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Madonna was born on the 16th of
August 1958 in Rochester, Michigan, USA. Her family
lived in Pontiac, Michigan at the time, but were
visiting grandmother in Bay City when Madonna
decided to appear in the world. She was christened
Madonna Louise Ciccone, but her family used to
called her 'Little Nonni'. When she was only five
years old the mother she loved died of breast
cancer. Madonna talks: "One of the hardest
thing I've faced in my life was the death of my
mother and that's something I really haven't got
over to this day." Madonna learnt to be strong
and independent early in life and she carries a
clear memory of her mother's courage: "She
tried to keep her fear deep down inside and not let
us know - she never complained".
When the mother died the Ciccone family was torn
apart. Madonna and her brothers and sisters were
sent to live with various relatives until, after a
couple of years to Madonna's horror, her father Tony
married their housekeeper Joan Gustafson- a real
disciplinarian. Her father insisted that the
children have to call his new wife 'mother' but
Madonna found that very hard to do. In fact, she
never called Joan mother. Madonna was the oldest
girl of eight children and that is the reason she
caught most of the responsibility. Madonna
remembers: "As the oldest girl in my family, I
felt like all my adolescence was spent taking care
of babies. I think that's when I really thought
about how I wanted to get away from all that. I saw
myself as the quintessential Cinderella." And
about his father Madonna says: "If we didn't
have school homework then father find us something
do to around the house - he was very adamant about
us being productive." And also, "If my
father hadn't been so strict I wouldn't be who I am
today."
When Madonna was small, she loved to hum along to
songs on the radio as she helped with the housework.
She remembers: "There was always music in our
house, either records or the radio or someone
singing on the bathtub." Soon her father wanted
her to take piano lessons, because most of the
family played an musical instrument and his father
was really big on that. This was not to be, Madonna
was her father's favorite and persuaded him to let
her take dance lessons instead!
Madonna was 12 years old, when she entered the local
Catholic high school [Saint Andrews, Saint
Fredericks, Academie Du Sacre Coeur]. It was
oppressive and she recalls "they would hit you
across the back with a stapler if you were
disobedient". It was at this school though that
she learnt a great deal from classes in tap, jazz
dancing, Baton twirling and Gymnastics. It was here
that she started to display the extrovert Madonna
which hitherto only her family had experienced.
"I wanted to do everything everybody told me I
couldn't do, I couldn't wear make up, I couldn't
wear nylons, I couldn't cut my hair, I couldn't go
on dates, I couldn't even go to the movies with my
friends". She craved attention by wearing odd
socks, appearing in a friend's home movie with a
fried egg on her stomach. She also appeared in a
local talent contest where she danced to a record by
'The Who' wearing only a bikini and body paint.
As said before, she wanted to do everything she was
told she shouldn't or couldn't. She'd roll up her
uniform skirt until it was short, She'd go into the
bathroom and put make-up and nylon stockings on. She
was incredibly flirtatious. Apart from being a
flirtatious rebel, Madonna was very good at her
schoolwork. Madonna remembers "I was really
competitive in school with my grades and stuff coz
my father used to give us rewards if we got
"A" on our report cards. It wasn't so much
that I was interested in learning.....my father gave
us 25 cents for every "A" that we got so I
wanted to earn the most amount of money." Not
so surprisingly Madonna shone in the school's
theatre department, where she was given the lead
role in several of their productions. After Madonna
left school she attended the University of Michigan
on a dance scholarship, where she studied under
ballet school owner, Chris Flynn. She recalls
"I really loved him. He was my mentor, my
father, my imaginary lover, everything."
Pretty soon after studying some time in the
university of Michigan Madonna wanted to go to New
York to chase her dreams. Everyone was against the
idea but her dance teacher said, "Go for
it!" - and luckily for us she did! So there she
was, finally in New York, standing in the middle of
Times Square (on arriving in the big city she had
asked the taxi driver to take her to 'the middle of
everything'), with just thirty five dollars, a
satchel full of tights, dance shoes under one arm
and a giant doll under the other. Madonna remembers:
"When I came to New York it was the first time
I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I've ever
gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything.
