Maria was born to family of Portuguese-Chinese blood at the Hospital Conde S. Januario in Macau in 1954. Her family moved to Hong Kong when she was ten years old. When she was eleven, her father passed away 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 usherer for a local cinema.

While working as a hotel telephone operator, she 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.

She married the widowed Filipino pianist, 22 years her senior, in the band when she was in her late teens. She is the mother of six children (two boys with her husband, two boys and two girls from her husband's previous marriage)

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