Maria Cordero | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Attending a charity banquet on 22 October 2018 | |||||||||||
| Born | 18 February 1954 | ||||||||||
| Nationality | Portuguese, Hong Konger, Macanese | ||||||||||
| Occupation(s) | Singer, actress, TV host, DJ | ||||||||||
| Spouse | Rick da Silva (m. 1999 - 2020) | ||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 瑪俐亞 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 玛俐亚 | ||||||||||
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| Musical career | |||||||||||
| Also known as | Fat Mama (肥媽) | ||||||||||
| Origin | Hong Kong | ||||||||||
| Genres | Cantopop | ||||||||||
Mariam Maria Cordero Bibi,[1] MH (Chinese: 瑪俐亞), nicknamed Fat Mama (Chinese: 肥媽), is a singer, actress, TV Host and DJ from Hong Kong. She grew up in Hong Kong. She also has her own cooking show, Maria's Kitchen (肥媽私房菜) on Cable TV.
Cordero was born to a Macanese family of Portuguese-Chinese heritage at the Hospital Conde S. Januário in Macau in 1954. She is of paternal Portuguese descent. Her family moved to Shelley Street, Hong Kong when she was ten years old. When she was eleven her father died, and she began working to support her seven brothers and sisters. She resorted to using identity cards from friends, because the legal working age in Hong Kong was 14. Her first job was as an usher for a local cinema.
While working as a hotel telephone operator, Cordero came across the opportunity to learn the bass guitar. The hotel resident band found out and hired her to play at night after she auditioned. For several years she worked a triple job of telephone operator in the day, band player at night, and working as a cashier. But she also worked as a line cook for takeaway contractors for office workers, thus having excellent cooking skills, which led to her having hosted 3 food and cuisine shows.
Cordero married a widowed Filipino pianist and bandmate 22 years her senior when she was in her late teens. She and her first husband have been divorced since 1989 and now married to Portuguese engineer.[2] She is the mother of six children (two boys with her ex-husband, two boys and two girls from her ex-husband's previous marriage). Her eldest son Alfonso Bibi Cordero (Chinese: 高進一) is a member of the Hong Kong Hockey Team which won the bronze medal in the 2009 East Asian Games.[3]
Cordero's singing career began after word spread about her singing ability at a newly opened disco in 1985. Offers of recording contracts, movie roles, and stage performances came after a string of hits which began with a tailor-made song written for her by director and songwriter Teddy Robin, titled "Sai Hei". Parts of this song were also used in one of Edison Chen's track 嘥氣 (Waste of breath).
Cordero has been married twice and was married to her second spouse Rick da Silva from 1999 until his death on November 5, 2020.[6] Her children (including step children) are from her first marriage.
