How old is the singer Madonna. Madonna: Biography of a Famous Singer Madonna's Autobiography

Moved with her four youngest children to Portugal. This is the palace of Quinta do Relgio, cultural heritage and a landmark in the resort town of Sintra near Lisbon. Now the family lives in an 18th century palace with 12 bedrooms and luxurious rooms with baroque furniture.

Madonna's children

The singer has six children - two relatives and four adopted.

She regularly posts photos of her new life in Portugal on Instagram: she shows her younger daughters, five-year-old Esther and Stella.

Either they are in the kitchen preparing a birthday cake, or they are posing next to their drawings on the doors, or they are listening to their older brother David (he is 12 years old) playing the piano.

David has a penchant for more than just music. He is also a talented football player.

After David began playing for the youth team of the Portuguese club Benfica, Madonna had to divide his time between Portugal, the USA and the UK.

Palace of the Madonna

In her palace, the singer is surrounded by memorabilia and gifts.

For example, she has a pillow autographed by her close friend Michael Jackson. It says something about “the mean dirty press”, and then there are these words: “They are lying. Ban all tabloids. I very love you. You will always be in my heart".

Baroque furniture and Chinese rugs - tradition and comfort.

The interior of the kitchen is unusual and memorable.

Madonna also has an older daughter, Lourdes (21), who lives in the US, and a son, Rocco (17), who lives in London with his father, Guy Ritchie, and stepmother, Jacqui Ainsley. Next come son David (age 12), daughter Mercy (age 11), and five-year-old twins Stella and Esther. The four younger ones are with their mother in Lisbon.

In this creative family, there is always music and dancing.

Madonna often posts videos of her kids dancing.

Show business star Madonna is known all over the world. During her almost 40-year career, she released many hits, became the founder of a special direction in musical culture. Her provocative style is copied, criticized, enthusiastically praised, but not forgotten. She leaves no one indifferent. At the same time, the full, real name of Madonna is known only to her loyal fans. She was able to make her pseudonym a brand that already denotes not just a person, but a whole social phenomenon.

early years

The future pop star was born on August 16, 1958 in Michigan in a large family, she was the 3rd child out of six. The girl's mother was French-Canadian, her father was Italian. This is probably where Madonna's fiery temperament comes from. After graduating from school, the girl enters the University of Michigan, at the choreographic department, for many years she studied dance and ballet. Then the real name of Madonna, inherited from her mother, was completely unknown, and the girl dreamed of fame. In 1978, she moved to New York and enrolled in a dance class with the famous Alvin Ailey. She works as a model, sings in different groups, her creative potential is bursting out.

The beginning of a musical career

Together with a group of New York musicians, Madonna creates the Emmy group, which writes and performs trendy music for discos and nightclubs. Producers pay attention to the group and the soloist. And in 1982, Madonna signed a contract with Sire Records and released her debut single Everybody. The singer's first album appears the following year, and the composition Holiday enters the American and European charts. From the very beginning of her career, Madonna impressed with her energy, original stage productions and bright appearance.

Nickname

Even starting to dance, Madonna thought about the stage name. From her parents, she received a sonorous and complex name - Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, and therefore she had plenty to choose from for her pseudonym. She settled on the first part of her real name, especially since the name Madonna was memorable and provocative in combination with the appearance and behavior of the singer. Namely, the novice performer relied on shocking. Already from the first steps on the stage, Madonna, whose hits were still ahead, worked under her shortened name and made him famous in a few years.

creative way

Already the first disc made Madonna popular. The singer worked very hard, always thought through the scenography and choreography of her performances to the smallest detail, worked on her appearance. A natural brunette with curvy curves, she found herself dressed as a blonde with bright makeup and sexy outfits.

From the very beginning of her career, the singer worked very hard, she changed several producers, labels, stubbornly striving for the top. The first album "Madonna", despite the fact that he entered the charts, was still a common occurrence in pop music. But the album Like a Virgin in 1984 was a real event. It has been sold in millions of copies.

Madonna's real name no longer mattered, she became a star, and everyone knew her by her stage name. In 1990, the singer makes her first world tour, which is accompanied by a resounding success. Madonna not only performs trendy songs, she sets a new standard for the show, her concerts are a whole performance, with a lot of costumes, scenery, dancers.

At the end of the 90s, a real rain of awards poured on Madonna, she received all possible music prizes, her records are sold in millions of copies, concert tickets anywhere in the world are sold out in a few hours.

Her stage path was often associated with scandals and provocations, the star always warmed up her special image with various antics on and off the stage. But she is also constantly in a musical search, Madonna's compositions are always the most advanced edge of pop music.

To date, the singer has released 13 albums, created 10 concert programs, with which she traveled around the globe several times. Madonna, whose age is increasingly becoming the subject of discussion in the media and gossip, is not going to give up her positions, despite the younger generations of competitors.

Outstanding Works

Over the course of her life, Madonna, whose hits have become multi-platinum more than once, has released hundreds of songs. Experts and fans argue a lot about her creative heritage and about which works are considered the best. Her most famous songs are:

• material girl. A real visiting card of the singer, which determined her style for many years, this song with a wonderful video a la Marilyn Monroe is a classic of world pop music.
• Cherish. The 1988 song and the black-and-white video for it became a certain stage for Madonna, in which she appeared in the form of an ordinary American girl.
• Vogue. The perfect dance song from the 80s, with a great video by David Fincher, was Madonna's first step into the 90s.
• Rain. The elegant and sophisticated song from the provocative album Erotica has become one of the best "slow" songs of the decade. And the great clip of Mark Romanek laid the foundation for a new video aesthetic in the 90s.
• hung up. The song from the early 2000s was further proof that Madonna is the queen of the dance-pop scene. The incendiary melody and bright vocals made the composition a hit in discos all over the world.
• Frozen. The 1998 ballad proved that Madonna, whose biography is connected with dance music, not only knows how to put on a show, but also sings beautifully. Chris Cunningham's exquisite video for the song won several awards and fan recognition.

Film work

Throughout her career, Madonna, whose biography is full of creative experiments, has repeatedly made attempts to make a career as a film actress. She has 13 films on her account, in which she played both episodic and main roles. Critics do not appreciate Madonna's talent as a dramatic actress. However, the roles in the films "The Body as Evidence", "Evita", "Best Friend" and "Swept Away" showed that she was still a good actress.

Personal life

Throughout her career, the attention of the public and the press has attracted Madonna's personal life. The singer was officially married twice. Her first husband was actor Sean Penn. The second is the director. In addition, she has a huge number of novels to her credit. For several years, media attention has been riveted on her relationship with dancer Brahim Zeiba, who is 29 years younger than the singer. The novel ended with a breakup, and today Madonna is credited with a new relationship.

Scandals

Some journalists jokingly say that Madonna's real name is Lady Scandal. She is ready to create a hype from scratch. At one of the concerts in Istanbul, she decided to please her fans and exposed her breasts. Undressing is generally a favorite trick of a pop star. In 2003, at the MTV Awards, Madonna kissed Britney Spears passionately, which caused a huge sensation. Later, she repeated this trick with other girls. More than once, the singer's songs became the reason for her accusations of anti-Semitism, inciting hatred for the church, it came to the point that the Pope was called to excommunicate her from the church.

Children

The pop diva also attracts no less attention from the press. The pop diva has four children: daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon (father - Carlos Leon), son Rocco (father - Guy Ritchie), as well as two adopted children from Malawi: daughter Mercy Dane and son David Banda Mwale .

Madonna's children grow up under the supervision of nannies, because the mother is actively engaged in a career. Eldest daughter has already grown up and is quite successfully building a career as a model. The singer sued Guy Ritchie for a long time for custody of her son and lost the case. For a while, Rocco lived with his father in London, but then returned to his famous mother.

Outrageous, and, of course, talented American pop diva Madonna posted modern photos of all her four children online.

A mother of many children rarely shows pictures of children; she is one of those who do not like to advertise their personal lives too much. However, even the most secretive star mothers cannot restrain their feelings all the time, because sometimes you want to brag so much. So 57-year-old Madonna recently posted on Instagram a collage made up of photographs of her children. The singer captioned the photo: “Here are the four corners of my heart.”

The first child - the girl Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon Madonna gave birth in October 1996. The baby's father, the singer's personal trainer (at that time) Cuban Carlos Leon. Seven months after the birth of Lourdes, Madonna and Carlos Leon broke up. Currently, he has a family, but the girl maintains a relationship with her father and his new wife. 19-year-old Lourdes Maria has grown into a real beauty and her resemblance to her mother is simply amazing

Lourdes Maria

In 1998, at one of the parties, Madonna met the British director Guy Ritchie, and after two years of a romantic relationship, they entered into a marriage alliance. In the same year 2000, 42-year-old Madonna gives birth to her second child - the boy Rocco.

