Madonna » Biography

Birth name: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone (Veronica is her adopted Catholic confirmation but not legal middle name).
Born: 16th of August, 1958.
Birth place: Bay City, Michigan.
Mother: Madonna Louise née Fortin, French-Canadian descent.
Father: Silvio “Tony” P. Ciccone, first generation Italian-American.
Siblings: Marin (1957), Anthony (1956), Paula (1959), Christopher (1960), Melanie (1962) Madonna is the third child of six children.
Height: 1.64 m (5’ 4½”).
Nickname: Nonnie Maddy Mo The Material Girl Madge Ester (Kabalah name) M (Madonna’s nickname used by her friends).
Spouse: Guy Ritchie (22 of December, 2000 - present); Sean Penn (16 of August, 1985 – 14 of September, 1989) – divorced.
Sphere of action: American pop singer-songwriter, dancer, record producer, actress, film producer, author, fashion icon.
Idols: Carole Lombard, Betty Grable, Katharine Hepburn.

Childhood

Madonna grew up in Detroit suburb and Avon Township (which is called now Rochester Hills). She was brought up in pious Catholic family, who held sacred God's Law. Daily visiting of the church and zealous praying worked upon her character and life principles. Madonna’s blood is a mix of national spirits of different countries and continents. Her father, design engineer at Chrysler/General Motors, was the first generation Italian-American. Her mother was French-Canadian descent; she died of breast cancer when Madonna was only five and her farther married Joan Gustafson, who was the family housekeeper. They had two children together, Jennifer (1968) and Mario (1969).

Madonna attended St. Frederick’s Elementary School, St. Andrew’s Elementary School, West Middle School and Rochester Adams School. She used to get straight A's at high school and was high school cheerleader. Besides, Madonna adored dancing since childhood, that’s why she took ballet lessons where her teacher was Christopher Flynn and after graduating from the high school attended dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. Ballet teacher saw her talent and advised her to continue dancing, so in 1977 Madonna decided to go to New York to try herself as dancer and win fame in this area. In New York Madonna began her independent life. Having just a little money, she worked at low-paying jobs. One of her jobs was a nude model. Besides this time she worked with renowned choreographer Alvin Ailey.

Creative search

In 1979 Madonna moved to France where she worked as the dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez world tour. During this tour she met Dan Gilroy and later they raised together her first pop/rock band, the Breakfast Club, of which she was a member with Dan and Ed Gilroy and Angie Smitt. Here Madonna worked as a singer, a drummer and a guitarist.

In 1980 Madonna had formed Emmy group, where she collaborated with her former boyfriend Stephen Bray, born in Detroit. They wrote and produced dance songs together. Madonna was a vocalist while Stephen was a drummer. Musicians performed their songs at one of New York clubs where New York-based DJ/producer Mark Kamins noticed their work and agreed to become the producer of Madonna’s first single Everybody recorded by Sire Records, which appeared a club super hit and opened the era of Madonna’s music. This spanned the years 1980-1982 before Madonna started on her solo career. Thus 1980s became decade of Madonna’s success as her songs broke out from the disco scene into the music world and it was her destiny to become the music idol around the world.

1982-1987 Rise

The first commercially available single Everybody attracted public attention to Madonna’s sound and became a hit on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Chart peaking at #3 in 1982. Everybody gained clubs and dance floors, radio and TV broadcasts. Madonna didn’t appear on covers of previous songs and people decided that she was a black disco singer. The music video shown Madonna dancing with her backup dancers (one of them was Madonna’s brother Christopher Ciccone) in the Paradise Garage club and now it became evident that the singer is white.

In July, 27, 1983 Madonna showed the world her first self-titled album Madonna, which included the greatest hits Borderline, Holiday and Lucky Star. The album climbed to #8 (for three weeks) on the US Billboard Top 200 and spent 168 weeks in the chart. Madonna sold about 10 million copies of this album around the world. Eventually it was certified 5 times Platinum in the USA. The extremely successful song Holiday was written and produced by Madonna’s then-boyfriend John “Jellybean” Benitez. This single peaked on the US Top 20 in 1983 and the next year it became Top 10 hit in Europe.

The second studio album released by Madonna in November, 1984, was Like a Virgin. Nile Rodgers, who worked before with David Bowie on his album Let's Dance, became the producer of Madonna’s new album. The same year Madonna performed the first single from her follow album Like a Virgin titled the same name, which became on of her most popular and enduring singles. The track peaked #1 in the US Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. Produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers the single also topped in Japan (for four weeks), Canada (for three weeks), Europe (for five weeks) and Australia (for five weeks). Mary Lambert directed the filming of music video for the single, which featured lions and Madonna in a wedding dress. Madonna performed the title song at MTV 1st Annual Video Music Awards, 1984, where she appeared in her well-known “Boy-Toy” character. Madonna sold about 19 million copies of Like a Virgin album; it became her first multi-platinum hit album.

