Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Dubbed the "Queen of Pop", she is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of both the 20th and 21st centuries. Madonna is known for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation, with works that incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes and have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. She is often deemed one of the greatest popular musicians in history.
Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in dance. After performing as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in the rock bands Breakfast Club and Emmy, she rose to solo stardom with her debut studio album, Madonna. She has since earned eighteen multi-platinum albums, including Like a Virgin, True Blue, and The Immaculate Collection —some of the best-selling albums of all time—and Confessions on a Dance Floor, her 21st-century bestseller. Like a Prayer, Ray of Light, and Music were ranked among Rolling Stones greatest albums of all time. Madonna's top-charting singles include "Like a Virgin", "Material Girl", "La Isla Bonita", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Take a Bow", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".
Madonna has starred in films such as Desperately Seeking Susan, Dick Tracy, A League of Their Own, and Evita, with the lattermost winning her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. Many of her other films were not well-received. Her business endeavors encompass the entertainment company Maverick, which included Maverick Records—one of the most successful artist-run labels. She has also pursued fashion brands, written works, health clubs, and filmmaking. Madonna contributes to various charities, having founded the Ray of Light Foundation in 1998 and Raising Malawi in 2006, and advocates for gender equality and LGBT rights.
Madonna is the best-selling female music artist of all time and the first female performer to accumulate US$1 billion from her concerts. She is the most successful solo artist on the US Billboard Hot 100 and has 44 number-one singles across major global music markets. Her accolades include seven Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, 20 MTV Video Music Awards, and an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. Madonna was the world's highest-paid female musician for a record eleven years across four decades. She has become the subject of various scholarly, literary, and artistic works, as well as a mini-academic sub-discipline called Madonna studies.
Life and career
1958–1978: Early life
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958. Her father, Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, worked as an optics and military engineer and physicist for Chrysler Defense and later General Dynamics Land Systems; her mother, Madonna Louise, was an X-ray technician. Tony's parents were Italian emigrants from Pacentro, while her mother was of French-Canadian descent. Since Madonna shared her name with her mother, family members referred to her as "Little Nonnie". Madonna was raised in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township, alongside her two older brothers, Anthony and Martin, and her three younger siblings, Paula, Christopher, and Melanie.When Madonna was five years old, her mother died of breast cancer on December 1, 1963. In 1966, she adopted Veronica as a confirmation name upon receiving the sacrament in the Catholic Church. That same year, Tony married the family's housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. They were married for 58 years until Joan's death in 2024, and had three children: Joey, Jennifer, and Mario. Madonna attended St. Frederick's and St. Andrew's Catholic elementary schools, as well as West Middle School. She earned high grades—her father gave her a quarter for every A—and was notorious for her unconventional behavior. Madonna performed cartwheels and handstands in the hallways between classes, hung upside down from the monkey bars during recess, and lifted her skirt in class to amuse the boys.
In retrospect, Madonna described herself as a "lonely girl who was searching for something", explaining: "I wasn't rebellious in a certain way. I cared about being good at something. I didn't shave under my arms and I didn't wear makeup like normal girls do. But I studied and I got good grades I wanted to be somebody." Her father initially enrolled her in classical piano lessons, but she eventually persuaded him to let her study ballet instead. Her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, inspired her to pursue a career in dance. While attending Rochester Adams High School, Madonna was a straight-A student and a member of the cheerleading squad. After graduating in January 1976, she received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan and spent the summer studying at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.
In 1978, Madonna left college and moved to New York City. She called the decision "the bravest thing ever done"; it was the first time she had ever flown on a plane or taken a taxi, and she arrived with "$35 in pocket". She settled in the Alphabet City area of the East Village and supported herself with limited means by working various jobs—including as a hatcheck girl at the Russian Tea Room, an elevator operator at Terrace on the Park, and a member of modern dance troupes. Madonna took classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performed with the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, and studied under dancer and choreographer Martha Graham. One night, while returning from a rehearsal, two men held her at knifepoint and forced her to perform fellatio. She later found the incident to be "a taste of my weakness, it showed me that I still could not save myself in spite of all the strong-girl show. I could never forget it."
1979–1983: Career beginnings, rock bands, and ''Madonna''
In 1979, Madonna entered a romantic relationship with musician Dan Gilroy. During this period, she searched for job opportunities in such publications as Variety, Backstage, and Show Business, leading to a successful audition to perform in Paris as a backup singer and dancer for French disco artist Patrick Hernandez. During her little time with Hernandez's troupe, she also traveled to Tunisia and several disco-oriented European countries before returning to New York that same year. Madonna relocated to an abandoned synagogue in Corona, Queens, where Gilroy and his brother Ed resided and practiced. The group slept in the basement and used its meeting space both to rehearse and record music for their band, Breakfast Club, for which Madonna sang and played drums and guitar.Madonna made her acting debut in the low-budget indie film A Certain Sacrifice, which was shot in two parts during 1979 and 1981. She unsuccessfully attempted to block its 1985 release through legal action against director Stephen Jon Lewicki. The film was primarily criticized for its explicit sexual and violent content. In 1980, after leaving the Breakfast Club and ending her relationship with Gilroy, Madonna reunited with drummer Stephen Bray, whom she had previously dated in Michigan, and together they formed the band Emmy. By 1982, she and Bray lived and rehearsed at the Music Building in Manhattan, where they wrote songs and recorded a four-track demo tape. After leaving Emmy, Camille Barbone, who ran Gotham Records in the Music Building, signed Madonna to a contract with the label in March 1981, working as her manager until February 1982. Her creative partnership with Bray continued for many years.
