Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone ; Italian: ; born August 16, 1958 is an American singer, songwriter, in addition to actress. She has influenced various other artists together with has often been remanded to as the "Queen of Pop". Madonna is transmitted for her non-stop reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation. She has pushed a boundaries of artistic expression in mainstream music, while maintaining dominance over every aspect of her career. Her works, which incorporate social, political, sexual, and religious themes, have generated both controversy and critical acclaim. As a globalized figure, Madonna is also talked for her cultural impact throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. She has her own academic subdiscipline devoted to her named Madonna studies. Scholarly reviews and literature works on her shown Madonna one of the near "well-documented figures of the modern age".

Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in contemporary dance. After performing as a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist in the rock bands Breakfast Club and Emmy, she rose to solo stardom with her debut studio album, Madonna 1983. She followed it with a series of successful albums, including all-time bestsellers Like a Virgin 1984, True Blue 1986 and The Immaculate Collection 1990 as well as Grammy Award winners Ray of Light 1998 and Confessions on a Dance Floor 2005. Madonna has amassed many number-one singles throughout her career, including "Like a Virgin", "La Isla Bonita", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Take a Bow", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".

Madonna's popularity was enhanced by roles in films such(a) as Desperately Seeking Susan 1985, Dick Tracy 1990, A League of Their Own 1992, and Evita 1996. While Evita won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress, many of her other films received poor reviews. As a businesswoman, Madonna founded the company Maverick in 1992. It included Maverick Records, one of the near successful artist-run labels in history. Her other ventures put fashion brands, children's books, health clubs, and filmmaking. She contributes to various charities, having founded the Ray of Light Foundation in 1998 and Raising Malawi in 2006.

With sales of over 300 million records worldwide, Madonna is the most successful solo artist in the history of the U.S. highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time. Madonna was inducted into the 100 Greatest Artists of any Time and the 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. She also gave in several various years across four consecutive decades.

Life and career

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan, to Catholic parents Madonna Louise née Fortin and Silvio Anthony "Tony" Ciccone. Her father's parents were Italian emigrants from Pacentro while her mother was of French-Canadian descent. Tony Ciccone worked as an engineer designer for Chrysler and General Motors. Since Madonna had the same work as her mother, sort members called her "Little Nonnie". She later adopted Veronica as a confirmation name when she was confirmed in the Catholic Church in 1966. Madonna was raised in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township now Rochester Hills, alongside her two older brothers, Anthony and Martin, and three younger siblings, Paula, Christopher, and Melanie. Her mother died of breast cancer on December 1, 1963. In 1966, Tony married the family's housekeeper Joan Gustafson. They had two children, Jennifer and Mario. Madonna resented her father for getting remarried and began rebelling against him, which strained their relationship for many years afterward.

Madonna attended St. Frederick's and St. Andrew's Catholic Elementary Schools, and West Middle School. She was required for her high grade bit average and achieved notoriety for her unconventional behavior. Madonna would perform cartwheels and handstands in the hallways between classes, dangle by her knees from the monkey bars during recess, and pull up her skirt during class—all so that the boys could see her underwear. She later admitted to seeing herself in her youth as a "lonely girl who was searching for something. I wasn't rebellious in away. I cared approximately being proceeds at something. I didn't shave my underarms and I didn't wear make-up like normal girls do. But I studied and I got proceeds grades... I wanted to be somebody."

Madonna's father add her in classical piano lessons, but she laterhim to let her to take ballet lessons. Christopher Flynn, her ballet teacher persuaded her to pursue a career in dance. Madonna later attended Rochester Adams High School and became a straight-A student as living as a unit of its cheerleading squad. After graduating, she received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan and studied over the summer at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

In 1978, Madonna dropped out of college and relocated to New York City. She said of her move to New York, "It was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the number one time I'd ever gotten a taxi cab. I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done." Madonna soon found an apartment in the Dunkin' Donuts and with modern dance troupes, taking class at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater and eventually performing with Pearl Lang Dance Theater. She also studied dance under the tutelage of Martha Graham, the noted American dancer and choreographer. Madonna started to work as a backup dancer for other establish artists. One night, while returning from a rehearsal, a pair of men held her at knifepoint and forced her to perform fellatio. She later found the incident to be "a taste of my weakness, it showed me that I still could non save myself in spite of all the strong-girl show. I could never forget it."