In 2006, Madonna, during a humanitarian mission to the orphanages of Malawi (East Africa), she saved a one-year-old boy, David Banda, who was dying of pneumonia and exhaustion, persuading the government of the republic to allow him to be adopted. This adoption was accompanied by a loud scandal, because in this impoverished country, the adoption of children by foreigners is prohibited. Now David is already 9 years old, he is growing up a healthy and happy child.

The marriage with Guy Ritchie lasted 8 years, and in 2008 Madonna separated from her husband, leaving her children. However, he did not abandon his fatherly duties and meets with children regularly, they often visit his house, maintain excellent relations with his new wife and children.

"3 flowers in the Garden!" Chifundo Mercy James and David Bandu

Trips to Africa continued, and in June 2009, Madonna adopted a little girl from Malawi, Chifundo Mercy James, who was already the fourth child in this large family. In January, the girl will be 9 years old.

The whole life of the singer is accompanied by scandals, rumors and speculation, in many ways, she herself provokes them with her outrageous behavior. Not infrequently, she is reproached for adopting children for the sake of her own PR, which is not at all interested in and does not deal with them. Who knows where the truth is, but one way or another, all her children grow up healthy and happy. Judge not lest ye be judged…

singer Madonna (Madonna)

Madonna Louise Ciccone (Madonna Louise Ciccone). She was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, writer, actress, film director, screenwriter, entrepreneur, and philanthropist.

Madonna is considered the most commercially successful performer in history according to the Guinness Book of Records. with 300 million confirmed licensed sales. Time included the singer in the list of "25 women of the last century with the most power", assessing her influence on contemporary music.

Madonna is the best-selling rock artist of the 20th century by the Recording Industry Association of America and the second-best-selling female artist in the United States with 64.5 million certified album sales.

Billboard recognized the singer as the most successful artist in the history of recording among solo singers and singers.

Madonna became famous for constantly "reinventing" her music and images. She became one of the first female musicians to make successful career on a major label and have not lost creative or financial control. The singer's videos are an integral part of MTV, adding new themes of texts or images of video clips to the mainstream.

Madonna's songs generally receive positive reviews from music critics, despite the controversy often caused in the media regarding the topics covered in them - racism, gender discrimination, religion, politics, sex and violence. Madonna's debut album of the same name was released in 1983 on the Sire label and became the first in a series of successful albums by the author/singer.

Madonna has a record 20 MTV Video Music Awards and 7 Grammy Awards., including in prestigious nominations for the albums Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), as well as 2 Golden Globes.

The singer has many chart records and hits that reached number one on the major music charts, among which the most successful songs were "Like a Virgin" (1984), "La Isla Bonita" (1986), "Like a Prayer" (1989), "Vogue "(1990), "Frozen" (1998), "Music" (2000), "Hung Up" (2005) and "4 Minutes" (2008).

According to Forbes in 2016, Madonna is the richest female musician in the world with a fortune of $560 million.

The singer's 2008-09 concert tour, the Sticky & Sweet Tour, is the highest-grossing solo artist of all time. Madonna's recognition in music and cinema is known - since the late 80s, the media have called her the "Queen of Pop", and in 2000, the Golden Raspberry anti-prize called her the worst actress of the 20th century.

Madonna's films as director and screenwriter Filth and Wisdom and WE. We Believe in Love" were critically acclaimed and received limited theatrical release.

Madonna was born on August 16, 1958 in a town on the shores of Lake Huron, Michigan, USA. The singer's mother and namesake, Madonna Louise Ciccone, was French-Canadian and worked as an X-ray technician. Father, Silvio Ciccone, Italian-American, worked as a design engineer for the defense design bureau of Chrysler / General Motors.

Madonna is the third child in the family, there were six children in total. The first girl in the family was named after her mother Madonna Louise, this name has never been officially changed. The name "Veronica" was chosen by Madonna Louise Ciccone at the age of 12 for the traditional Catholic sacrament of chrismation and is not official.

Madonna's mother came from the descendants of the Jansenists from among the first French settlers and her piety bordered on fanaticism. Mother played the piano and sang beautifully, but never aspired to perform in public.

During her sixth pregnancy, Madonna Ciccone (senior) was diagnosed with breast cancer. Mother adhered to the ideas of the pre-Vatican period, which still recognized sex as an immoral act, and abortion as murder under any conditions. She refused treatment until the end of her pregnancy, and a few months after the birth of her sixth child, she died at the age of 30.

Madonna's (younger) rejection of the fact that God could allow the death of her mother became an important aspect of the life and work of the singer. Two years later, the widowed father of the family remarried the maid Joan Gustafson - a simple woman and the complete opposite of the first. The couple's first joint child died, but soon they had two more children. The stepmother took care mainly of her own children, but the father forced all the children to call the woman "mother", which Madonna never did, considering her father a traitor to the memory of her mother.

The family was quite wealthy, but Gustafson brought the Protestant spirit of total savings on clothing and food to the family - the family ate exclusively semi-finished products and the children almost did not wear purchased clothes. Joan's upbringing methods were like a sergeant major, which further inflamed the atmosphere in the family. Madonna evoked in her stepmother a sense of female competition due to the strong external resemblance of the singer to her late mother. Madonna was subjected to severe bullying by two older drug addict brothers who fought with her for the attention of her father, which, according to biographers, early laid in her a hostile attitude towards drugs.

The Ciccone family lived in suburban Detroit, where Madonna attended St. Frederick and St. Andrew Catholic Schools, and West was a cheerleader for the basketball team. The singer graduated from high school at the Rochester Adams secular school, where she participated in theater productions and school musicals.

Ciccone studied "excellently", and the teachers took on the role of a mother in her upbringing. The singer called the teacher of philosophy and Russian history Marilyn Fallows one of the two most important people of her childhood. Despite the grades, Ciccone was considered by her peers to be a “with regards” girl, she was disliked for her brilliant academic performance and the position of the teachers’ pet, and the guys were afraid to invite her on a date.

At the age of 14, Madonna was influenced as a pop lyricist by her friendship with the future recognized poet Win Cooper, who studied with her at the same school a class older. According to Cooper, the girl was shy and a little distant, shunned society, dressed modestly, and was particularly fond of Aldous Huxley's books and Lady Chatterley's Lover.

The key event of Madonna's childhood is considered to be the performance at the evening of West's school talents at the age of 14. On it, the artist covered in green and pink paint in a top and shorts shocked the audience with a dance performance to the group's famous song "Baba O" Riley The Who. The reputation of an exemplary excellent student was hopelessly damaged, the performance was discussed for a long time in the city, and the father put his daughter under house arrest. "Heroine of the day", brothers and sisters began to tease: "Madonna is a whore" although it had nothing to do with sex.

From the age of four, Madonna Ciccone imitated the dances of Shirley Temple, but took up ballet at almost 15, which was acceptable for modern jazz choreography. Choreographer Christopher Flynn was her biggest influence. Flynn gave her time and took her to classical concerts, exhibitions and, to broaden her horizons, to gay clubs. Flynn was gay 30 years older, so the student's love remained unrequited, but, according to the singer's recollections, this was the only person who understood her. The appearance of an excellent student has changed towards a sloppy bohemian look that scares others.

Biographers Andersen, Taraborelli and Lucy O'Brien point out that although At 14, Madonna had a reputation for being a slut, but only at the age of 15 did she get her first sexual experience with 17-year-old Russell Long, which the whole school and father learned about at the suggestion of Ciccone. According to Lucy O'Brien, the struggle against the stereotypical attitude towards women according to the criterion of "virgin / whore" and the desire to tell others about her love experiences have become the main themes of the singer's work.

Madonna Ciccone graduated from high school in 1976 a few months before her final exams. She continued her dance education on a budget basis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where Flynn received a professorship. The choice of a "frivolous" profession paved a crack in the singer's relationship with her father, who wanted to see her daughter as a doctor or lawyer. The father believed that the daughter could find a better use for her excellent certificate, successfully passed IQ test(according to biographers Christopher Andersen (1991) and Randy Taraborelli (2000) the result of the singer at the age of 17 showed 140 points) and brilliant recommendations from teachers. The right to receive a free higher education in the United States is given to a few, and Madonna moved to a university dormitory full of hope for her brilliant future. According to her teachers and colleagues, she had endurance, rare even for a dancer, which was further developed by her ballet skills, and subsequently allowed her to suffocate less during the performance of songs with a simultaneous dance.

According to choreographer Gaia Delang, the young Ciccone was "very slim and light, her dance was contagious." However, in technical terms, the budgetary Madonna was inferior to many ballerinas, causing their rejection and envy, and the inability to be absolutely the best caused protest and a desire to additionally stand out, as far as possible in the ballet class - with torn tights or unwashed short hair. In her free time, Madonna visited clubs in Detroit, in one of which she met black drummer Stephen Bray, her future co-author and co-producer.

