Xou da Xuxa

Xou da Xuxa (English: Xou of the Xuxa) is a Brazilian children's television series directed by Marlene Mattos, and hosted by Xuxa Meneghel. It premiered on Globo TV between 30 June 1986 and 31 December 1992, with 2000 editions completed. Xou replaced the Balão Mágico program. Later, it was repeated between January and February 1993, in the transition of the changes of programming of the transmitter. Then, Globo replaced the reprises of the Xou by the reruns of the Mallandro Show, presented by Sérgio Mallandro. At the same time, the children's program Mundo da Lua TV Cultura, was also on display. In the daily grid of Globo TV, the Xou of Xuxa was replaced by TV Colosso, while the presenter prepared its program displayed on Sundays.

Xou da Xuxa
GenreChildren
Game show
Music
Talk show
Directed byMarlene Mattos
StarringXuxa Meneghel
Ana Paula Almeida
Juliana Baroni
Roberta Cipriani
Marcelo Faustini
Flavia Fernandes
Letícia Spiller
Andréia Sorvetão
Bianca Rinaldi
Cátia Paganote
Tatiana Maranhão
Cláudio Heinrich
Ana Paula Guimarães
Opening theme"Doce Mel": Xuxa (1986–92)
Country of originBrazil
Original language(s)Portuguese
No. of seasons7
No. of episodes2,000
Production
Producer(s)Nilton Gouveia
Production location(s)Teatro Fênix, Rio de Janeiro
Running time300 minutes
Release
Original networkRede Globo (1986–92)
Original release30 June 1986 (1986-06-30) –
31 December 1992 (1992-12-31)

Occupying mornings from Monday to Saturday, the program featured auditorium pictures (mostly competitions and musical numbers) interspersed with cartoons. In spite of the systematic negative reactions of the intellectuals and specialized critics, Xou da Xuxa soon became the most successful children's show in Brazilian television history, transforming its presenter into a phenomenon between the mid-80s and early 90s.[1] In 1993, she debuted an English version of her show in the US, but it was unpopular with American audiences and was cancelled after the first season.[2] Xou da Xuxa was a most successful Brazilian children's television program, which transformed its host into a celebrity during the 1980s and 1990s.[3]

The program

Xou da Xuxa was directed by Marlene Mattos, with Nilton Gouveia as the production coordinator. The program went off the air on 31 December 1992.[3][4]

The program's name, in Portuguese, is a play on the Portuguese word "xou", meaning "I am" and a "Xuxaspelling" of the term "show". This gives the name a double meaning, which can be understood as either: "I belong to Xuxa" or "Xuxa's Show."[5]

The program showcased plays, musical acts, circus acts, cartoons and special sets. More than two hundred children were cast for every recording. Through host Xuxa, the show delivered messages about self-esteem, caring for the environment, and avoiding drug use.[6][7]

Xuxa created characters who became show trademarks. Supporting cast members Andrea Veiga[8] and Andrea Faria were two of the early "Paquitas", or stage assistants to Xuxa.[9] The Paquitas were commonly dressed in clothes inspired by toy soldiers with white boots.[10] Dengue (Roberto Bertin), who was portrayed as a huge mosquito with multiple limbs, and Praga (Armando Moraes), a turtle, contributed by livening the scene, helping the host and befriending the children.[11]

The program quickly became popular. Xuxa referred to children as "baixinhos" (little ones),[7] and came to be called "Rainha dos Baixinhos" ("Queen of the little people" or "Queen of Children".) Her phrase "beijinho, beijinho e tchau, tchau" ("little kiss, little kiss and bye, bye") also became popular.[12][13] Many products were launched under the Xuxa brand, including dolls, accessories and clothing.[14] The clothing range led to a fashion craze for wearing white leather boots, as "xuxinhas" became popular among children and adolescents.[12]

Impact

Ratings
Ratings in the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo
according to IBOPE
Year
Ratings
Share
1986 27 Rating
1989 35 Rating
1990 28 Rating
1991 29 Rating
1992 26 Rating
Rating average 23 Rating

The success of "Xou da Xuxa" led to an effort to conquer international markets, with mixed results. The Argentine version of the program,El Show de Xuxa, was considered a success, reaching an estimated viewership of 33 million.[15]

The United States version, Xuxa, was launched in English. Xuxa's difficulty with the English language and cultural issues were cited among reasons for it lasting only one season.[5][16][17][18]

Critical reception

Since its early days, Xou da Xuxa suffered intense questioning by intellectuals, politicians and journalists, who conflated criticism of the program and the presenter.[19][20][21]

An analysis offered by Riordan and Meehan of the reception of Xou da Xuxa, proposes differing cultural perceptions and attitudes toward the "sexiness" of the host, and her interactions with children on the show as one explanation for the show's failure to have cross-over success in the US.[5] Similar reasoning is found in other readings, with claims that Xuxa's image, rather than the show itself, may have been a barrier toward the show's success in US and Argentine markets. In a film entitled Amor Estranho Amor (1982), which translates to English as Love, Strange Love, by Brazilian director Walter Hugo Khouri, Xuxa plays a young prostitute who has a sexual encounter with an younger boy.[22] Shaw and Dennison cite this film in suggesting, like Riordan and Meehan, that different cultural perceptions toward sexuality between North and South America may have influenced Xuxa's success.[5][7][23]

