I was born in Monte Estoril in 1972.

I have two children, a 19-year-old girl, and a 16-year-old boy; they are really my source of inspiration.

My professional career started when I was 20 when I went to work for one of the most luxurious clothing stores. In this store, I managed to reach the top, and after a short time, I was promoted to manager. There I was able to develop my taste for helping clients change their style and help take care of their image.

I helped numerous important people in the television industry to wear the most appropriate clothes for certain occasions that came to them. I even had customers from the United States who only attended to me. Image care has always been present in my life.

I was the person on the store team who most invested in my image, with the best looks. I define myself as a very entrepreneurial person and in 2007, in parallel to working at the luxury store, I managed to create a brand of organic sweets and snacks under the name of Golden Queen. It was a very interesting project, and I was even invited to a television program to talk about it.

In 2015, I met my current partner and companion, and we industrialized my pies in an industrial kitchen, but I didn’t find any that kept the quality of the like I wanted.

In 2018, I decided to change direction and area. I created a YouTube channel with digital content about chic and glamorous party environments. It is a three-year-old project that was going very well until COVID-19 appeared in Portugal. Anyway, I have been investing in this Project, in defining new content strategies and improving as a professional. I look forward to next year with optimism. 

Margarida, tell us about your success story. How did you come up with the Yupi Yupi Chic name? What does it mean?

The Yupi Yupi Chic project was born out of the passion of two people for events in refined and glamorous environments. 

One day in a casual conversation, António Maximino and I had the idea to start filming the party environments we were used to attending. Our digital content includes a report with interviews with guests and event organizers. We have our own style, and we want to leave our mark on the Portuguese market.

Yupi means joy and party, Chic, elegance and glamour.

Recently, your channel has turned three years. How and where did you celebrate its birthday? Who of the celebs attended the gala evening?

Our channel celebrated three years on the 9th of September. 

We decided to celebrate exactly in the same place where we did our first job, it was at the Rooftop – Hotel Mundial, in the historic center. It has a fabulous view of the hills of Lisbon,  we see the castle of São Jorge and the Tejo River. This place is very popular with tourists, has a great atmosphere. You can have a drink in the late afternoon and listen to good music. 

If you prefer, you can choose to have lunch or dinner in the Varanda de Lisboa restaurant.

The celebrities who were present at our birthday party were, Lili Caneças, an unavoidable figure of Portuguese social also known in the Spanish royalty friendship circle, José Moutinho who participated in several reality shows, Joana Martins, ex miss Turismo and Miss Galaxy Portugal director, Duarte Miguel Freitas, CEO of Anturio Group, Jenny Mcloughlin, Miss Galaxy Portugal director, Nuno Valente, former soccer player and winner of the European Champions League, Helena Ribeiro, Dior in Portugal, Jorge Rio Cardoso, teacher and writer, Lidia Praça, Jurist and former IPDJ president, Teresa Paula Marques, psychologist, television commentator and known for being the Portuguese version of SuperNanny in entertainment, we had an excellent artist with international projection known by the Lord of the Voices, Fernando Pereira, is unmatched.

You are the entree into the homes of Portugal’s most influential people. They must often be sharing some secrets with you as a well-known presenter. Would you share some fascinating stories with us? Names can be omitted.

Regarding the secrets of the celebrities, they will remain in the secret of the gods; and my professional ethics obliges me to keep secrecy.

How did you work during the total quarantine in Portugal? Did you change your program’s format during the COVID-19 pandemic?

During the quarantine, I took the opportunity to study and improve my professional performance. We invested in new technological equipment, and we also defined strategies in new formats for digital content, which will obviously be put into practice after this pandemic situation is controlled.

How are things going with social events in Portugal now?

The events in Portugal are very restricted and under great DGS protocol measures. Even so, we recently had several events, for example, the launch of the «No Logo Polo» polo brand founded by two foreign friends residing in Portugal. They decided to invest in our country; one of the fundamental reasons was the excellent quality of Portuguese cotton.

Do you know any of the Ukrainian show business stars?

The Ukrainian star I know and admire is the actress Mila Jovovich, who has participated in several highly successful films such as the «5th Element».

Tell us about the most outstanding interview you have ever taken or the most interesting project that you are proud of.

Sophia Awards, it was one of the works that I really enjoyed doing. It is an awarding event that distinguishes the best actors and films in Portuguese cinema. It was extraordinary! I had the pleasure of interviewing all the main nominated actors, such as Albano Jerónimo, Inês Castelo-Branco, Sérgio Praia, Sandra Faleiro, and I also interviewed the Portuguese filmmaker Ana Rocha who won four awards at the famous Venice Film Festival for the «Listen» movie.

What places in Portugal would you recommend to foreigners who want to get to know the Portuguese beau-monde better?

I recommend visiting museums, the National Museum of Ancient Art, Mosteiro dos Jerónimos and near we have the secular pastry «Pasteis de Belém» a typical Portuguese sweet and known all over the world. If you want to dine in a refined atmosphere, I recommend the «SEEN» restaurant, which is located on Avenida da Liberdade where the best brands and stores such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Elisabetta Franchi among others are located. In Cascais by the sea, we can find the best seafood restaurants; in Algarve, in addition to enjoying the best beaches and having the best parties in the summer, you can visit the Vilamoura Marina, where it is a popular tourist spot for eating and socializing. This area of Algarve is also known for having the best golf courses.

You are a public person, which means you spend a lot of time away from home: shooting, events, rehearsals. How do you manage to combine family and work?

I manage to reconcile my family and professional life with the help of my mother. Being forced to organize my schedule very well, so nothing fails. Usually, events occur late in the afternoon, which allows for better time management.

What do you like most about your job, and what would you like to change?

What challenges me the most in my work, is the variety of terms that I approach. I end up doing a lot of research, and I’m constantly learning with content very different from each other. I can interview a politician as an artist, writer, model, actor, among others. I’d like to grow more, to cover more important events, and for my digital content to be part of the television grid of a television channel.