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Madonna Biography
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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.
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.
Madonna Links
Madonna Website |
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