After a year and a half at the University of Michigan, Madonna got to a master class with the famous New York choreographer Pearl Lang, and the dream was set on fire to get into her group. She dropped out of university and moved to New York in 1978, dreaming of one day opening her own dance studio.

After passing a tough casting, she entered the Lang group, but far from the first line-up, which did not allow her to pay rent. The dancer worked part-time at Dunkin' Donuts, where she burned down a donut oven by dancing behind the counter, and Burger King, where she also did not last, pouring jam on a rude visitor. She soon made her New York stage debut in Lang's "I Never Seen Another Butterfly Again" as a Jewish ghetto boy.

Soon, Madonna Ciccone began to weaken in class due to malnutrition, and Lang arranged for the dancer to work in the evenings for food. cloakroom attendant at the Russian Samovar restaurant. Then she worked as a model in an art studio and as a nude model for photographers. Madonna rented a room in a cheap dangerous area New York, where she was once orally raped by a knife-wielding maniac. After a mental trauma, Madonna Ciccone became absent-minded in her classes and stopped believing in her dancing future, even with the Lang troupe, a student of the cult Martha Graham.

Due to a lack of funds to pay rent, Ciccone began auditioning for Broadway musicals and backing dancers. In 1979, at the casting for the world tour of French disco singer Patrick Hernandez, Madonna Ciccone's performance was liked by the Belgian singer producers Van Lie and Perrelain. Professionals cannot but pay attention to her plasticity and praise her pleasant voice, which sang the Christmas carol "Jingle Bells". To the complete surprise of Madonna, who had not previously considered herself a singer, she was invited to Paris, where they promised to make her "something like a dancing Edith Piaf."

The artist finally leaves the Lang troupe, her lover Dan Gilroy and spends six months with the Hernandez tour in France, Belgium and Tunisia. The producers convince her of the prospects of a career as a singer, but 20-year-old Madonna is passionate about punk rock, rebels against the Belgians and did not want to sing the proposed disco-pop material. Six months later, the singer falls ill with pneumonia and, after recovering, flies to New York, succumbing to the letters and persuasion of her boyfriend Gilroy, who was waiting for her in New York. Gilroy has a huge impact on the transformation of Madonna Ciccone from a dancer into a musician: he teaches how to play drums and electric guitar and the basics of composition. After daily drumming sessions to Elvis Costello's disc, Madonna becomes a pretty cool drummer and is accepted into Gilroy's Breakfast Club band. A few months later, the drummer begins to "pull the blanket over herself", offering her own material and leaves the team along with the joined guitarist.

In 1979, he starred in the amateur film "A Specific Victim" as a repentant sadomasochist who is raped in the toilet by a maniac. The unsuccessful amateur film was far from pornographic, but with the filing of the "sensational" press laid skepticism about Madonna Ciccone as a former porn star. According to biographers, this influenced her belated recognition as a musician. In 1980, together with Michael Monahan and Gary Burke, the singer gathered the quickly disbanded Madonna And The Sky group, and then created the rock group Emmy. Emmy - from Em, a diminutive of the first letter of the name Madonna (Madonna Ciccone signed and continues to sign her songs as M. Ciccone). The Emmys imitated the early Pretenders and Madonna played guitar and sang her own songs in the band. The singer's ex-boyfriend Steven Bray sits on the drums and with him the Emmy group continues to search for their own direction.

In the spring of 1981, Madonna Ciccone met the owner of the Gotham recording studio, Camilla Barbon. Soon, Barbon offers to become the singer's personal manager on the condition that she leaves the group, and Ciccone immediately agrees. Barbon decides that Madonna will perform without a guitar so that she can dance freely on stage.

Barbon proudly recalls that she was able to spot a potential star because she was one of the few female managers in the "male realm of show business." Before meeting the manager, the singer is in a desperate situation - speaking on stage in men's pajamas, asking for food from the guys she meets, she only rides a bicycle and lives illegally in a cheap studio.

At first, Madonna awakens only maternal feelings to the thirty-year-old lesbian Barbon: Camilla rents a house for her ward, assigns a salary of $ 100 a week and gives money as needed. Ciccone's band makes several demos and plays in small clubs and student parties.

Barbon unsuccessfully seeks a label contract for the singer, but major bosses don't want to risk it. Barbon sees the new Chrissie Hynde in the singer, but soon begins to abuse alcohol, be jealous of Madonna for everyone and make scenes.

African-American Bray, the drummer of Madonna's group, has been gravitating towards dance music and hip-hop since the days of Detroit and asks the singer to record something together. After the main rehearsal, they remain alone and compose four songs: "Everybody", "Ain't No Big Deal", "Stay" and "Burning Up". By that time, Barbon had been offering the singer to labels as a new rock star for a year and a half, and the ward decides to secretly distribute a dance cassette with a demo in the Dunsteria club in Manhattan, where representatives of labels and the press sometimes drop by.

The club's DJ, Marku Kaminsu, is impressed with Madonna's demo. He takes the cassette and arranges for them to meet with Island label chief Chris Blackwell. The meeting ends in failure - Madonna lives with Kamins in a room without hot water with milk crates instead of furniture and begins to sweat profusely due to excitement. Cummins is so annoyed by the failure and immediately, through his acquaintance Michael Rosenblatt, arranges for Ciccone to meet the founder of Sire Records, Seymour Stein, who immediately signs it, even while he is in the hospital with a heart attack. Ciccone becomes simply Madonna (Ciccone is often pronounced in English as Siccone), and Barbon cannot forgive the betrayal of his “baby” and for more than 20 years has not given permission to release the singer’s early songs.

Already in the 2000s, Barbon confesses to his then alcoholism and forgives Madonna the offense. Barbon highly appreciates her importance in the life of the singer, believing that thanks to her, Madonna "did not have to sleep with someone to get on stage", and "although at first there were rumors that someone was investing money in her, she was eventually started take it seriously".

All rights to Madonna's songs prior to this demo belong to Gotham Studios and Barbon, and the question arises of what to release as a trial single. All the songs on the cassette are co-written, but the friends trade the rights - Bray's 100% credit on "Ain't No Big Deal" in exchange for Madonna's full rights to "Everybody". Madonna likes "Everybody", but Stein wants to release Bray's "Ain't No Big Deal" and the flip side is supposed to be "Everybody".

While the release is being prepared, Bray manages to sell "Ain't No Big Deal" to another studio that is recording a new vocalist. There is no time for a new record and "Everybody", as Madonna wanted, is released as a single. With a zero budget for promotion, the singers decide not to put the photo on the cover so as not to scare off the colored audience of the "Negro disco-soul singer." "Everybody" climbs to number 3 on the Hot Chart Dance Club Songs, and then to No. 107 overall, just short of the top 100 of Billboard's Hot 100. Management sees this as a great result given the zero PR cost and wants to make sure "Everybody" isn't random.

At Madonna's request, Kamins is replaced by a more experienced Warner Bros. staff arranger. Records Reggie Lucas. The second single "Burning Up" also reached number 3 on the dance hits chart, repeating the success of "Everybody", and after that Madonna was allowed to rent a studio to record her first album.

In July 1983, the debut album called Madonna was released. At first it goes unnoticed, but within a year it reaches #8 on the Billboard 200 and #6 on the UK chart. The singles "Borderline" (written by the Lucas), "Lucky Star" (by Madonna and dedicated to the retired Kamins) and "Holiday" become hits. Madonna considers the disc rather mediocre and is not too happy with working with Lucas, but years later the disc becomes a post-disco classic.

According to O'Brien, her music on the album sounds like a cross between Pat Benatar and Tina Marie. Madonna is the author of most of the album's songs, but the main commercial success comes from third-party "Holiday", found by the singer's boyfriend, DJ John "Marmalade" Benitez. This influenced the skepticism about Madonna as an author capable of writing a hit. The singer has also been criticized for her "girlish" vocals and manner of performance. Billboard writer Paul Grain made the prediction: "Cindy Lauper is a long time, and Madonna in six months will be of no use to anyone".

The singer responded to criticism: “People think that if you are sexy, visually attractive and excite the audience with this, then you simply have nothing more to offer. This is just my image. It probably looks like this on the outside, and I fit the stereotype, but I do all this quite consciously. I keep everything under control and wait for this to be understood and confused. ”.

After recording the album, on the recommendation of Stein, Freddie Demann, who previously worked for, becomes her manager. Despite initial criticism, in 2013 Rolling Stone named this album one of the top 100 debut albums of all time. On this moment Madonna's album sales are 10 million copies, but this was largely due to the popularity of her next disc.

The second album, Like a Virgin, was released in 1984 and for the first time in her career, the singer topped the US album chart. The single of the same name remains at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 for 6 weeks, and the album sells 26 million copies worldwide. The hits are "Material Girl", "Dress You Up", "Angel" and "Over and Over". Radio hit name "Material Girl"(Russian material girl, mercantile girl) is fixed as the nickname of the singer.