In 1982, Madonna visited nightclubs to persuade disc jockeys to play her demo, leading Mark Kamins at Danceteria to take an interest in her music and begin a romance with her. He arranged a meeting with Seymour Stein, president of Sire Records—a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Records—after which she signed a two-single deal. Kamins produced her debut single, "Everybody", which was released in October 1982 and promoted with television and nightclub performances. Her second single, the double A-side "Burning Up" / "Physical Attraction", was released in March 1983. Both "Everybody" and "Burning Up" / "Physical Attraction" reached number three on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart. During this period, Madonna was in a relationship with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and living in his SoHo loft. Basquiat introduced her to art curator Diego Cortez, who had managed several punk bands. Cortez declined to manage Madonna when she requested for him to do so.
Warner hired Reggie Lucas to produce her debut studio album, Madonna. Madonna was dissatisfied with many of the tracks, prompting her to seek additional support. She enlisted DJ John "Jellybean" Benitez to help complete the album, and the two began a brief romantic relationship. Benitez remixed most of the songs and produced "Holiday", her breakthrough song. Madonna was released on July 27, 1983, to generally favorable reviews, and peaked at number eight on the US Billboard 200. The album generated two US Billboard Hot 100 top-ten singles: "Borderline" and "Lucky Star". In late 1983, Madonna's new manager, Freddy DeMann, arranged a meeting with film producer Jon Peters, who offered her the role of a club singer in the romantic drama Vision Quest.
1984–1987: ''Like a Virgin'', first marriage, ''True Blue'', and ''Who's That Girl''
In January 1984, Madonna gained further exposure with performances on American Bandstand and Top of the Pops. Wanting the material on her second studio album, Like a Virgin, to be "stronger" than that of her debut, she selected all of the songs herself, five of which she wrote or co-wrote. A dance and synth-pop record, Like a Virgin was released on November 12, 1984, and became her first number-one album in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the UK and the US. Within the lattermost nation, the album remained atop the Billboard 200 for three weeks and is the first album by a woman to sell over five million copies. Like a Virgin has sold over 21 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling albums of all time.The album's title track, "Like a Virgin", was selected as its lead single. It was her first number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for six consecutive weeks. "Like a Virgin" attracted the attention of conservative organizations, who complained that the song and its accompanying video promoted premarital sex and undermined family values; moralists sought to have the song and video banned. Madonna had already attracted significant media attention for her performance of the song at the inaugural MTV Video Music Awards in 1984. Dressed in a wedding gown and white gloves, she appeared atop a large wedding cake before moving across the stage in a provocative manner. MTV News later described the performance as one of the most iconic in pop music history. Like a Virgins next single, "Material Girl", peaked at number two in the US.
Madonna began a relationship with actor Sean Penn while filming the music video for "Material Girl" and the two married on her twenty-seventh birthday in 1985. The soundtrack of Vision Quest included "Crazy for You"—her second Billboard Hot 100 number-one single. That same year, she starred as the titular character in the comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, depicting a free-spirited bohemian drifter whose path intersects with a bored housewife through personal ads. The film introduced "Into the Groove", her first number-one single on the UK Singles Chart. Desperately Seeking Susan was named one of the ten best films of 1985 by Vincent Canby, a The New York Times film critic. In April 1985, Madonna began her first North American concert series, the Virgin Tour. The tour coincided with the height of the Madonna wannabe phenomenon, as many of her young female fans adopted her fashion style. Styled by Maripol, her look—which included lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, crucifix jewelry, stacked bracelets, and bleached hair—became widely associated with 1980s female fashion trends.
Around this time, Madonna released two additional singles, "Angel" and "Dress You Up", both of which reached the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy published nude photographs of Madonna taken in 1978, when she worked as an art model. She had posed for the images for modest pay, reportedly $25 per session; the photographs were later sold for up to $100,000. The publication caused significant media attention, though Madonna remained unapologetic. At the 1985 Live Aid concert, she referenced the controversy, remarking that she would not remove her jacket when believing that the media "might hold it against me ten years from now".
For her third studio album, True Blue, Madonna co-wrote and co-produced every track on the record. Inspired by and dedicated to her husband Penn, the album was released on June 30, 1986, to critical acclaim. It topped the charts in an unprecedented 28 countries worldwide, including the US, where it remained at number one on the Billboard 200 for five weeks. True Blue made Madonna the second female artist—following Whitney Houston—to score three US Billboard Hot 100 number-one singles from one album: "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", and "Open Your Heart". Its two other singles, "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita", peaked within the top five. True Blue was the best-selling album of 1986, the best-selling of the 1980s by a female artist, and one of the best-selling albums of all time, with 25million copies sold globally.
Madonna appeared in the film Shanghai Surprise alongside Penn, which was critically unsuccessful and earned her the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress. She made her stage debut the same year in David Rabe's Goose and Tom-Tom, which also co-starred Penn. In 1987, she starred in the film Who's That Girl and contributed four songs to its soundtrack, including "Who's That Girl" and "Causing a Commotion", which peaked at numbers one and two on the Billboard Hot 100, respectively. In June, she embarked on the Who's That Girl World Tour, which broke several attendance records, including a performance near Paris attended by over 130,000 people—the highest for a female artist at the time. In 1987, she released You Can Dance, a remix album with reworked versions of songs from her earlier releases. After a turbulent two-year marriage, Madonna filed for divorce from Penn on December 4, 1987, though she later withdrew the petition.