It topped in Germany (where it was certified Platinum), the UK (certified 6xPlatinum), France (certified 2xPlatinum), Canada (certified 10xPlatinum) and many other countries. Another super hit from Like a Virgin album was Material Girl (US #2), which was also included in the US Billboard Hot 100 and on Billboard's Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart. The single brought Madonna another nickname – Material Girl. The song flew up in charts around the world and achieved top positions in the UK, Canada, Australia and many other countries. The video mimicked Marilyn Monroe's performance of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953). And on the 13th of September, 1985 the clip brought Madonna her first Best Female Video nomination at the MTV Video Music Awards 1985. Madonna dedicated her Like a Virgin album to "all the virgins of the world".

In 1979 Madonna played a role of Bruna in low-budget film “A Certain Sacrifice”, which release in 1985, coincided with her album Like a Virgin success. In the film scenes Madonna briefly posed nude. To get a role in the film Madonna wrote a letter to the director of “A Certain Sacrifice”, Stephen Lewicki, where she asked him to cast her in this movie. Besides in 1985 Madonna made a cameo in the film Vision Quest. She played a role of club singer singing Crazy for You. Co-written by ex-Carpenters collaborator John Bettis the song was #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, #1 in Australia (for three weeks) and #2 in the UK. In February 1986 Madonna won her first Grammy Award for the “Best Female Pop Vocal Performance”.

Another Vision Quest soundtrack was Gambler, which became #4 hit in the UK. Except other in 1985 Madonna appeared in a film Desperately Seeking Susan in Susan character, which received public and critical acclaim. The film included Madonna’s song Into the Groove. Later the song was re-released as B-side of the US 12” single Angel and became number one in the UK. The same year Penthouse and Playboy magazines published Madonna’s nude pictures shot in 1970s. Despite Madonna’s attempts to prevent publishing she could do nothing. Public treatment to the pictures was rather controversial, but Madonna said that media pumps out those things that were years ago. In April 1985 Madonna performed her first ever concert tour “The Virgin Tour” in Seattle. It was ended in June of the same year with performances at Radio City Music Show in New York. Directed by Daniel Kleinman the show was released in January 1986 on home video as “The Virgin Tour: Live” and reached #1 on the Billboard home video chart and stayed there for 49 weeks.

The third Madonna’s studio album was titled True Blue and released in June, 1986. This time Madonna still worked with Stephen Bray and began collaborating with Patrick Leonard. Songs from the album such as Papa Don’t Preach, True Blue, Open Your Heart and La Isla Bonita became international chart-topper and made possible further success of the singer. True Blue took top places in different charts. In 1986 it took Juno Award in Canada for Best International Album, in 1987 got 2 American Music Awards. 23 million copies of it were sold worldwide, thus True Blue became Madonna’s most successful album. Lively sounds, unusual video and Madonna’s expressive style attracted attention to her work and raised interest to her life.

Shooting the video for Material Girl in 1985 Madonna began dating actor San Penn and in August, 16 they married. The same year Madonna and her husband starred in the adventure drama Shanghai Surprise, and although it received decidedly mixed reviews, not all of them were negative. Madonna also appeared in a stage play “Goose And Tom-Tom” with Sean Penn. Moreover Madonna wrote the song Each Time You Break My Hart for Nick Kamen.

In 1987 Madonna starred in “Who’s That Girl” singing four songs for the film. The one of those singles Causing a Commotion peaked #2 in the US for three weeks. The title single Who’s That Girl became the second after Papa Don’t Preach transatlantic number one. The same year Madonna began her Who’s That Girl tour. Later Madonna released remixed album of past hits, You Can Dance and sold 5 million copies of it worldwide.

1988-1991 Music Olympus

Madonna continued her artistic and music career. In 1988 she appeared on Broadway in David Mamet’s play “Speed the Plow”. And the next year Madonna continued to attract controversy by her expressive statements and significant music videos. In 1989 the singer released her next album Like a Prayer, which got Vatican condemnation as it mixed Catholic symbols and dissolute erotic scenes. The title single from this album became Madonna’s third transatlantic chart-topper, but its highly controversial music video directed by Mary Lambert attracted criticism and vehement denunciation of the church. Madonna signed an endorsement with Pepsi-Cola, but clamor of her Like a Prayer video caused the manufacturer to cancer a sponsorship with the singer.

