María Belén Esteban Menéndez (born 9 November 1973) is a Spanish

television personality Celebrity is a condition of fame and broad public recognition of a person or group due to the attention given to them by mass media. The word is also used to refer to famous individuals. A person may attain celebrity status by having great w ...

. She has appeared in various programmes including the long-running ''Sálvame'', a show which has been characterised as junk TV. She is known as "''La princesa del pueblo''" (The people's princess) .Jesús Rodríguez (311-01-10)
The very public life of Belén Esteban
''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'' (English edition)

Early fame

She rose to prominence as a celebrity in 1999 when she ended her relationship with popular bullfighter Jesulín de Ubrique, with whom she has a daughter, Andrea Janeiro Esteban. She began her television career on the Spanish channel Antena 3. In 2004 she followed TV presenter

Ana Rosa Quintana Ana Rosa Quintana Hortal (born 12 January 1956) is a Spanish journalist and television presenter. Having originally started out in radio, she rose to fame on Antena 3's daytime chat show ''Sabor a ti''. She later jumped ship to Telecinco to h ...

Telecinco Telecinco is a Spanish free-to-air television channel operated by Mediaset España. The channel was previously known as Tele 5, because it had first begun its experimental transmissions on 10 March 1989, and a year later, it was officially laun ...

''Sálvame''

In 2009 Esteban left ''El programa de Ana Rosa'' to participate in a new Telecinco show called ''Sálvame'' which ran until 2023 (the show had a brief after-life on

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

). ''Sálvame'' was mainly a talk show about the private lives of celebrities. The celebrities discussed include the show's panelists, or ''colaboradores'' to use the Spanish term, and thus the show had a self-referential (and arguably post-modern) aspect. The intrusive nature of some material has attracted criticism. One complaint regarded the coverage of Esteban's own daughter Andrea, a minor at the time, who had been discussed in the context of custody issues and her culinary preferences. The matter was addressed by the "defensor del menor", a children's ombudsman, who recommended less coverage of Andrea.

Other activities

At the end of 2009, Esteban underwent cosmetic surgery ahead of her appearance on Telecinco's New Year's Eve special: Google revealed a massive increase in searches for her on the internet. Her other TV appearances include '' ¡Más que baile!'' (Spanish version of ''

Dancing with the Stars ''Strictly Come Dancing (widely known as Dancing with the Stars)'' is an international television franchise based on the format of the British TV series '' Strictly Come Dancing,'' itself a successor to the show ''Come Dancing'' (1950–1998) ...

''), where she was the winner in 2010, and '' Gran Hermano VIP'' (Spanish ''Celebrity'' version of '' Big Brother''), which she also won in 2015. In 2011 she appeared in a cameo role in '' Lethal Crisis'', a

3-D film 3D films are motion pictures made to give an illusion of Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional solidity, usually with the help of Stereoscopy#3D viewers, special glasses worn by viewers. 3D films were prominently featured in the 1950s in Amer ...

in the Torrente series. She has been credited with creating a number of catchphrases that have gone viral and become part of the Spanish lexicon. One of her most popular ones, "Hasta luego, Mari Carmen" (See you later, Mari Carmen), has the English equivalent of the " Bye, Felicia" from the

Ice Cube O'Shea Jackson Sr. (born June 15, 1969), known professionally as Ice Cube, is an American rapper, songwriter, actor, and film producer. His lyrics on N.W.A's 1989 album '' Straight Outta Compton'' contributed to gangsta rap's widespread popu ...

movie

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO 8601-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth ...

, and would be said to someone you do not expect or hope to see again. The phrase has also become an

Internet meme An Internet meme, or meme (, Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''MEEM''), is a cultural item (such as an idea, behavior, or style) that spreads across the Internet, primarily through Social media, social media platforms. Internet memes manif ...

in Spain in its own right.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Esteban, Belen 1973 births Living people Mass media people from Madrid Spanish women television personalities Mira quién baila (Spanish TV series) winners Gran Hermano VIP (Spanish TV series) winners