No matter how hard you might try to avoid it, Spain is a country obsessed with celebrity. Every street corner has a newspaper stall, a large proportion of which is taken up by "revistas de la corazón”. Magazines like this sell in huge numbers and, on a weekly basis, they churn out the same brand of trashy gossip and photos, usually all about the same relatively small group of European Royalty, International megastars and, of course, home-grown Spanish "famosos”. Most are tame in what they say and very rarely outwardly criticise anyone. Photo captions are usually comments such as "guapa y muy feliz” or "deslumbrante y espectacular como siempre” etc. You get the drift. Although lately, some new mags have appeared that follow the British media trend of showing celebs in their less-attractive moments, but for the most part, Spain seems to prefer to see its stars shine brightly.

With all this in mind, I’ve set about coming up with a tongue-in-cheek look at what I think are the Top Ten celebs that you are likely to come across in Spain. Straight away, I’ve deliberately ignored any internationally known Spanish stars (let’s face it, what can I say about Penelope Cruz that you won’t already know?), along with any that, while big in Spain, don’t really have anything inherently Spanish about them (I’m thinking of course of… Los Beckham!). Basically, if you know the intimate goings-on of most of the people in this Top Ten, then you’re well on your way to being able to follow any of the many Celeb TV shows in Spain.

Award yourself a point for any you’ve heard of (there will be one a day for the next ten days) and let us know your thoughts in the comments….

10 – Maria Patiño

Despite not having true superstar status, Maria is an important face to know if you’re going to navigate your way through the murky waters of the Prensa Rosa. She makes it into our number 10 spot purely by being "famous by association” and no celeb-fest is complete without her. Every Friday night, Maria is the main panel member on trashy gossip show ¿Dónde estás corazón? and gets to air her opinions in a way that only she can. In a nutshell, the woman is insane. She shouts down anyone who dares speak while she’s in full-flow, and whoever the subject matter for the show is, Maria will have an opinion (and you can bet your bottom dollar, it’ll be a strong one). The show is live and drags on for around 4 hours, during which she just doesn’t let up. I assume she takes something to calm her down before the show, as she usually starts out relatively "normal”, but it doesn’t take much to bring on near cardiac arrest levels of stress!

Dave Hall lives and works in Barcelona. Click here for the entire celeb top 10!