Another single from Like a Prayer album Express Yourself became number two in US chart and its video also attracted great amount of attention in the media as it shown Madonna as embodiment of femininity and expressed feelings loaded with chains of total control. The same year Madonna turned down the lead in The Fabulous Baker Boys. In 1990, her career reached a new peak of commercial and publicity success. She turned as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy and received good reviews. The film directed by Warren Beatty and used the plot of Chester Gould’s comic strip.

Besides she released I’m Breathless which was inspired by films of 1930s and her transatlantic number one Vogue. And from April till August Madonna went on Blond Ambition World tour, when she visited Japan, North America, and Europe with hits of her early 1990s, including Vogue, Hanky Panky, Something to Remember, Sooner or Later, and others. Vogue became a 1990 Madonna’s number-one hit single from her album I'm Breathless giving a tribute to glamour of classic Hollywood. The same year Madonna presented her first greatest hits compilation album, The Immaculate Collection, which included such songs as Like a Virgin, Material Girl, Lucky Stare, and two new tracks Justify My Love and Rescue Me. The music video for Justify My Love directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino was banned from MTV for its highly sexual content. The video for Justify My Love was the first released as a video single and became very successful. Totally Madonna sold more than 15 million copies of the album around the world. In 1991, appeared first Madonna’ documentary film, Truth of Dare, better known as In Bed With Madonna. The film featured pictures of behind the scenes and personal life of the star shot during Madonna’s Blond Ambition Tour, 1990. People Magazine named Madonna one of its “50 Most Beautiful People of 1991”.

1992-1997 Erotica

In 1992 Madonna signed a multi-million dollar deal with Time-Warner conglomerate, parent company of Sire, which represented and warranted release of albums, films and books created by Maverick Production Company. Madonna’s firth album released in October, 199 had the flamboyant title Erotica, which told everyone about its concept of sexuality and relationship between persons. Madonna, Shep Pettibone and André Betts became its producers. The album version and the song Erotica, which was created especially for Madonna’s highly controversial coffee table book Sex, released in 1992 as well.

Madonna’s debut as writer with her book Sex put her on top of the charts.The music video for the single Erotica became one of Madonna's most infamous videos and cause of clip’s highly charged sexual content it became Madonna’s second video to be banned from airing by MTV channel. Songs from Erotica album were popular and topped in different charts. So Bye Bye Baby single was the one of significant airplay hits on national radio, Deeper And Deeper became a great party and dance song, an miraculous ballad full of emotion and pain, Rain – these and others songs went to be Top 10 singles in different countries.

The book Sex shocked public by pictures of steamy love scenes and Madonna’s straight talks about sex. Despite negative reviews Madonna always told all she thought and this time she said: “A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want.” In addition to the success of book and the album Madonna starred in the erotic thriller Body of Evidence, where also played Willem Dafore and Anne Archer. Following the sex theme the film featured controversial scenes of unintentionally funny sexual content. In 1992 Madonna considered for the role of Catwoman in “Batman Returns” film (1992), but eventually the role went to Michelle Pfeiffer.

The singer returned to recording her sixth album Bedtime Stories, on which she collaborated with Soul II Soul producer Nellee Hooper with co-producing of Dallas Austin. The album was released in 1994 and sounded R&B/Rock beats, inspired by singer Joi’s album Pendulum Vibe. Madonna’s new work was successful in Europe, Australia and the United States; her songs reached tops of different charts. So Take a Bow took Madonna to the top of US singles chart. Later music video for this single shot in Spanish style helped Madonna to get the lead role in the film Evita.

Bedtime Story single created by Madonna in collaboration with Icelandic pop star Björk became Björk's own comment of Madonna's aesthetic and struggled on the US chart. About 10 million copies of Bedtime Stories were sold worldwide. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award in the “Best Pop Vocal Album” category in 1995. US certified the album was certified triple platinum. In August, 1994 Madonna released her second book “The Girlie Show”, and there were sold about 140,000 copies of this book worldwide. In November, 1995 Madonna released the compilation of her best ballads, Something to Remember, which included such singles as excellent song You’ll See (US number 6) and Take a Bow, the second single from the Bedtime Stories album. The same year Madonna planned to play a role of “Ginger” in the Martin Scorsese’s “Casino”, but the role went to Sharon Stone, and Madonna just made a cameo in the film.

