Mari Cruz Soriano facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mari Cruz Soriano
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Mari Cruz Soriano Roales
23 August 1955 Portugalete, Spain
|
| Occupation | Presenter, entrepreneur, journalist, pianist |
| Spouse(s) |
|
| Awards | TP de Oro (1979) |
| Presenting career | |
| Show | Gente hoy |
| Station(s) | Televisión Española |
Mari Cruz Soriano Roales (born 23 August 1955) is a famous Spanish TV presenter, journalist, and talented pianist. She also became a successful businesswoman. Mari Cruz was well-known for her friendly style and for hosting many popular TV shows and music festivals in Spain.
Contents
Early Life and Career Beginnings
Mari Cruz Soriano spent her first years in a town called Lesaka in Navarre, Spain. She started school there and later continued her studies in Bilbao.
When she was just seventeen, Mari Cruz began her career in radio. She worked as a radio announcer at Cadena COPE in Bilbao. An announcer is someone who introduces programs and plays music on the radio.
In 1973, she moved to Televisión Española (TVE), which is Spain's national television channel. There, she started presenting the news for a local TV station called Telenorte.
Becoming a TV Star
Mari Cruz became famous across Spain when she was still very young. In 1977, she was chosen to host a popular live interview show called Gente hoy. She stayed on this show until 1981, becoming a household name. For her excellent work, she won the TP de Oro award for Best Presenter in 1979. This was a big award for TV professionals in Spain.
She also hosted many important music events. In 1977, she presented the OTI Song Festival with Miguel de los Santos. This was a huge TV music contest watched by over 300 million people in Spanish-speaking countries. In 1980, she hosted the Eurovision Song Contest from The Hague. Spain was represented by the group Trigo Limpio that year.
Mari Cruz also hosted TVE's special show for the end of 1980. In 1981, she led the Benidorm International Song Festival. One of the biggest events she ever hosted was the Hispanidad Day festival. It was broadcast live from Madison Square Garden in New York and reached a huge audience of 500 million people!
Music and Business Ventures
Besides her TV work, Mari Cruz Soriano was also a talented pianist. In 1979, she released a piano album called Caja de Música (Music Box). This album became very popular and sold well in many countries, including Argentina and the former Czechoslovakia. Two of her piano songs, "A mis pocos años" and "Canción para mi tristeza," were even used as instrumental themes in an Argentine TV show called Señorita Andrea in the 1980s.
Later, she hosted more TV shows where she could show off her piano skills. These included Blanco y negro (1981) and Así como suena (1982).
After these shows, Mari Cruz decided to focus on business. She worked on promoting company cruises for a while. In 1996, she returned to radio to host the program La Tarde on COPE. She hosted this show until 1998. During an interview on her show, she met Juan Alberto Belloch, a politician who had been a minister in the Spanish government. They later got married in 2002. After this, she stepped away from public life for some time, reappearing for a TV interview in 2012.
Mari Cruz continued her work in the business world for 25 years. She worked with big companies like El Corte Inglés and L'Oréal, and also with government groups in Spain. She focused on helping Spanish food products be sold in countries like the United Kingdom and Germany.
Her Popularity
Mari Cruz Soriano was so popular in the 1970s and early 1980s that a famous Spanish rock band, Siniestro Total, even mentioned her in one of their early names! They called themselves "Mari Cruz Soriano y los que afinan su piano" (Mari Cruz Soriano and Her Piano Tuners). This shows how well-known and liked she was at the time.
Personal Life
In 1978, Mari Cruz Soriano married José Luis Tirado Doñate, who worked as a banker. They had two daughters together. Later, they divorced. In 2002, she married the politician Juan Alberto Belloch.
See also
In Spanish: Mari Cruz Soriano para niños