In 1984, Madonna performs the "title track" at the first MTV Video Music Awards and, breaking her heel, gets out of the situation as follows - she starts kneeling and wallowing on stage in wedding dress and a belt with the inscription BOY TOY, which shocks the TV audience. The song talks about "metaphysical virginity", and the clip, filmed in Venice (the city of Venus), combines sacred and profane images: Lion - the symbol of the patron saint of the city, the Evangelist Mark and the zodiac sign of Madonna Ciccone, the Bride of Christ and a modern experienced girl in crosses and fennecs. "Like a Virgin" is one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 200 Iconic Songs of All Time..

In 1985, the singer starred in an episode of the film "Visual Search". The soundtrack of the picture contains Crazy For You, Madonna's second No. 1 single in the US. Later, Madonna appears in the film "Desperate Search for Susan" and this role was positively evaluated by critics. The song featured in the film is "Into The Groove", the singer's first UK No. 1 single, and was written by Madonna Ciccone (with Bray), giving her good English press. The first tour of the singer The Virgin Tour takes place in the United States in 1985 and the Beastie Boys act as the opening act. The performances reflect the surge in the singer's popularity at this time: concerts start from halls for 2,000 people, and after 3 months, 22,000 spectators gather in Madison Square Garden. Tour calls "Madonnomania": girls massively dress up "under Susan / Madonna" from the film and clips.

In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published nude black-and-white photographs of the singer, taken in 1979 and subsequently sold by photographer Martin Schreiber. This causes the first scandal in Madonna Ciccone's just-beginning big career, threatening her career, which she handles with her own hands. In the midst of criticism at a charity Concert Live Aid, while wearing several layers of old-fashioned clothes, the singer is seen screaming "Take off your clothes!" crowd. She says that she will not take off her jacket even in the wild heat, as in a few years it can be used against her.

The New York Times editorial headlined "Naked Photos. Madonna: 'So what?'" becomes the basis for a painting by a friend of the singer, Keith Haring. As soon as the scandal with photographs subsides, in early August, the Los Angeles Times disseminates information that the film "A Specific Victim" (1979) with the participation of the artist is pornographic, which is immediately picked up by other publications. In October, the newspaper will write a rebuttal that, to the "disappointment of the fans," this is not the case. In the summer of 1985, on her own birthday, Madonna marries actor Sean Penn. The wedding is accompanied by an invasion of journalists in helicopters during the pronunciation of marriage vows. In his diary, he called this day "the most exciting in my life", noting the guests - "a delightful mixture of celebrities and nonentities."

Third True Blue album with a dedication to Sean Penn comes out in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine will describe it as "sounding from the heart". The record becomes the production debut of Madonna (together with Patrick Leonard) and is the most "gingerbread" and commercially successful release of the singer. The singer also changes her image and for the first time appears in the Hollywood image of a seductive blue-eyed blonde. The album includes the ballad "Live to Tell", a landmark for the singer, written for the film "At Point". "Live to Tell" becomes Madonna's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a songwriter.

Three songs from the album got to the first line of Billboard: "Live to Tell", "Papa Don't Preach", "Open Your Heart", and "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita" entered the top five. That same year, Madonna/Bray's Nick Kamen's "Each Time You Break My Heart" topped the UK charts, earning Madonna the much coveted recognition as a successful songwriter.

Madonna - La Isla Bonita

In 1987, Madonna is taken to the hospital for an x-ray after being hit on the head with a baseball bat. The press is awaiting trial, but the singer is not suing for domestic violence, as her husband Sean Penn is already facing a two-month sentence for fighting and driving while intoxicated.

Because of the aggressive behavior of "Mr. Madonna" towards journalists and his wife, the press begins to call them "evil Penns" and S&M (Sean & Madonna) - a hint at the sadomasochistic relationship in the celebrity family. In the same year, the singer starred in the film "Who is this girl?", Which fails miserably. However, the success of the soundtrack for the film is great - the title track of the same name becomes a # 1 hit in the US and the UK. The New York Times Magazine named it the worst film of the year. In the same year, he goes on the Who's That Girl World Tour, which fully compensates for the negative effect of the failed film. Criticism praised the performances for being theatrical and "turning a rock concert into a multimedia spectacle".

Reviewers write that the concerts are like a circus, where the heroine skillfully demonstrates the skills of an entertainer, an acrobat and a clown. The stage projection of Tamara Lempicka's The Musician (1928) shows a brightly painted woman with long nails holding a lyre against the backdrop of New York skyscrapers, and became a characteristic of Madonna's entire work for many years. According to the authoritative music critic Lucy O'Brien, Madonna is an urbanized mixture of high art with glamor and vulgarity, where she is both a muse, a creator, and a sexy woman. By August 1987, Penn was released early from prison, and in December Madonna filed for divorce for the first time, but unexpectedly takes them two weeks later.

In 1988, the singer made her debut on Broadway in the production of "Move", with an obvious desire to improve the actor's reputation. The performance receives rave reviews, but Madonna herself receives negative comments from almost all critics and is disappointed in the benefits of her husband's recommendations for her. acting career. During rehearsals, Madonna becomes friends with actress and openly lesbian Sandra Bernhard, causing public rumors.

The singer and Bernhard appear in identical clothes on the David Letterman show, which leads to publications about the singer's bisexuality. The final separation from her husband takes place in December 1988 after the severe beatings described in the official protocol of the detention of Sean Penn. The marriage of the singer and Penn officially ends in January 1989 and the singer takes her statement to the police, maintaining friendly relations with her husband due to his hereditary problems with alcohol. In 2003, Penn speaks about Madonna for the first time in an interview with Oprah Winfrey: “She became the biggest star. I just wanted to make a movie and not attract unnecessary attention to myself. I was an embittered young man, so many demons lived in me that I don’t even know who could tolerate me then..

In early 1989, Madonna signed a contract with Pepsi, according to which her new song "Like a Prayer" debuted in the company's commercials. The commercial is harmless and shows the singer's childhood, but the music video for the song contains an anti-racist storyline and many Catholic symbols, including stigmata and burning crosses. The ambiguous relationship between the heroine of the Madonna and the statue of a black saint who came to life shocks viewers and provokes public organizations. The company removes advertising from rotation and terminates the contract, but the singer receives the amount of five million dollars due to her. Vatican officials denounce the video, and some cardinals threaten Madonna with excommunication, but it remains a threat. The song was named the 3rd best in the history of pop music by the British weekly New Musical Express, VH1 ranked the video in 2nd place.

The fourth album, Like a Prayer, was released at the end of 1989. and becomes a turning point in Madonna's career. Like a Prayer is written and produced in collaboration with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray. The singer is producing her second album in a row and her desire to prove that True Blue's success was no accident is evident. Rolling Stone describes the album as "... as close to art as pop music can be" and included it in its "500 best albums of all time." Leonard calls him "divorced" because of the singer's depression due to the painful breakup with Sean Penn. 'Express Yourself' becomes a feminist 'call to arms' with the "preaching of self-respect", representing the transition from reflection to action. Other songs are predictably themes of domestic violence ("Till Death Do Us Parts"), nostalgia for lost relationships with siblings ("Keep It Together"), dreams of a child ("Dear Jessie"). All the songs on the Like a Prayer album are written by Madonna, which makes the album the most personal, as previous discs featured one or two third-party songs.

Madonna

In 1990, the film with Madonna "Dick Tracy" and the soundtrack to it called I'm Breathless was released. The film was directed by Warren Beatty, who received a refusal from the singer to propose marriage after a year of relationship. I'm Breathless contains songs by renowned composer Stephen Sondheim and songwriting duo Madonna-Leonard. The singer enters the territory of jazz and the Broadway musical for the first time, which critics regard ambiguously. The most successful of I'm Breathless is "Vogue", which topped the major charts. Recitative “ladies with an attitude; fellows that were in the mood...” is written by Madonna on an airplane as an illustration of the 30s, but becomes a characteristic of the present. In Russia, he is known as the epigraph of the first chapter of the book "Duhless". The title of the book is a partial translation of Madonna's character's name from the film, "Breathless".

The Blond Ambition World Tour took place in 1990 in support of Like A Prayer and I'm breathless. Rolling Stone praises the tour for its innovative interweaving of theatre, ballet, film and concert at a stage level never seen before. The show's central idea of ​​juxtaposing masturbation and religious frenzy translates into a call for a boycott of the singer's performance in Rome.

Madonna tries to justify herself on the spot, delivering an excellent speech at the Leonardo Da Vinci airport: "My show is a theatrical play that invites the audience on an emotional journey ... I do not impose my idea of ​​\u200b\u200bhow to live on anyone, I simply describe my understanding of life to the audience, and let them evaluate everything for themselves." The singer avoids excommunication, but the concert is canceled due to low ticket sales. For the concert video of the tour, the singer receives her first Grammy, but she herself does not consider the award to be recognition of her work, since the nomination for the video is secondary.

