Mayra Gómez Kemp(1948-2024)

This petite, blonde, beautiful, attractive, leggy, slightly chubby and well-built TV presenter/radio announcer/singer/actress was born in Cuba on February 14th 1948. She spent most of her teens in Miami (where she probably learnt to speak English very fluently and got her degree in Journalism) before moving to Spain in the early 70s and beginning to work regularly in show business. When she was appearing in the musical comedy "The Rocky Horror Show" she met her future husband, Argentinian-born actor Alberto Berco, who was also in the play. In 1976, when the successful TV contest Un, dos, tres... responda otra vez (1972) returned to the screen to be broadcast in colour for the first time, Mayra turned up as a candidate for being one of the pretty and "bespectacled" hostesses of the programme; she wasn't selected in that category (much to her initial chagrin), but was instead offered a steady job as a comic actress in the final part of the show (the prizes's auction). She grabbed the chance with both hands and became a household name in very little time. After the contest's new demise two years later or so, Mayra teamed up with two of its former hostesses, María Durán and Beatriz Escudero and made up a pop vocal trio named Acuario ("Aquarius", since that was the zodiac sign of two of them). With Mayra as lead vocalist, they enjoyed a brief but intense popularity thanks to their vocal skills and their charmingly sexy image, scoring a summer hit with "Rema, Rema, Marinero" ("Row, Row, Sailor"), but Mayra left the group soon afterwards to continue her career as TV presenter (in programmes such as 625 líneas (1976), Ding-Dong (1980) or Sabadabada (1981) and also to pursue a solo singer career. She only made one album for the label which signed her, the significantly-titled "Una Dama" ("One Lady"), that included her cover of Julio Ramos's anti-abortion pop hit "No Te Dejan Nacer" ("They Won't Let You Be Born"), but her agreeable voice and singing talent showed up clearly. She made her debut in the movies in 1978, in a film called "Donde Hay Patrón..." and starring Manolo Escobar. Later she became a Spanish citizen, turned her activity to the radio and was one of the original speakers on the newborn station Antena 3 (now defunct), but her highest peak of popularity came when Kiko Ledgard, the famous presenter of "Un, Dos, Tres..." suffered a near-fatal accident that left him unable to be the compère of the new season of the show and Mayra substituted him (albeit with an ache in her heart for her old friend and colleague). She surmounted the inevitable comparisons and won the audience over, staying in the programme for a long while. After that lengthy season, she took a long time away from the media to look after her husband (who was suffering from depression). Once he was fully and happily recovered, Mayra came back to TV, but this time on private stations and in a more desultory way, on account of which she has been much less visible (and rather under-used) on the box in the last years. Nonetheless, she already has a place in the story of TV and was (deservedly) one of the most popular characters in the media way back in the period that covers from the mid-70s to the mid-80s.