Madonna- A Biography

Original name Madonna Louise Ciccone, born on, 16 August 1958, at 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 Superstar, gone Zen mother material girl, was born near Detroit in 1958, being the eldest child of eight. Her mother was a housewife, father an engineer. Madonna's birth mother died of cancer when Madonna was five. Her father Sylvio tony Ciccone employed a housekeeper named Joan Gostafson and eventually married her. They are still married. When the house got too small for the growing Ciccone family they moved to Rochester Hills, Michigan. Her father and step-mother still live in this house.

Madonna has 3 sisters Melanie, Paula and Jennifer (half sister) and 4 brothers Martin, Christopher Anthony and Mario (half brother). Madonna has only married once and that was to actor Sean Penn on her 27th birthday, Aug. 16, 1985. The marriage officially ended on January 10, 1989 when Madonna (for the second time) filed for divorce (on Jan. 5th) on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. She has not been married since. Madonna Ciccone showed her interest in performance at an early age, playing roles in school shows, being on the cheerleading squad, taking classes in dance and music, anything for attention. Her dancing talent took her to the University of Michigan with a scholarship, but she stayed there for only two years before she dropped out in search of fame in 1978. She left school to go to New York, showing up there with only 35 cents to her (soon-to-be) legendary name. Madonna worked many different jobs just trying to get by, including the Dunkin' Donuts in Time Square and dancing in a troupe.

In 1977, she went to New York, studying with noted choreographer Alvin Ailey and taking modeling 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. The first song off her first album (which didn't sell well), Holiday, made it's way to America's Top 20 Chart. This was followed be the release of Like a Virgin, making her the number one in album sales in 1985. Like her role as Eva Peron in the movie, Evita, Madonna came with "just a bit of star quality" and with high expectations and the drive to turn them into reality, which is exactly what she did. Madonna broke out from the disco scene into mainstream pop with "Holiday", written and produced by Jellybean. Her first hit, "Holiday," in 1983, provided the blueprint for her later material—an upbeat dance-club sound with sharp production and an immediate appeal. It reached the US Top 20 in late 1983 and was a Top 10 hit across Europe the following year Madonna's melodic pop incorporated dance-music beats and catchy choruses. Her lyrics concerned love, sex, and relationships—ranging from the breezy innocence of "True Blue" (1986) to the erotic fantasies of "Justify My Love" (1990) to the ecstatic spirituality of later songs such as "Ray of Light" (1998). Criticized by some as being limited in range, her sweet, girlish voice nonetheless was well-suited to her pop music.

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.

You can continue your reading with my another article Madonna – Queen of Pop

You can take a look at
Controversies about Madonna
Madonna - Controversies continued…