In the same year, the singer once again shocked the public with a video for the song "Justify My Love". The video is banned from being shown on television due to the presence of erotic scenes. "Justify My Love" is the subject of several scandals, the first of which is related to plagiarism. Madonna uses the lyrics of a letter she saw from Ingrid Chavez, then girlfriend of the song's co-producer Lenny Kravitz, not wanting listeners to attribute it to another woman's fantasies. The Chicago Sun-Times stigmatizes the singer with words about the "unprecedented meanness" of stealing a song.

Madonna justifies herself and rewrites the song, replacing the lyrics with quotes from Revelation, but immediately receives accusations of anti-Semitism, which also have to be rejected. The unrhymed text of "Justify My Love" about the desire to make love and scandals affect the singer's pride and authorial vanity, making a qualitative leap in Madonna's creative search, for the first time bringing her into the territory of "adults".

In 1991, Sondheim's song "Sooner or Later" from "Dick Tracy" won an Academy Award and was performed by Madonna at the ceremony in character. It is from this moment that the singer is called the new Marilyn and begins to be compared with the deceased sex symbol, immediately predicting the same unenviable fate. A documentary film about the last tour is released in the same year and is called Madonna: Truth or Dare. A fragment with a joke/bravado “Madonna with a Bottle” outside the context of a party game (tell the truth or accept a challenge), reminiscent of forfeits, contributes to the perception of the singer in the context of pornography. Outside the USA and Canada (countries where the game was popular), distributors release the tape under a different name - "In Bed with Madonna", which does not reflect the content, but the singer has no right to change, although she admits that she "hates him because of his stupidity." The film is one of the top 10 highest-grossing documentaries of all time, and The New York Times calls the film "a smart, sassy, ​​flashy self-portrait."

In 1992, Madonna starred in the film A League of Their Own as a baseball player named Mae Mordabito. For the picture, she recorded the song "This Used to Be My Playground", which became No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. In the same year, Madonna founded her own entertainment company - Maverick, a joint venture with Time Warner. The deal provides for the singer record royalties on a par with Michael Jackson.

In 1992, the book-photoalbum "Sex" was published."Sex" contains illustrated sexual fantasies of her alter ego "Ms. Dita" talking to a psychoanalyst. The book is framed in a metal cover as an art object and is supposed to be a manifesto. "Sex" has sold 1.5 million copies in America alone and is causing a flurry of backlash in the media and AIDS-scared society.

The press arranges a multi-page funeral for Madonna's career, believing that she has gone too far. The book "Sex" touches on the themes of masturbation, and draws a clear parallel between sadomasochism and religious self-flagellation, and also contains an ironic attitude towards taboo. Lesbians felt that the singer was mocking their movement by portraying one of them, and called her a "sexy tourist". French journalist Françoise Tournier wrote: “When you get to the bottom of Sex, it’s like finding a poisonous mushroom, you understand that the one who is called the“ new baby Piaf ”is driven more by a thirst for money than a thirst for sex”.

"Sex" and the public backlash against it has been the subject of much scientific research and is considered the most powerful inoculation to a voyeuristic society from an exhibitionist celebrity/musician. The book has been the most wanted of the out-of-print books for several years. After the release of "Sex", Vanilla Ice's boyfriend broke off an 8-month relationship with the singer, allegedly not expecting his photographs to be published in the book.

In 1992, the fifth studio album Erotica was released. Erotica takes the second place in the American charts, and the title single - the third place in the Billboard Hot 100. In the year of release, Erotica was coolly received by critics and listeners because of the "shadow of the book", but subsequently begins to be considered one of the singer's strongest works. The singles "Erotica", "Rain", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl" and "Fever" (a cover version of an Elvis Presley song) do not have such success in the charts as the singer's previous works.

In 1993, without a release in cinemas, the film A Dangerous Game, directed by Ferrara and starring Madonna, was immediately released on video. The New York Times calls the painting "evil and morbid, where the pain feels real."

A Dangerous Game contains Sarah/Madonna's account of a real-life rape in 1978. Erotic thriller with a singer "Body as Evidence" (1993) contains scenes of sadomasochism with bondage and fails with critics and distributors. The press cultivates the opinion that the singer is a sex maniac, the embodiment of sin, making a career exclusively through bed.

The 1993 "The Girlie Show" tour of Europe and South America (instead of the US and Canada) contains more burlesque, irony and clowning than erotica, which softens the negative after the release of the book "Sex", the album Erotica and film roles. A concert in Puerto Rico causes pickets: the singer, dressed in a military uniform, in response to the whistle of the audience at the appearance of a huge American flag, conducts Puerto Rican in the crotch area. The episode was interpreted ambiguously due to the singer's multiple romantic entanglements with Puerto Ricans, and was later scrutinized as an example of the mutual influence of Latin American culture and the United States.

The sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories, was released in 1994 and became her first Grammy-nominated disc. The hits are "Secret", "Take a Bow", "Bedtime Story" and "Human Nature". Babyface/Madonna's "Take a Bow" reaches No. 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100, but breaks a record streak of 32 consecutive Top 10 hits on the UK Singles Chart.

The singer is changing her style towards R'n'B and hip-hop, and for the first time since Like A Virgin began working with major producers - Dallas Austin, David Foster, Dave Hall (who worked with Mariah Carey) and Marius De Vries and Nellie Hooper ( who worked with Björk). Bedtime Story, written by the already acclaimed Björk, becomes a milestone. Madonna perfectly masters the "Björk architecture of the text" and lays the foundation for her next albums in it. Relations with rapper Tupac Shakur end for a racist reason - his friends "couldn't believe that he was walking with a white girl."

The singer begins a short relationship with basketball player Denis Rodman. A year after the breakup, he writes a bestseller with an entire chapter about sex with Madonna. According to Lucy O'Brien, while reading this story in the press, it became obvious that Madonna, who wants to have a child, starts relationships with unsuitable men, which harms her career.

In 1995, "You" ll See "from the album of ballads Something to Remember becomes a hit. The album reminds the public a little about Madonna's talent as a songwriter and producer, which the press had previously ignored amid scandals. According to Taraborelli, "for the first time about her career was talked about more honestly and fairly.” In 1996, the singer starred in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita. where he performs the songs of the soundtrack. For the record, Madonna begins taking vocal lessons from Joan Lader for the first time, which brings results. On the Evita soundtrack, she demonstrates her upper register and diaphragm singing for the first time. The film about Argentine president's controversial wife is receiving positive reviews from film critics and author Andrew Lloyd Webber. Weber wins an Oscar for Madonna's performance of "You Must Love Me". Song Don't Cry For Me Argentina becomes a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and the UK Singles Chart, and the singer receives a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.

In October 1996, Madonna's daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone-Leon is born. The girl's father is the singer's then boyfriend, Cuban fitness trainer and aspiring actor Carlos Leon. Seven months after the birth of their daughter, they break up, and Madonna incurs the wrath of public organizations "for a complete family" and accusations of "pregnancy in order to promote the film." The singer baptizes the girl in Catholicism and named after the city of Lourdes in France, which her extremely religious mother dreamed of visiting. During pregnancy, the singer delves into yoga, the study of Buddhism and Kabbalah, which she describes as "a lesson in physics, a bridge between science and spirituality", and not as a religious teaching.

Ray of Light's seventh studio album (1998) reflected the "spiritual rebirth" of the singer and became decisive in all her work. The direction of his development was influenced by motherhood, a philosophical rethinking of reality and an affair with the English screenwriter and actor Andy Bird. The record received critical acclaim, and was called "one of the greatest pop masterpieces of the 90s" by the authoritative music publication Slant Magazine.

The disc was included in the list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and ranked 28th in the "Top 100 Albums of the 1990s" by Rolling Stone magazine. The release was accompanied by commercial success: the album topped the national charts in Australia, Canada, the UK and most of Europe, and in the US it finished at number two on the Billboard 200, losing first place to the Titanic soundtrack.

Ray of Light has sold over 16 million copies worldwide. Album single Frozen the first time since "Vogue" (1990) in the discography of the singer reached number one in the UK chart. In the US, the song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, where Madonna set a record for the largest number singles that reached number two. On the disc, the singer "attentively peered into the past and thought a lot about the mystical side of life." After Ray Of Light, Madonna again saw a progressing musician. Evaluating the work, the singer did her best to extol the "brilliant" producer of the album, William Orbit, but he himself considered his contribution to "her" album rather modest. In a tradition of condescending attitude towards pop writers/performers, critics attributed the success of the record to Orbit. Ray of Light was awarded a Grammy(including in one of the main nominations "Best Pop Album").