And I came here with 35 dollars in my pocket. It was
the bravest thing I'd ever done. My goal was to
conquer the city and I feel I have." And also
"Although I took to New York straight away I
was really lonely.
I would take whatever I could in a taxi-cab to
wherever I was going to next. I'd take a big breath,
grit my teeth, blink back my tears and say,
"I'm gonna do it- I have to do it because
there's nowhere else for me to go". This was
the start of hard times for Madonna. She lived in
terrible house, cuz Madonna hadn't money for better.
She remembers: "When my father first came to
visit me, he was mortified. The place was crawling
with cockroaches. There was winos in the hallways,
and the entire place smelled like stale beer"
Then she won a scholarship at the Alvin Ailey Dance
Theatre, where she spent two years working hard at
her classes during the day and even harder at night,
holding down a succession of part-time jobs in fast
food restaurants to make a little extra money.
Sometimes she also visited a club called the
"Blue Froggie", the bar where she first
met Steve Bray. Who was a talented musician but his
relationship with Madonna was more on the physical
plane. After a while Madonna realized that the way
to the top for her was not going to be through pure
modern dance. It wasn't the competition that put her
off but the lack of work opportunities. There were
too many people going after too few jobs. She
started auditioning for theatre and musical parts
and ended up being whisked away to Paris, where she
was to take part in a revue backing the lead singer
Patrick Hernadez. Hernadez's management realized
they had something special on their hands with
Madonna, but were too slow to do anything about it
and when she complained they would give her more
money - they didn't. So it was goodbye to Paris and
hello again to New York.
Madonna returned to New York with a fiery
determination to succeed in the music industry. She
moved in again with Dan Gilroy, an old boyfriend. He
and some friends that they had met while at dance
school, had got a group together called 'The
Breakfast Band' - they needed a drummer, so Madonna
filled the gap. She then persuaded Dan to write some
songs for her to sing as the group's lead singer.
After she had been with them a few months she
realized that they were getting nowhere and so went
off alone to form her own band with herself as the
lead singer. During the following few months they
played a succession of dodgy New York clubs to
establish a name for themselves on the music
circuit. It wasn't easy. The band went through many
changes of it's membership and name. At the time the
clubs were more interested in Punk and New Wave
stuff but Madonna plugged away at it. She was
offered the occasional bit of modeling work and a
part in a shortm(60 min) 'art' film called 'A
Certain Sacrifice'.
Madonna finally got a deal with Gotham Records,
worth one hundred dollars a week. Steve Bray went
with her as drummer and songwriter. She kept at it
and eventually got a record deal with 'Sire Records'
for only $5000 and released her first single
'Everybody'. When it was first played on the radio
and in clubs, many fans mistook Madonna for an
Afro-American disco diva. Record company also didn't
put Madonna's picture on this single's cover, they
wanted people think that she was Afro-American, to
sell more records. 'Everybody' sold over 250 000
copies and went to No.3 in the dance charts. John
'Jellybean' Benitez found Madonna the song 'Holiday'
which was an instant hit, but Madonna first hit the
top ten with "Borderline". It's rumored
that her vocals were mechanically altered to make
her sound more girlie. Her first album 'Madonna',
released in 1983 won her wide acclaim and millions
of fans, plus invitations to move into films.
Not only was Madonna setting the tone music wise,
she was also creating a whole new fashion. In
"Lucky Star" music video, she showcased
her Boy Toy image. Madonna's style was so popular
that world famous lingerie store 'Fredericks of
Hollywood' reported a 40 % increase in sales, which
they put down to the Material Girl's image.
Never letting an opportunity to make a fast buck
pass her by, Madonna set up her own
"Wazoo" clothing label. Among other
things, "Wazoo" manufactured rubber
bracelets and Boy Toy belt buckles. It wasn't long
before millions of girl fans the world over took on
the raggy clothes of their number 1 pop heroine. But
it wasn't just the clothes that were developing
Madonna's raunchy reputation. Her music was about to
take a new and controversial turn. The new album
'Like A Virgin' (1984) established Madonna as a
popular artist and soon nearly everyone had a copy
of this album.