Besides in 1995 Madonna turned down the role of Cristal Conners in short film “Showgirls” directed and produced by Jessica Lott. In 1996 the Oscar-winning film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical based on the life of Eva Perón, “Evita” was released. Madonna starred there as Eva and film’s soundtrack became her twelfth platinum album. Two songs from the musical became top hits: You Must Love Me won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Original Song From a Motion Picture the following year, and Don’t Cry for Me Argentina became US top ten hit and a number three hit in the UK. Also that year Madonna made a cameo in Spike Lee’s “Girl 6”. She won a Golden Globe award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy. Soon after the singer became a mother – on 14 of October, 1996 she gave a birth to her first daughter Lourdes, who was named as a tribute to Madonna’s mother. In the late 1996 HarperCollins published the book which included Behind-The-Scenes photography from the making of the motion picture Evita, “The Making of Evita” by Alan Parker with foreword by Madonna. Since the late-1990s, Madonna has become a devotee of the Kabbalah Centre.

1998-2001 Further careers

After almost two years break the singer Madonna came to the stage again, and in 1998 her seventh studio album Ray of Light was released by Warner Bros. Madonna, William Orbit, Patric Leonard and Marius De Vries became its producers and Madonna as usual included her extraordinary lyrics in album songs. The album included such acclaimed ballades as Frozen, The Power of Good-Bye and title track Ray of Light, which won a Grammy for "Best Short Form Music Video". With this album Madonna won three Grammy Awards for "Best Dance Recording", "Best Pop Album" and "Best Recording Package", and was nominated for “Record of The Year” and “Album of The Year”.There were sold about 15 million copies of Madonna’s album Ray of Light worldwide. The album was extremely popular in many other countries, where it became multi-platinum and peaked in different charts for a long lime. Later its title track was used by Microsoft in Windows XP advertising campaign “Yes you can”, 2001. Playboy named Madonna one of “100 Sexiest Women” of the 20th Century.

New century became the time of great changes for the singer. In 2000 she starred in “The Next Best Thing” directed by John Schlesinger, where her partner was English film actor Rupert Everett. The film was criticized, and Madonna won a Razzie award for worst actress, and the film was nominated for other Razzies including “Worst Director”, “Worst Picture” and “Worst Screenplay”. But in 2001 it was nominated as “Outstanding Film” at the 2001 GLAAD Media Awards, though the award went to Billy Elliot.

Madonna performed to songs to the film soundtrack, Time Stood Still and American Pie (the cover version of Don McLean’s single, 1970). On 11 of August, 2000 her son Rocco Ritchie was born. And in December Madonna married his farther, Guy Richie, the English film director, whom she had met in 1999 through mutual friends Sting and his wife, Trudie Styler. Madonna’s wedding dress for the wedding ceremony was designed by her friend Stella McCartney. Her eighth album Music was released in September, 2000 by Maverick Records, featured dance sound and debuted at number one on both the US and UK album charts.

Specifically she cooperated again with William Orbit, who was also producer of Madonna’s early album Ray of Light. Madonna sold about 10 million copies of album Music worldwide. The third single from the album, What It Feels Like for a Girl, featured a highly controversial video shot by Madonna's husband, Guy Ritchie. Madonna touched the theme of violence, that’s why the video was banned from TV broadcast in many countries. Despite this Madonna’s new album was successful and she sold about 10 million copies of album Music worldwide. In 2001 Madonna went on Drowned World Tour, which included in it such hits as Don't Tell Me, Human Nature, Music, Ray of Light and others and became one of the most successful and highest-grossing concert tours of the year 2001 by selling out all concert dates throughout North America and Europe. Here was noticed the fastest-selling show ever at Earl's Court, as 97,000 tickets for Madonna’s show were sold. “Madonna – Drowned World Tour 2001” home video was certified platinum in the United States and there were sold over 100,000 its copies. People Magazine called Madonna one of “25 Most Intriguing People of 2001”

2002-2006 Controversy

In 2002, Madonna starred in a romantic comedy film “Swept Away” directed by Guy Ritchie, where her partners were Adriano Giannini, and Bruce Greenwood. Later this year she performed the theme song to the new James Bond film, “Die Another Day”. The song was nominated by Golden Globe as the “Best Original Song”. Its music video directed by a Swedish directing team, Traktor was criticized as it again featured violent and attackable scenes. Eventually the song was nominated by Golden Raspberry for the “Worst Song”. In addition Madonna made a cameo in the film playing a fencing instructor named Verity.