Madonna

Hits were "The Power Of Good-Bye", "Nothing Really Matters", "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" and the title track "Ray of Light". The video for "Ray of Light" last received 6 MTV Video Music Awards in 1999. Madonna's performance at the ceremony with the Sanskrit song "Shanti/Ashtangi" and Ray of Light in an Indian dress with a dot on the forehead, symbolizing devotion to God, provoked protests from the country's Hindu organizations and accusations of blasphemy.

The image of the singer was influenced by her passion for the book Memoirs of a Geisha. In the same 1999, she released the single "Beautuful Stranger" (Russian beautiful foreigner), written for the soundtrack to the film "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me". The song became a big hit outside the US and earned Madonna another Grammy for "Best Song Written for a Feature Film". The singer's relationship with Andy Bird, described in this song as a "beautiful foreigner", lasted about a year. In the summer of 1998, accompanied by him, she attended a party of Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, where she met Guy Ritchie, her future husband and father of their second child. Richie was not free, dating model Tanya Strecker, and a romantic relationship with the singer began a year later, and their development included a public fight in a bar between Richie and Bird. This story later became the basis of Robbie Williams' song "She's Madonna" (2006).

In 2000, a film was released starring Madonna "Best Friend", for which she recorded a hit. "American Pie" and the ballad "Time Stood Still". These songs ended the Ray of Light era. In early 2000, she became pregnant by Guy Ritchie, who worked on the film "Snatch". and was forced to move to him in London to record an album. In August 2000, their son Rocco was born.

In September 2000, the eighth studio album Music was released. The disc received positive reviews from critics and became #1 in both the UK and the US, repeating the success of Like a Prayer (1989). Under the influence of the co-author and co-producer of the disc, Mirva completely changed her sound and began to use a vocoder for the first time. Three singles were released from Music: Music, "Don't Tell Me" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl". The music video for "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was banned from MTV and VH1 due to its violence. For the album, the singer chose the grotesque image of a cowgirl, expressing the ironic attitude of a Londoner towards America.

December 22, 2000 married Richie, the former stepson of a baronet, which automatically ranked the singer among the English aristocracy. The wedding in a Scottish castle was held according to the Presbyterian rite. Soon Madonna became a subject of Great Britain. The "made" British accent of a native of Michigan became the subject of irritation of the Americans and the irony of the British. It has taken root in spoken language expressions "Madonna syndrome" and "Madge complex". Living on his own estate, Ashcombe, in a Wiltshire village, influenced the mood of subsequent works and attitudes towards the United States.

In 2001, for the first time in 8 years, the singer resumed touring, and the sold-out Drowned World Tour took place. The concerts received positive reviews from critics despite the dark dramaturgy. After the September 11 attacks, Madonna excluded from the show the moment of firing a gun at a samurai, who, according to the plot, was trying to cut off her head. For the first time since the early 1980s, the singer began to accompany on the guitar, and was nominated for the Orville Gibson Award.

At the end of 2001, a single was released for the James Bond film "Die Another Day" under the same name. Die Another Day. For an episodic role in the film, the singer received the Golden Raspberry, in addition to the title of Worst Actress of the Millennium. The song received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original Song and a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Song. Movie "Gone" was critically acclaimed and was released straight to DVD in the UK. At the moment, this is the last picture of Madonna as an actress.

The ninth album, American Life, was released in 2003. and topped the US and UK charts. American Life was written and produced by Madonna in collaboration with Mirva in a minimalist concept. American Life quickly lost ground and became the biggest sales failure of its career at the time. The album received mixed reviews from critics due to the theme of debunking the "American Dream" in light of 9/11 and the war in Afghanistan. Later it was rated higher. In addition to "Die Another Day" (2002), the singles were "American Life", "Hollywood", "Love Profusion", "Nothing Fails".

In France, it was a great success because of the pacifist mood, since this country did not participate in the operation against the Taliban. The video for the title track featured a parody of US President George W. Bush kissing Saddam Hussein. After accusations of lack of patriotism, a ban on playing Madonna's new songs on American Republican radio stations followed. A week before the release, she said that "there is no better time for a pacifist video than the time of war." At the last moment, she withdrew the clip, stating "unwillingness to embarrass people whose relatives are fighting in Afghanistan", which did not affect the ban.

In September 2003, Madonna Ciccone made her debut in children's literature with the picture book English Roses, topping The New York Times bestseller list. Polish Prime Minister Leszek Miller unexpectedly shared his positive opinion about the book, calling it "more than just a children's fairy tale" in the newspaper Rzeczpospolita. Madonna's performance at the MTV ceremony provoked a scandal. The singer appeared in the suit of the groom, and Christina Aguilera played the role of brides. The French kiss with Spears caused a scandal in the press due to a hint of lesbianism. The singer was justified by the logic of the kiss in the performed stage images.

Madonna and Britney Spears - Kiss

In 2004, the Re-Invention World Tour took place in support of American Life. Unlike the Drowned World Tour, it contained enough of the old hits in a new sound, in addition to the songs from the new album. The performances received a mixed response from critics due to the general politicization and overt support for Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. A second documentary, I'm going to tell you a secret, was filmed during the tour. The film was made in the style of "In bed with Madonna", but showed the singer's passion for "The Zohar" and a touching relationship with her children and husband Guy Ritchie. A DVD of the film and a live album of the same name was released a year later. According to Lucy O'Brien, the film began to merge the singer with the image of the righteous.

In 2005, Madonna Ciccone had an accident on an estate in Wiltshire. The new horse unsuccessfully threw the singer to the ground during the first ride. Before the accident in the village, Madonna had completely grown into the role of an English aristocrat (by her husband), a reclusive wife and mother of a family. In addition to the British accent and riding, she began to drink ale in local pubs, learned to fish. The singer began to hunt pheasants, although before that she was a vegetarian, for which she was blacklisted by PETA.

After the horse "played polo" with the singer, she lost consciousness and woke up with multiple fractures. After that, the singer changed internally and outwardly lost a lot of weight. The record was called Confessions on a Dance Floor and returned Madonna to leading positions in almost all charts, as well as the title of queen of the dance floor. This happened not least thanks to the mega-hit "Hung Up", written on the basis of the Abba sample. Madonna Ciccone wrote and produced the record with her longtime engineer and keyboardist, Stuart Price. Due to the lack of rotation of Madonna's new songs in the United States since the American Life scandal, the singer's homeland became one of the few countries where the single "Hung Up" did not become No. 1, but only took 7th place.

During the subsequent tour, another scandal took place, according to Lucy O'Brien, caused by the experience of the proximity of death in connection with a fall from a horse. It was the performance of the classic ballad “Live To Tell” a la Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns on a mirrored cross, accompanied by footage of suffering children in Africa and quotes from Matthew 25:40.At the end of the issue, addresses of donation sites for sick African children were shown.This speech raised questions and anger from social activists, who quickly died out due to the distribution of videos through the Internet, the singer's statements and the meaning of the song itself.

All tickets for the concerts of the tour were sold out, except for the singer's first concert in Moscow, where the Russian Orthodox Church called on believers to boycott the performance, calling it "blasphemous". At the end of the tour, the singer and husband adopted a one-year-old child from Malawi, David Bandu. This caused another scandal and a wave of protests against the "purchase" of the child, since the then laws of Malawi, despite the 1 million orphans in the country, did not allow adoption by foreign citizens. In the same year, Madonna Ciccone produced and narrated a documentary about the catastrophic state of affairs in the African country of Malawi called I Am Because We Are, which was screened at the 2008 Tribeca Festival.

In 2007, Madonna Ciccone began to master a new profession for herself as a film director, writing the script for a partly autobiographical film parable. "Filth and Wisdom". In the film, the hero is trying to promote his rock band, while earning his living by beating up masochists for money and dressing up as. "Dirt and Wisdom" with Evgeny Gudzem in the title role got to the Berlin Film Festival in the "Panorama" program, where it was coolly received by critics. Film critics positively noted the music of the gypsy folk-punk rock band Gogol Bordello and the presence of the main character, which brought Russian obscenity to the British non-commercial film.

Eleventh album Hard Candy was released in early 2008 and topped the charts in 37 countries, including the US and the UK. To work on Hard Candy, Madonna Ciccone turned to the main hit-makers of the second half of the 2000s: Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams. The reason for the change in style, the singer explained the interest in these artists and the desire to learn from the new generation. The singer admitted that she wanted to regain the love of American radio listeners, whom she lost with the 2003 anti-war album. The record received mixed reviews from critics for the lack of originality inherent in previous works, and some crisis of the singer herself, reflected in the provocative cover of the album, which contrasts sharply with the style of "Ray of Light".

The album's first single was a duet with Timberlake 4 Minutes. The song 4 Minutes only partly lived up to expectations, becoming a radio hit and Madonna's most successful single in the States since Don "t Tell Me" (2001), but never became No. 1 in the US due to low radio rotation, despite record The song became her record-breaking 13th No. 1 single in the UK and hit in Europe with "Give It 2 ​​Me" featuring Pharrell Williams.

