like me then that's plenty of time to soak up an accent. After 6 months of travelling with Australians, I had people from London asking me whether I was from Melbourne or Sydney!! ;)
ok well I just look like an ass now. Great!
Ha ha ha! I had to jump to her defence as I've developed a little bit of a crush due to that first picture in the post.
She was very beautiful, people have to give her at least that.
Plus she has certain Lady Di moments depending on the hair cut, like in the second pic where she appears with the Pelonzie.
Speaking of Lady Di look-alikes anyone remember this?
Gritty, I agree with you on Pelé's bad behaviour – I had no idea he was such a cad. And yes, she was definitely beautiful. And made a lot of kids ridiculously happy from the looks of things.
you never EVER cease to amaze me, Tom.
thank you so much for my evening entertainment! =D
"Her name is pronounced Shoosha."
that one cracked me up for hours. genious
Ha ha! Thanks Tamara! You know, Rio (and Brazil) keeps entertaining ME! :)
While dating Pelé he introduced her to the owners of Elite models. This boosted her career a lot. She also lived for a while in the USA (with a TV show for the kids of the hispanic community) and had a quick affair with John John Kennedy. Xuxa also played in a film "Amor Estranho Amor" – seducing a young boy. And do not forget she had a very long affair with Marlene Matos. http://veja.abril.com.br/100702/p_108.html
You should mention that her affair with Marlene Matos was a professional one, with frienship on the side at best. There is no evidence that they were lovers.
Rumors are funny, when you aren't the target of them I guess. I remember the one which claimed that Itamar Franco was having an affair with his adult nephew ( again no proof whatsoever) regardless, people eat it up.
Anyway I guess this has been part of human behavior since cavemen. I find rumors to be annoying though, and pretty dishonest. The only positive thing that ever came out of a one can be found below.
Gritty, people talked A LOT about a probable affair, with dirty jokes and so on. I had never believed on it. Recently Marlene Matos confessed in an interview for a Brazilian magazine that they really had a sexual affair. This is someth. Xuxa will always deny. If you make some research on the net you will find it. Good luck !
Thank you Tom…really nice to have you and Manu in my Birthday. Next year I'll invite some musicians to play along with our singing…rsrsr
Ah, we loved being there Eliane. As well as wishing you happy birthday, I got to see that mega-sandwich-cake thing which was *very* cool! :)