Another reason offered was the differing programming lengths between the US and Brazil broadcasts. While the Brazilian version of the program aired for an hour per episode and was showcased for a full morning of airtime, only a 30-minute segment was selected for US television broadcast audiences, by television executives.[24] This in turn, the theory reasons, prevented Xuxa from building a connection with her audiences who were already less familiar with her established Brazilian star persona.[5][10][24]

A third rationale for the show's failure to take hold in North America is that Xuxa contradicted established perceptions in the US about Latin American women and beauty, because she is a light-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed Brazilian woman. This fact of Xuxa's make-up, the rationale explains, presented a challenge toward Xou breaking into the US market. The common construct of Latin American ethnicity in the US runs counter to the concept of the existence of light-skinned, blonde and blue-eyed people being Latin American. While this construct represents a stereo-type, it is offered as a reason for why other Latinas who fit the stereo-type, such as Carmen Miranda, Rosie Perez or Jennifer Lopez have gained stardom in the US, while Xuxa did not. In essence, this line of reasoning argues that Xuxa was "too blonde" to be widely accepted in North America as a Latin American star.[5][14][24][25]

Awards
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See also

References
  1. The Brazilian bombshell's neighborhood. The New Yorker. 9 March 1992. p. 23.
  2. "Kid Show Host Xuxa : Memba Her?!". TMZ. 8 August 2008. Retrieved 16 May 2017.
  3. Ph.D, Elizabeth Gackstetter Nichols; Ph.D, Timothy R. Robbins (28 July 2015). Pop Culture in Latin America and the Caribbean. ABC-CLIO. pp. 193–194. ISBN 9781610697545.
  4. "XOU DA XUXA – FORMATO". Memória Globo. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
  5. Meehan, Eileen R.; Riordan, Ellen. Sex and Money: Feminism and Political Economy in the Media. U of Minnesota Press. pp. 249–254. ISBN 9781452905266.
  6. Crocitti, John J.; Vallance, Monique (12 December 2011). Brazil Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic [2 volumes]: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic. ABC-CLIO. pp. 387–389. ISBN 9780313346736.
  7. Duncan, Amy (22 January 1991). "Meet Brazil's Queen of Kid TV". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 14 March 2017.
  8. Simpson, Amelia (28 April 2010). Xuxa: The Mega-Marketing of Gender, Race, and Modernity. Temple University Press. p. 162. ISBN 9781439903537.
  9. Mitchell-Walthour, G.; Hordge-Freeman, E. (8 April 2016). Race and the Politics of Knowledge Production: Diaspora and Black Transnational Scholarship in the United States and Brazil. Springer. p. 168. ISBN 9781137553942.
  10. "Kentucky New Era - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com. Retrieved 6 March 2017.
  11. "Dengue do "Xou da Xuxa" relembra sucesso e conversas com Ayrton Senna" (in Portuguese). Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  12. Preston, Julia; Preston, Julia (2 December 1991). "BRAZIL'S TOT-TO-TEEN IDOL". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  13. Page, Joseph A. (6 September 1996). The Brazilians. Da Capo Press. pp. 434–438. ISBN 0201441918.
  14. Rist, Peter H. (8 May 2014). Historical Dictionary of South American Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 609–610. ISBN 9780810880368.
  15. Berry, Gordon L.; Asamen, Joy Keiko (25 May 1993). Children and Television. SAGE. p. 223. ISBN 9780803947009.
  16. "Xuxa: `Hello, Hello,' America". tribunedigital-chicagotribune. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  17. Cerone, Daniel (19 April 1992). "COVER STORY : A Hit in L.A. Latino Homes, Xuxa Is Working on Her English". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  18. Botelho, Paula (1 January 2008). Brazilian Music in "The New York Times": Sites for the Production of Representations of U.S. Dominance and the Consumption of Brazilian Popular Culture. ProQuest. pp. 128–130. ISBN 9780549684473.
  19. "O Xou da Xuxa é uma vitrine comercial. Pode funcionar como uma escola de consumidores pervertidos que, aos três anos de idade, já começam a se preocupar com a griffe das roupas que usam". In: Veja. Volume 24. Editora Abril, 1991. Disponível em .
  20. Ribeiro, Renato Janine. O afeto autoritário: televisão, ética e democracia. Atelie Editorial, 2005. pp. 24. 221 páginas. ISBN 8574802301.
  21. Jobim e Souza, Solange. Educação @ pós-modernidade: Ficções científicas & Crônicas do cotidiano. 7Letras, 2003. pp. 147. 173 páginas. ISBN 8575770241.
  22. Bacharach, Sondra; Fjærestad, Siv B.; Booth, Jeremy Neil (5 May 2016). Collaborative Art in the Twenty-First Century. Routledge. p. 19. ISBN 9781317387442.
  23. Shaw, Lisa; Dennison, Stephanie (1 May 2014). Brazilian National Cinema. Routledge. pp. 170–172. ISBN 9781134702176.
  24. Valdivia, Angharad N. (1 January 2000). A Latina in the Land of Hollywood and Other Essays on Media Culture. University of Arizona Press. pp. 123–146. ISBN 9780816519354.
  25. Kinder, Marsha (1 January 1999). Kids' Media Culture. Duke University Press. pp. 216–218. ISBN 0822323710.
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