In March, 2002 the singer won “Best Solo Dance Artist” at the 17th International Dance Music Awards held at the Winter Music Conference in Miami. The following year Madonna released Remixed & Revisited, her fifth compilation, to promote the album American Life. The compilation included remixes of songs from the American Life album, an unreleased song and a live performance on MTV. There were sold an estimated 1 million copies worldwide Later Madonna performed a new studio album, American Life and soon it became her transatlantic chart-topper. And again as all Madonna’s works the album American Life was controversial and gave rise to different reviews and discords. Her venturesome opinions, anti-war statements and music videos turning into a political issue were considered to be unpatriotic and caused a wave of severe critics. So anti-war lyrics of American Life song criticized the American lifestyle, and the debut single Die Another Day video featured brute force. American Life had lowest sales of a studio album of all Madonna’s career, but she never suffered from this fact and used to say that this album is her favorite work. Despite all critics and confrontational issues the American Life was fifth highest selling album of 2003 in the world.

Madonna performed her first children’s book, “The English Roses” in September, 2003. The same year Madonna published another children book, “Mr. Peabody's Apples” illustrated by Loren Long. The next year Madonna began her Re-Invention World Tour 2004, during which she visited a seven countries. Concerts featured music of different periods of her life including songs from her last album, American Life. Besides the singer shot I'm Going to Tell You a Secret documentary during the Re-Invention World Tour, and this film was nominated in the category “Best Long Form Music Video” at the Grammy Awards of 2007 show. The same year Rolling Stone magazine named Madonna one of “100 Greatest Artists of All Time” and inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for her outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture.

In 2004 the singer released two children books, “Yakov and the Seven Thieves” and “The Adventures of Abdi”, which debuted at number one on the New York Times list and became international best sellers. In the summer of 2005, Madonna performed at the Live 8 concert in London to support the poverty reduction. Later in November, 2005 Madonna released her tenth studio album, Confessions on a Dance Floor, which debuted at number one in 29 countries and featured such hits as Hung up and Sorry. The singer won the "Best International Female Award" at the BRIT Awards 2006 and "World's Best Selling Pop Artist" & "Best Selling U.S. Artist" at the 2006 World Music Awards for this album. She was nominated for five MTV Video Music Awards for her video Hung Up.

She was nominated for "Best Album of the Year", "Best Pop", and "Best Female Artist" at the MTV Europe Music Awards 2006. The singer won two prizes at the 2006 Echo Awards for "Best Female Artist international" and "Hit of the Year" for "Hung Up". The album became one of Madonna’s most successful albums. In the first week of the album release there were sold 2 million of its copies in Europe, and totally Madonna has sold worldwide about 8 million copies of Confessions on a Dance Floor. Also in 2005 Madonna released her fifth book, “Lotsa de Casha”. In summer, 2006 signed a contract to become the worldwide face of a Swedish clothing company H&M. The collection designed by the popstar, “M by Madonna”, was performed the next year and brought an income $15 million in its first week at the market. The same year she appeared in the 2006 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records as the female singer with the highest annual earnings. Estimated that year she had sold more than 200 million albums worldwide.

On October 12, 2006 a judge in Malawi allowed Madonna and her husband Guy Ritchie to took custody of one-year-old boy David, with the intent of adopting him. In October, 2006 on Oprah Madonna explained that the adoption of David is not official until one year from now. A child service worker needs to check if David is fed and taken care in a proper way. Then after a year, Madonna may or may not be David's adoptive mom. Being the loving mother and acclaimed artist Madonna use to say about her life: "It is a struggle to balance my career with my children. I'm always going, 'Oh God, I'm a crap mother.' I want to get home and put my kids to bed. And then sometimes, if I'm spending a lot of time with my children, I think, 'Oh God, I just want to be an artist.” On November 29, 2006 in France was premiered a part-animated, part-live action feature film Arthur and the Minimoys (Arthur and the Invisibles in English-speaking territories) starred Madonna, David Bowie and Snoop Dogg. Madonna became the voice of Princess Selenia.

2007-Present

In May 2007, the singer Madonna released Hey You, a song specifically written for the Live Earth summer concert series. Besides, Madonna decided to try herself as film director directing in London her first short film, "Filth and Wisdom." She is also working on a documentary about the struggles in Malawi. On October 18, 2007, Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg admitted that the singer is going to release her new studio album in early 2008 and a greatest hits package is slated for a release in late 2008 or early 2009.

In 2007, an acclaimed bestselling music critic Lucy O'Brien released the book about the singer "Madonna: Like An Icon". O'Brien deconstructs the stereotypes that have plagued the star, she uses interviews with producers, musicians, collaborators, lovers, and friends – those, who was part of Madonna’s life, and finally the author solves the mystery at the heart of Madonna's chameleonlike existence.