Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Michigan, USA on 16 August 1958. Before the mega stardom come the early years, and Madonna spent hers in a variety of disco/pop bands including Emmy,
the Patrick Hernandez Revue and The Breakfast Club. Some minor club success led to her being signed to Sire Records in 1982 as a solo artist.
Her first single,
Everybody, was a club hit in the US
at the end of 1982.
Physical Attraction, released the next year,
was another small hit. Madonna’s first UK Top 40 hit came in early 1984 with the song
Holiday, which was taken from her eponymous
debut album. The song was in the US Top 20 in late 1983.
By summer 1984 the success of her next singles,
Lucky Star and
Borderline had made her a household name both in the UK and the US.
In her home country she had begun an unbeaten string of 17 consecutive Top 10 hits. The first of 11 US #1s, which she has amassed through her career, came in November 1984 with the instantly classic
Like A Virgin.
The video for Like A Virgin, and the artwork for the similarly titled album, caused some controversy, which in turn helped make both worldwide smashes. More singles
Dress You Up,
Material Girl and
Angel were taken from the album, giving Madonna further UK and US Top 10 hits in 1985. In the same year she appeared at the American half of the Live Aid concerts, and got married to actor Sean Penn.
Throughout 1985 Madonna launched her first tour.
The Virgin Tour covered most of the USA, playing to over 350,000 people. Her next few singles were all from soundtracks to films.
Crazy For You and
Gambler were taken from a movie called
Vision Quest. While the song
Into The Groove was co-written by Madonna and featured in
the movie
Desperately Seeking Susan, in which she starred. This song was a UK #1 but never actually charted in the US, it was later added to a re-issued version of the Like A Virgin album. Another film related hit was
Live To Tell, which came from At Close Range, which starred Sean Penn.
Her own movie career meant that quite often Madonna would have tie-in soundtrack hits as well, such as
Causing A Commotion and
Who’s That Girl, from the movie of the same name.
The acting element in Madonna’s personality has always been very apparent, and she took this talent to the silver screen many times during her career. This began with a minor role in the movie
A Certain Sacrifice, and then came the hit Desperately Seeking Susan in 1985.
The next time she appeared on screen, with then husband Sean Penn, was in
Shanghai Surprise. And her talents even gained her a Broadway appearance in a play called
Speed The Plow in 1988.
Her next album,
True Blue, released in 1986 spawned more US and UK number one hits. The singles
Live To Tell,
Papa Don’t Preach,
True Blue,
La Isla Bonita and
Open Your Heart all charted in the Top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic.
It was followed by the
Who’s That Girl soundtrack, and subsequent hits from that film including
The Look Of Love.
1987 was a year of more tour and film releases. A huge Japanese tour coincided with a Japanese only single,
Spotlight, which was taken from an album of dance mixes called
You Can Dance.
In July she plays her
first ever UK tour, which includes three nights at Wembley Stadium.
And in 1988 she rested.
Back on the music scene, the singer continued to attract controversy. In 1989, the video for the
Like A Prayer single, with its links between religion and eroticism, was condemned by the Vatican. Pepsi-Cola cancelled sponsorship with the star and a proposed tour was also cancelled.
All this resulting publicity helped the album of the same title become a global bestseller. Further singles spread through until the end of the year, when the album won countless polls for Best Of The Year.
The Blond Ambition Tour begins in early 1990; again it covers the globe with huge audiences loving every moment!
A concert movie, Madonna Live! Blond Ambition World Tour ‘90 becomes a huge success when released later in the year.
Dick Tracy,
a movie featuring Warren Beatty and Madonna is released. The soundtrack is called
I’m Breathless and includes songs from and inspired by the film.
The worldwide smash hit
Vogue, inspired by a fashionable dance craze, is a #1 across the world.
Other singles from the album include
Hanky Panky.
At the end of the year Madonna releases a greatest hits collection entitled
The Immaculate Collection.
The album includes newly recorded tracks called
Justify My Love and
Rescue Me, which are released as singles. Justify My Love has another accompanying steamy and controversial video, which when released as a single video is a huge hit.
Truth or Dare, a documentary of the Blond Ambition tour, was released in 1991. Reissued singles, Crazy For You and Holiday, both chart in the UK Top 10.
In 1992 Madonna’s activities ranged from the business minded to the dirty minded! She negotiated a revised recording contract with Sire’s parent company, Time-Warner. This included the creation of her own label, Maverick. The first signing on the label was
the American singer
Me’ shell Ndege Ocello. Next she stirred more controversy with her ‘coffee table’ picture book,
Sex. The book was filled with overtly raunchy pictures of Madonna and
‘friends’ in various stages of undress; it sold millions. Rather than topping music charts, she was top of the best sellers. Also in the year she starred as the lead role in the film
A League of Their Own. A single from the movie, called
This Used To Be My Playground,
was yet another US #1 in July of the year. Another film, in which she starred,
Body Of Evidence, was considerably less well received.
The
Erotica album was released in 1992, around the same time as the Sex book, but fared less well. The singles, which included
Erotica,
Fever and
Rain,
all charted in worldwide Top 10s. But for the first time since her debut album it failed to produce any US #1.
The Girlie Show tour of 1993, which followed Erotica’s release, was a more conservative interpretation of the year’s rude releases.
Her first hit of 1994 was a soundtrack recording called
I’ll Remember, which came from the movie With Honours. It was followed by the release of Madonna’s fifth album,
Bedtime Stories.
The album was a return to form, and included
Take a Bow, which spent seven weeks at No. 1 in the US.
1995 saw the release of
Something To Remember, a collection of Madonna's hit ballads plus three new tracks. A variety of new and old tracks were released to support the album. The biggest hit was the new song Take A Bow, which was a US #1.
Critical appraisal for her portrayal of Eva Peron in Evita meant that Madonna received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in 1996. The soundtrack to
Evita was an international top ten success. The album had three hit singles,
You Must Love Me,
Don't Cry For Me Argentina
and
Another Suitcase In Another Hall. You Must Love Me, not only won the Oscar for best original song, but also the Golden Globe for original song too.
In 1996 Madonna gave birth to her first child, a daughter named Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon.
New album
Ray Of Light was released in early 1998. The album featured more electronica-influenced dance music, and was mixed by
William Orbit. The album generated several transatlantic hit singles, including
Frozen,
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 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 again with Orbit, and French techno producer
Mirwais, on her next album
Music which was released in September 2000. The single of the same title charted at #1 in both the US and the UK, giving Madonna the record for the most UK #1 singles by any female artist.
In August, she announced the birth of her son, Rocco Ritchie, fathered by her current flame, English film director Guy Ritchie. The couple married in December.
In 2001 another huge world tour kept the newly wed mother of two busy around the planet. Entitled
The Drowned World Tour it was a typically lavish affair that grossed over $40 million dollars in the US alone.
The fourth hits collection of Madonna’s 20-year career, released in late 2001, was called
GHV2. And it easily claimed Top 10 positions in album charts worldwide.
Covering her career from 1992 to 2001, all but one of the tracks were UK Top 10 singles. There was no new material to promote the album further. But the varied selections of
Mega-Mixes that were produced for club and radio were just as collectable.
Now a resident in England, Madonna has been appearing in a play in London’s West End called Up For Grabs. Her next single is due to be the theme for the next James Bond film. The Bond tradition of the song title being the movie title, or usually vice versa, means that the song will be called
Die Another Day. The film and single are due in late 2002.
Madonna has been at the top of any pop music list for two decades and her excellence seems likely to continue. Madonna’s reign as Queen of Pop will hopefully be a victorious, happy and glorious next twenty years.