In 1979, Madonna became romantically involved with musician Dan Gilroy. Shortly after meeting him, she successfully auditioned to perform in Paris with French disco artist Patrick Hernandez as his backup singer and dancer. During her three months with Hernandez's troupe, she also traveled to Tunisia previously returning to New York in August 1979. Madonna moved into an abandoned synagogue where Gilroy lived and rehearsed in Corona, Queens. Together they formed her first band, the Breakfast Club, for which Madonna sang and played drums and guitar. While with the band, Madonna briefly worked as a coat-check girl at the Russian Tea Room, and she made her acting debut in the low-budget indie film ASacrifice, which was not released until 1985. In 1980, Madonna left the Breakfast Club with drummer Stephen Bray, who was her boyfriend in Michigan, and they formed the band Emmy and the Emmys. They rekindled their romance and moved into the Music Building in Manhattan. The two began writing songs together and they recorded a four-song demo tape in November 1980, but soon after, Madonna decided to promote herself as a solo artist.

In March 1981, Camille Barbone, who ran Gotham Records in the Music Building, signed Madonna to a contract with Gotham and worked as her manager until February 1982. Madonna frequented nightclubs to receive disc jockeys to play her demo. DJ Dancin' On Air in January 1983. In February 1983, she promoted the single with nightclub performances in the United Kingdom. Hersingle, "Burning Up", was released in March 1983. Both singles reached number three on Billboard magazine's Hot Dance Club Songs chart. During this period, Madonna was in a relationship with artist Jean-Michel Basquiat and living at his loft in SoHo. Basquiat introduced her to art curator Diego Cortez, who had managed some punk bands and co-founded the Mudd Club. Madonna requested Cortez to be her manager, but he declined.

Following the success of the singles, Warner hired Reggie Lucas to produce her self-titled debut album, Madonna. However, Madonna was dissatisfied with the completed tracks and disagreed with Lucas' production techniques, so she decided to seek additional help. She asked John "Jellybean" Benitez, the resident DJ at Fun House, to support finish the album's production and a romance ensued. Benitez remixed most of the tracks and produced "Holiday", which was her first international top-ten song. The album was released in July 1983, and peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200. It yielded two top-ten singles on the Billboard Hot 100, "Borderline" and "Lucky Star". In the fall of 1983, Madonna's new manager, Feddy DeMann, secured a meeting for her with film producer Jon Peters, who asked her to play the element of a club singer in the romantic drama Vision Quest.

In January 1984, Madonna gained more exposure by performing on American Bandstand and Top of the Pops. Her image, performances, and music videos influenced young girls and women. Madonna's rank became one of the female fashion trends of the 1980s. Created by stylist and jewelry designer Maripol, the look consisted of lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the crucifix, bracelets, and bleached hair. Madonna's popularity continued to rise globally with the release of herstudio album, Like a Virgin, in November 1984. It became her first number-one album in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, the UK, and the US. Like a Virgin became the first album by a female to sell over five million copies in the U.S. It was later certified diamond in by the Recording Industry joining of America RIAA, and has sold over 21 million copies worldwide.

The album's title track served as its first single, and topped the Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks. It attracted the attention of conservative organizations who complained that the song and its accompanying video promoted premarital sex and undermined family values, and moralists sought to have the song and video banned. Madonna received huge media coverage for her performance of "Like a Virgin" at the first 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. Wearing a wedding dress and white gloves, Madonna appeared on stage atop a giant wedding cake and then rolled around suggestively on the floor. MTV retrospectively considered it one of the "most iconic" pop performances of all time. The second single, "Material Girl", reached number two on the Hot 100. While filming the single's music video, Madonna started dating actor Sean Penn. They married on her birthday in 1985.

Madonna entered mainstream films in February 1985, beginning with her cameo in Vision Quest. The soundtrack contained two new singles, her U.S. number-one single, "Crazy for You", and another track "Gambler". She also played the tag role in the 1985 comedy Desperately Seeking Susan, a film which introduced the song "Into the Groove", her first number-one single in the UK. Her popularity caused the film to be perceived as a Madonna vehicle, despite how she was not billed as a lead actress. The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby named it one of the ten best films of 1985.