The tour in support of the album was called the Sticky and Sweet Tour and contained no provocative material. The Sticky and Sweet Tour broke the record for solo artist tour success previously set by Madonna herself with the previous Confessions Tour. The gay singer's brother Christopher Ciccone's book, Life with My Sister Madonna, published against her will in early 2008, showed Guy Ritchie as a clear homophobe and slippery type manipulating his sister. During the tour in October 2008, the singer announced her divorce from her husband. On June 12, 2009, the singer adopted a Malawian girl Mercy James, the desire to adopt whom is considered the main reason for Madonna's divorce from her husband, who had three children. For the first time in her career, the singer decided to extend the tour until the summer of 2009.

In 2009, the release of the third collection of Madonna's best songs took place. celebration, which ended the singer's relationship with the Warner Bros. label. The music video for the song "Celebration" features the singer's boyfriend, model Jesús Luz. In 2010, Madonna exclusively granted the rights to the entire catalog of her songs to the television series Glee. In April 2010, the episode "The Power of Madonna" was released. The episode received approval from the singer, and the soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 album chart.

In 2010, Madonna Ciccone opened a chain of her own fitness clubs named after her Hard Candy album. In 2010, Madonna Ciccone and her daughter Lourdes Leon launched Material Girl, a youth clothing brand. At the presentation of the collection, Madonna Ciccone met Pokemon Crew breakdancer Brahim Zeba, who performed at the event, who became the singer's boyfriend for 3 years and also starred in her video.

In December 2011, the film “WE. We believe in love", where Madonna Ciccone directed and wrote the script. The film was critically acclaimed, but Andrea Riseborough's performance as Wallis Simpson and the film's soundtrack drew enthusiastic comments. The continuation of the "Russian" theme in the second picture of Madonna was noted: the main character's name is Eugene and he is depicted as an intelligent positive character.

In early 2012, Madonna's song "Masterpiece" from the movie "We. We Believe in Love" was recognized as the best at the "Golden Globe" awards ceremony.

Madonna

On February 5, 2012, Madonna performed during the break of the 46th Super Bowl, which was broadcast on NBC. She sang a medley of "Vogue", "Music", "Open Your Heart", "Express Yourself", "Like a Prayer" and the new song "Give Me All Your Luvin'" with Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and the LMFAO group. Madonna's game and performance became the most watched TV show in US history. Patriotic critics noted that the singer inappropriately ironic about the "sanctity" of the Super Bowl for Americans, using the images of the goddess Isis / Cleopatra performed by Elizabeth Taylor. In the US, the new single set the record for top ten hits for a solo artist, breaking the record. The single failed in the UK.

The singer's twelfth album, MDNA, was released on March 26, 2012 and topped the US and UK charts. Critics considered the record a dark album of a painful divorce, and The Telegraph called it "the latest success" due to Madonna's lack of progress as a songwriter. The video for the second single Girl Gone Wild was censored due to explicit scenes. The record, without a promotional tour in support, became the worst in terms of sales in the singer's career.

The MDNA Tour began on May 31 and was the most successful tour of 2012. The concerts caused public outcry in the US due to the use of mock weapons on stage. Billboard once again named Madonna the record-breaking music industry with $34.6 million for the year. In 2013, Madonna received 3 Billboard Music Awards. In August 2013, Forbes magazine named her the Celebrity Earnings Leader of the Year, earning $125 million.

On September 24, Madonna released the 17-minute short film "secretprojectrevolution", performing a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" at the premiere. The film was billed as human rights and was the result of Madonna's collaboration with photographer Steven Klein. At the same time, “secretprojectrevolution” in HD and 2K format was officially released for free download after registration on the BitTorrent “Bundle” website. The film was the first project in the framework of the joint action of Madonna and "VICE" called "ArtForFreedom" (Russian Art for Freedom). The film was accompanied by the launch of Madonna's eponymous magazine on the Flipboard service.

In December 2014, an unexpected leak of 13 demo versions of songs that were recorded while working on the thirteenth studio album Madonnas. The artist was furious at what had happened, leaving later several formidable messages against the pirates. A few days after the leak, on December 20, Madonna officially announced the thirteenth longplay, called Rebel Heart. In connection with the pre-order of the album, six new songs out of 19 were made available, including the lead single "Living for Love". The album was released on March 10, 2015.

In the 2016 presidential election, she supported her distant relative -. Two weeks before the election, she announced the performance of stand-up comedian Amy Schumer, known in the United States for her below-the-belt jokes. Ciccone joked that she would give a blowjob to anyone who voted for Clinton.

On January 21, 2017, during a speech at the Women's March mass protest, Madonna twice used obscene language against the opponents of the action. In the speech that followed with the songs "Express Yourself" and "Human Nature", she changed the last line to a curse at the 45th president, with whom she had been in open hostility since the early 1990s. The singer was criticized for swearing and speaking out loud "anti-patriotic" thoughts about the White House bombing. No prosecution ensued due to the general context of the speech, in which she also quoted the Anglo-American poet Auden.

Since September 2017, Madonna has moved to permanent place residence in Lisbon, where her adopted son David Banda successfully qualified for the football academy of FC Benfica.

Madonna's Height: 163 centimeters

Madonna's personal life:

Madonna's first husband was an Oscar-winning actor and director Sean Penn. They got married in 1985, and after 4 years Madonna decided to divorce - they often quarreled, and her husband also beat her.

On the set of Dick Tracy, Madonna had an affair with director and lead actor, Hollywood legend Warren Beatty. However, she did not marry the artist.

The Cuban boyfriend Carlos Leon became the father of her daughter in 1996 (the diva will part with him six months later). Madonna's daughter was named Lourdes, she has already celebrated her 18th birthday, and she has a business together with her mother - her own clothing line.

Madonna and Carlos Leon

In mid-1998, together with then-friend Andy Bird, the singer attended a party with Sting. There was a meeting with director Guy Ritchie - a Briton who would later become her husband and change Madonna's personal life, and very much.

In 2000, Madonna moved in with her lover, and the couple's son Rocco was born in August of the same year.

Madonna and Guy Ritchie

Discography of Madonna:

1983 - Madonna
1984 - Like a Virgin
1986 - True Blue
1989 - Like a Prayer
1992 - Erotica
1994 - Bedtime Stories
1998 - Ray of Light
2000 - Music
2003 - American Life
2005 - Confessions on a Dance Floor
2008 - Hard Candy
2012-MDNA
2015 - Rebel Heart.

Filmography of Madonna:

1985 - Vain search for Susan
1987 - Who is this girl?
1987 - Dick Tracy
1991 - In bed with Madonna
1992 - A league of their own
1993 - Dangerous Games
1996 - Evita
2000 - Best friend
2002 - Gone
2005 - Madonna. I want to reveal my secrets to you
2002 - I am because we are
2008 - Filth and Wisdom
2011 - WE. We believe in love
2017 - (Her Story)

Madonna's books:

Sex
"English roses"
"Mr. Peabody's Apples"
"Jacob and the Seven Thieves"
"The Adventures of Abdi"
"Lotsa Tight Purse"
"English roses. Love and friendship".

Madonna is a shocking singer who has become famous all over the world not only beautiful voice, but also the manner of behavior in speeches and in life.

The image of the American queen of show business is criticized, discussed, copied, admired and horrified, but not forgotten for many years. The pop star entered the history of the music industry as a singer, dancer, actress, author of many popular songs, as well as a director and screenwriter.

Photo: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ishot71/

In many of her works, Madonna uses political, sexual and religious attributes, breaking the stereotypes established by society. Her actions are condemned and hated, while others admire her courage and independence from the opinions of others. They have only one thing in common: the name Madonna has been on everyone's lips for decades.

How did an ordinary girl manage to reach the very pinnacle of fame? Is the path to world fame so easy? You will find the most interesting facts about the biography, career and personal life of world stars on our website.

Biography of Madonna

The name Madonna comes from the Italian words mia donna, meaning "my mistress". Madonna Louise Ciccone is the real name of the singer, inherited from her mother. The girl's pious mother decided to perform the Catholic rite of chrismation when she was 12 years old. For this, the name Veronica was chosen, which is not official.

2. Horoscope and parameters

To date, the singer is 59 years old. With a height of 1 m 58 cm, she weighs 47 kg. The great performer, born in the year of the dog, according to the sign of the zodiac is a lion.

3. Childhood

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on 08/16/1958 in Bay City, located on the Huron coast, in the state of America Michigan.

Her father, Silvio Ciccone, is of Italian descent. All his life he held the position of a design engineer in the largest automobile corporation for the production of cars Chrysler / General Motors.

Madonna Louise Ciccone Sr., after whom the future singer was named, was a Canadian. She worked in one of the radiographic laboratories of her native city. In her free time, the woman played the piano well and had a pleasant voice. But she did not even think about developing her singing talent.

The parents were so happy with the third child, the only girl at that time, that they decided to name her in honor of her mother. In total, there were six children in the family.