It gained 3X platina status in the US charts
immediately! Interesting is, that Madonna's first
album 'Madonna'(1938) was still doing pretty good at
the charts when new album was released. The year
1985 was VERY busy for Madonna. The music video
'Material Girl' came out on the 1st of February, the
movie "Vision Quest" on February 15th and
the movie "Desperately Seeking Susan" on
March 29th. Her role in "Desperately Seeking
Susan" added a significant facet to her image.
Madonna's singles: "Material Girl" and
"Crazy For You "(from 'Vision Quest' movie
soundtrack) were both top five hits. "Crazy for
you" gave Madonna her first Grammy nomination.
Madonna's first big tour (she traveled trough whole
US) was named after her album- "The Virgin
Tour"(1985).
It went from smaller venues to sold-out arenas in a
matter of months. During "Material Girl"
video shooting she met Sean Penn. And just after
saying "I wouldn't wish being Mr. Madonna on
anyone", she married with him. Madonna
remembers "I was jumping up and down on my bed,
performing one of my morning rituals and all of a
sudden Sean gets this look in his eye and all of a
sudden I knew what he was thinking.
I said: whatever you`re thinking I`ll say yes to.
That was his chance, so he popped it." On the
16th of August, 1985- they married in a Malibu media
circus, 13 helicopters with paparazzi photographers
were soaring in circles during the wedding ceremony,
the groom Sean Penn tried to beat some paparazzi
photographers, who were spying in the bushes.
Madonna remembers: "I didn't think I was going
to be married with 13 helicopters flying over my
head, it turned into a circus. At first I was
outraged but at the end I was laughing."
Madonna's marriage to Sean Penn officially ended on
10th of January,1989 when Madonna - for the second
time - filed for divorce on the grounds of
irreconcilable differences. She did not get married
again until just recently when she married Guy
Ritchie.
Since year 1985, Madonna is known as a person who
can do anything: she is a singer, an actress, a
composer, a producer and an executive. Madonna has
success everywhere. She has broken every available
radio, video, sales, and box-office record, racking
up no fewer than 29 Top Ten singles, 11 of those
reaching No. 1.It's world record! 1994's "Take
A Bow," lodged in the top spot for seven
consecutive weeks and beat the performance of her
1984 breakthrough, "Like A Virgin," which
had a six-week run at the top.
All told, Madonna's No. 1 and No. 2 singles have
spent a total of 40 weeks at the top of the charts
-- almost a solid year of uninterrupted hits! Every
studio album she has released has reached Top 15.
All, but one has made it into the Top 10, and seven
have attained Top 5 status. Madonna's international
album sales are estimated at topping 120 million
units. Pivotal as recorded music is to Madonna's
unparalleled success, she has had more videos,
played more often, than any other artist in the
history of the MTV network. Multi-awarded for these
videos, Madonna has made a ground-breaking
contribution to the video art form, as she has in
her unstoppable sell-out music tours that combine
music, theatrics, spectacle, and dazzling charisma
and have packed stadiums globally for nearly two
decades.
Those big heartbreakers mean of course big money and
that's why (according to several business magazines)
Madonna is the richest woman in the world followed
closely by Oprah Winfrey. Madonna makes about 130
millions US$ for a year !!! Continuously released
albums, singles, music- videos and movies hold
Madonna's myth high.
As if she wasn't busy enough already, Madonna
dropped another bundle of joy into the world in
September. No, not another child. This time, Madonna
delivered Music, her first full-length album since
the Grammy-winning Ray of Light. It was, of course,
a huge hit, but much more than anyone could have
expected. Music entered the album sales charts at
No. 1, not just in the United States, but in 22
other countries, as well, including her new adopted
home, England. Selling 420,000 copies in the first
week in the U.S. alone, Music was Madonna's first
album to hit the top slot in 11 years — not bad
for a 42-year-old mother of two.
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