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 Born Madonna Louise
Ciccone, 16 August 1958, Bay City, Michigan, USA. An icon for female pop
stars thanks to her proven ability to reinvent herself while retaining
complete control of her career, Madonna is also one of the most
commercially successful artists in the history of popular music. Without
doubt an artist with "star quality", no other female singer in the pop
arena has been as prominent or as successful over such a long period.
The young Madonna Louise Ciccone excelled at dance and drama at high
school and during brief periods at colleges in Michigan and North
Carolina. In 1977, she went to New York, studying with noted
choreographer Alvin Ailey and taking modelling jobs. Two years later,
Madonna moved to France to join a show featuring disco singer Patrick
Hernandez. There she met Dan Gilroy and, back in New York, the pair
formed club band the Breakfast Club. Madonna played drums and sang with
the band before setting up Emmy in 1980 with Detroit-born drummer and
former boyfriend, Steve Bray. Together, Madonna and Bray created club
tracks which led to a recording deal with Sire Records. With leading New
York disc jockey Mark Kamins producing, she recorded "Everybody", a US
club hit in 1982. Madonna broke out from the disco scene into mainstream
pop with "Holiday", written and produced by Jellybean. It reached the US
Top 20 in late 1983 and was a Top 10 hit across Europe the following
year.
Madonna Links
By now, her tough, raunchy persona was coming across to international
audiences and the attitude was underlined by the choice of Tom Kelly and
Billy Steinberg's catchy "Like A Virgin" as a 1984 single. The track
provided the singer with the first of her subsequent 11 US number 1s.
The follow-up, "Material Girl", included a promotional video which
introduced one of Madonna's most characteristic visual styles, the
mimicking of Marilyn Monroe's "blonde bombshell' image. By the time of
her appearance at 1985"s Live Aid concert and her high-profile wedding
to actor Sean Penn on 16 August the same year, Madonna had become an
internationally recognized superstar, known to millions of tabloid
newspaper readers without any interest in her music. Among the fans of
her work were a growing number of "wannabees", teenage girls who aped
her independent and don't-care stance.
From 1985-87, Madonna turned out a stream of irresistibly catchy
transatlantic Top 5 singles. "Crazy For You", her second US
chart-topper, was co-written by ex-Carpenters collaborator John Bettis,
while she co-wrote her first UK number 1, "Into The Groove", with Steve
Bray. These were followed by "Dress You Up", "Live To Tell", and the
transatlantic chart-topper, "Papa Don't Preach". "True Blue", "Open Your
Heart" and "La Isla Bonita' were further successes taken from 1986"s
True Blue. Like an increasing number of her songs, "Who's That Girl"
(her second transatlantic number 1) and "Causing A Commotion" were
tied-in to a movie - in this instance, a poorly received comedy in which
she starred with Sir John Mills. Madonna's film career had begun with a
minor role in the b-movie A Certain Sacrifice before she starred in the
acclaimed Desperately Seeking Susan. The following year she appeared
with husband Penn in her first real failure, Shanghai Surprise. She
separated from Penn in 1988, the same year she appeared on Broadway in
David Mamet's play Speed The Plow. Back on the music scene, the singer
continued to attract controversy when, in 1989, the video for "Like A
Prayer" (her third transatlantic chart-topper), with its links between
religion and eroticism, was condemned by the Vatican and caused
Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal with the star. The resulting
publicity helped the album of the same title - co-produced with new
collaborator Patrick Leonard - to become a global bestseller.
In 1990, her career reached a new peak of publicity and commercial
success. She starred with Warren Beatty in the blockbuster movie Dick
Tracy, while the extravagant costumes and choreography of the Blond
Ambition world tour were the apotheosis of Madonna's uninhibited melange
of sexuality, song, dance and religiosity. The tour was commemorated by
the following year's documentary movie, Truth Or Dare. Among her hits of
the early 90s were the transatlantic number 1 "Vogue", devoted to a
short-lived dance craze, "Hanky Panky", "Justify My Love" (co-written
with Lenny Kravitz), "Rescue Me", and "This Used To Be My Playground"
(from the soundtrack of A League Of Their Own).
Madonna's reputation as a strong businesswoman, in control of each
aspect of her career, was confirmed in 1992 when she signed a
multi-million dollar deal with the Time-Warner conglomerate, parent
company of Sire. This guaranteed the release of albums, films and books
created by her own Maverick production company. The publication of her
graphic and erotic book Sex put her back on top of the charts, though
this time it was in the bestselling book lists. The book was an
unprecedented success, selling out within hours and needing an immediate
reprint. The attendant Erotica marked a slight creative downturn, and
was her first album since her debut not to generate a US number 1
single. She returned to form on Bedtime Stories, on which she teamed up
with Soul II Soul producer Nellee Hooper, who wrote the title track in
conjunction with Bj”rk. "Take A Bow" returned the singer to the top of
the US singles chart, while the rest of the album boasted songs that
combined, by her own description, pop, R&B, hip-hop and Madonna. The
1995 compilation of her slower material, Something To Remember, featured
the excellent new song, "You'll See".
In 1996, her need to shock had mellowed considerably with a credible
movie portrayal of Eva Peron in Alan Parker's Evita. Later that year she
became "with child' on 14 October with the birth of Lourdes Maria
Ciccone Leon. She returned to music with March 1998"s Ray Of Light, one
of her finest recordings to date. Collaborating with producer William
Orbit, Madonna positively revelled in a new found musical freedom. Her
voice had also matured into a rich and expressive instrument. The album
generated several transatlantic hit singles, including "Frozen" (a UK
chart-topper), "Ray Of Light", "Drowned World (Substitute For Love)",
"The Power Of Good-bye", and "Nothing Really Matters". "Beautiful
Stranger', taken from the soundtrack to the Mike Myers" movie Austin
Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, reached number 2 in the UK charts in
June 1999. Another soundtrack, for the movie The Next Best Thing,
co-written and co-produced by Madonna and Orbit, was released on the
singer's Maverick label. It featured her new single, a reworking of Don
McLean's classic "American Pie". She worked with Orbit and French dance
producer Mirwais on her next collection, Music, the title track of which
was a transatlantic chart-topper in September 2000. Shortly before the
release of the album, on 11 August, the singer gave birth to her second
child, Rocco. On 22 December, she married the UK film director Guy
Ritchie in Scotland and managed once again to grab most of the newspaper
headlines. She went on to collaborate with Ritchie on the controversial
video for "What It Feels Like For A Girl", and in 2002 starred in the
director's remake of Swept Away. The same year Madonna performed the
theme song to the new James Bond movie, Die Another Day. |