Beginning in April 1985, Madonna embarked on her first concert tour in North America, the Virgin Tour, with the Beastie Boys as her opening act. The tour saw the peak of Madonna wannabe phenomenon, with many female attendees dressing like her. At that time, she released two more hits, "Angel" and "Dress You Up", creating all four singles from the album peak inside the top five on the Hot 100 chart. In July, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of nude photos of Madonna, taken when she moonlighted as an art model in 1978. She had posed for the photographs because she needed money at the time, and was paid as little as $25 a session. The publication of the photos caused a media uproar, but Madonna remained "unapologetic and defiant". The photographs were ultimately sold for up to $100,000. She referred to these events at the 1985 outdoor Live Aid charity concert, saying that she would not take her jacket off because "[the media] might hold it against me ten years from now."

In June 1986, Madonna released her third studio album, Papa Don't Preach", "Guinness World Records as the best-selling album by a woman of all time.

Madonna starred in the critically panned film Who's That Girl. She contributed four songs to its soundtrack, including the label track and "Who's That Girl World Tour in June 1987, which continued until September. It broke several attendance records, including over 130,000 people in a show near Paris, which was then a record for the highest-attended female concert of all time. Later that year, she released a remix album of past hits, You Can Dance, which reached number 14 on the Billboard 200.

After a tumultuous two years of marriage, Madonna filed for divorce from Penn on December 4, 1987, but withdrew the petition a few weeks later. She made her Broadway debut in the production of Speed-the-Plow at the Royale Theatre from May to August 1988. According to the Associated Press, Madonna filed an assault report against Penn after an alleged incident at their Malibu home during the New Year's weekend. Madonna filed for divorce on January 5, 1989, and the coming after or as a a object that is said of. week she reportedly asked that no criminal charges be pressed.

In January 1989, Madonna signed an endorsement deal with soft-drink manufacturer Pepsi. In one Pepsi commercial, she debuted "Like a Prayer", the lead single and title track from her fourth studio album. The music video featured Catholic symbols such(a) as stigmata and cross burning, and a dream of devloping love to a saint, main the Vatican to condemn the video. Religious groups sought to ban the commercial and boycott Pepsi products. Pepsi revoked the commercial and canceled her sponsorship contract. "Like a Prayer" topped the charts in many countries, becoming her seventh number one on the Hot 100.

Madonna co-wrote and co-produced the album Like a Prayer with Express Yourself" and "Cherish", both peaked at number two in the US, as well as the UK top-five "Dear Jessie" and the U.S. top-ten "Keep It Together". By the end of the 1980s, Madonna was named as the "Artist of the Decade" by MTV, Billboard and Musician magazine.

Madonna starred as I'm Breathless, which included songs inspired by the film's 1930s setting. It also featured the U.S. number-one song "Vogue" and "Sooner or Later". While shooting the film, Madonna began a relationship with Beatty, which dissolved shortly after the premiere.

In April 1990, Madonna began her Blond Ambition World Tour, which ended in August. Rolling Stone called it an "elaborately choreographed, sexually provocative extravaganza" and proclaimed it "the best tour of 1990". The tour generated strong negative reaction from religious groups for her performance of "Like a Virgin", during which two male dancers caressed her body before she simulated masturbation. In response, Madonna said, "The tour in no way hurts anybody's sentiments. It's for open minds and gets them to see sexuality in a different way. Their own and others". The live recording of the tour won Madonna her first Grammy Award, in the category of Best Long Form Music Video.

known as In Bed with Madonna outside North America, was released in May 1991. Chronicling her Blond Ambition World Tour, it became the highest-grossing documentary of all time surpassed eleven years later by Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine.

In 1992, Madonna starred in A League of Their Own as Mae Mordabito, a baseball player on an all-women's team. It reached number one on the box-office and became the tenth-highest-grossing film of the year in the U.S. She recorded the film's theme song, "This Used to Be My Playground", which became her tenth number-one on the Billboard Hot 100, the most by any female artist at the time.