4. Early loss

The French roots of her mother were strongly reflected in her piety, which at times reached fanaticism. Her descendants were Jansenists, ready to be martyred for their faith. Madonna's mother was also a staunch Catholic.

When Ciccone the eldest was pregnant with her last child, she was diagnosed with a malignant breast tumor. Due to her religious beliefs, she refused to have an abortion, considering it a murder, and also did not agree to the treatment of the disease throughout her pregnancy. A few months after the birth of the last baby, she died. At that time, she was barely 30. So the girl at the age of five was left without maternal care.

Madonna the Younger was very worried and could not come to terms with the fact that she had lost her most beloved and dear person. This event played a crucial role in her later life and was reflected in the work of the singer.

5. Greedy and envious stepmother

2 years after the tragic death of his beloved wife, Silvio decided to marry a second time. Raising six children alone became unbearable for him. His chosen one was the maid - Joan Gustafson - an ordinary woman from the people, the complete opposite in character and manners of the deceased Ciccone.

The first-born of a young married couple died, but soon they had two more children - son Mario and daughter Jennifer. The woman gave all her maternal love and affection to her own children, she disliked her husband's kids and tried in every possible way to humiliate her. The father, despite this, forced his children to call their hated stepmother "mother." A protest broke out in the little Madonna. It seemed to her that her father had betrayed the memory of her own mother. The girls are having a hard time.

Although the family was considered quite prosperous, this could not be said from the children. Joan, a Protestant by birth, saved absolutely everything. The children had the cheapest clothes, sewn with their own hands, from the food in the refrigerator there were semi-finished products of medium quality. The methods of raising her stepmother reminded her of a non-commissioned officer, which aggravated the already heated situation in the house.

6. Difficulties in the family

Unable to withstand the cruel trials of fate, the girl's older brothers - Anthony and Martin - became addicted to drugs. They no longer controlled themselves and constantly mocked the poor thing. My father often took a sip of the bottle. The boorish maid Joan was never able to replace his beloved woman.

Madonna had a hard time. She was humiliated, insulted, mocked, but she did not allow herself to be trampled into the mud. Having suffered from drug addict brothers, an alcoholic father and a harmful stepmother, she decided that she would never do this. She wanted a completely different life.

7. School years

The girl studied at the Catholic School of St. Frederick and St. Andrew, attended West Middle School. For a long time she was in the support group of the local basketball team. Craving for dancing was born in her in childhood. The father wanted his daughter to get a profession that could bring the family a stable, guaranteed income. He saw the girl as a lawyer or a doctor and did not want to hear anything about dancing. With the mental data of Madonna (her IQ was 140 points), it was possible to enter any institute or university on a budgetary basis.

Despite her father's categorical attitude, she managed to persuade him to send her to a circle ballet dances. Her mentor was Christopher Flynn, a good gay teacher. He managed to instill in the girl confidence in her beauty and uniqueness. Flynn not only taught her how to dance, but also took her to various nightclubs. There Madonna saw life for what it is. Going to gay clubs enlightened her about sex.

At the age of 16, she managed to seduce her teacher, who temporarily forgot her orientation.

The future celebrity graduated from high school at Rochester Adams High School. Here she had the opportunity to participate in musicals and other stage productions.

8. Girl "hello"

Despite good grades and great success at school, little Ciccone was odd. The teachers had high hopes for her and tried their best to help. To this day, she considers one of her teachers, Marilyn Fallows, the main person of her youth.

She failed to win the respect and friendship of her peers. Classmates did not like her for exemplary behavior and study, many envied her. Madonna led an aloof life, avoided noisy companies, did not allow guys to approach her. The girls laughed behind her back, sometimes publicly ridiculed her isolation. The boys paid no attention to the girl. They were repelled by the peculiar appearance and inner world of the future performer.

9. Tipping point

When the singer was 14, the school held a competition for the most talented students. It was then that the modest girl decided to show herself in all her glory. Painted in green and red colors, in mini-shorts and a tank top, the young lady annealed to the popular single "Baba O'Riley" performed by The Who. The people were in shock, the trick was on everyone's lips. Everyone forgot about the long-term reputation of a nerd girl.

The father was furious and put his daughter under lock and key. Brothers and sisters blushed in front of the guys for Madonna's ugly trick. The nickname "whore" and the image of a dissolute, unscrupulous girl stuck to her.

In 1976, the girl externally takes exams and graduates from school. Despite her father, she continues to dance at one of the universities of Michigan on a free basis. Christopher Flynn takes over as professor.

After finishing her second year, the girl drops out and moves to New York with great hopes of opening her own music studio. Thus begins a long and difficult path to world fame.

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Madonna's career

10. Hard start

The ambitious girl had about $35 in her pocket. It was all her savings at the time. In order to somehow survive in a huge metropolis, she participates in all musical auditions, tries to get a backup dancer for little-known groups. Part-time jobs at Dunkin' Donuts and Burger King did not bring in significant income.

The poor fellow had to beg for a piece of bread and dig through the garbage for food. She moved around the city on an old bicycle, lived illegally in the studio premises. But Ciccone did not give up.

In the 80s, Madonna was taken to the Breakfast Club. Then she organizes the Madonna And The Sky troupe, which soon breaks up. The later-founded rock band Emmy also turns out to be a failure.

In 1981, luck smiled at the dancer for the first time. Fate pushed her against Gotham Camilla Barbon, who owns her own recording studio.

11. First successes

Camille resolutely took on a strange but promising person and acted as a manager. In one of the institutions in Manhattan, Madonna met DJ Mark Keimins. Her records impress the guy, and he organizes an audition for the girl on "Island". Chris Blackwell, head of the label, criticized the works of the young lady to the nines.

Persistent Mark decided not to give up and took the tapes to Warner Bros. The CEO of the company appreciated the talent of the rising star. From this moment, endless recording of albums, videos and the most hit songs of the performer begins.

12. Recording the first single and debut album

The first single, "Everybody", recorded at Warner Bros, skyrocketed to bronze on the Hot Dance Club Songs, even though it had a zero promotion budget. The song fell 7 positions short of hitting the "Hot 100" published by Billboard magazine.

To make sure of the singer's success, the second single "Burning Up" is being recorded, exactly repeating the popularity of the first one. The song takes 3rd place in the charts. Recordings of the performer begin to recognize and love, they sing along, dance to them.

A little later, Madonna rented a recording studio for the first time to create her debut album, released in 1983, called "Madonna". The songs "Borderline", "Lucky Star" and "Holiday" become hits. Still, the album does not have the deafening popularity that Madonna herself would like.

13. Second album and long-awaited fame

The following year (1984) the album "Like a Virgin" is released, which takes the first position in the "hot" hundred "Billboard" for 2 months. In total, 26,000,000 copies of the album were sold.

In the same year, the singer gets to the grand event of the MTV Video Music Awards, where she performs the main track of the second album. The single "Like a Virgin" was recognized as a cult among two hundred other American musical compositions.

14. Further successes and peak of popularity

On the creation of the third album "True Blue". All songs are saturated with tenderness and love. Album Reaches commercial success. The author's song "Live to Tell" takes the first position in the "hot" hundred Billboard.

For all the time of her musical creativity, the celebrity has released more than 11 successful albums, often toured countries, surprising enthusiastic fans with innovative concerts. Thanks to her image, outrageousness and originality, the performer left a centuries-old mark in the music industry.

The singer has collaborated with many famous performers: Prince, Lenny Kravitz, William Orbit, Ricky Martin, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, M.I.A., Benassi Bros.

15. Acting

Throughout her life, Madonna starred in 20 films, where she played a variety of roles. At the beginning of the 90th, the film "Dick Tracy" was released.

In the 1991 documentary In Bed with Madonna, she was given the opportunity to play herself. The picture is recognized as one of the ten best-selling documentaries of all time.

In 1992, Ciccone starred in the film A League of Their Own, where she played a baseball player named Mae Mordabito.

On next year A film called "A Dangerous Game" appeared at the box office. Here the woman got the main role. The actress got used to the image so much that the picture seemed to come to life and become a reality.

In 2007, she realized herself as a screenwriter and director in the film Filth and Wisdom.

Madonna's personal life

16. Little girl's first adult relationship

For the first time, the singer entered into an intimate relationship at the age of 15. The chosen one of the girl was 17-year-old Russell Long. The connection between young people was for the girl more a challenge to her father than caused by love feelings. The constant control of the pope and Catholic prohibitions influenced Madonna's decision.

In the future, this was reflected not only in the life of the performer, but also in her creative activity.

17. First husband

The first official husband of a woman - Sean Penn - appeared in the life of a star in 1985. Their romance developed rapidly, in the same year they legalized their relationship.

The marriage of young people was doomed to failure. Sexy Madonna attracted the attention of men, loved to flirt, thereby provoking a life partner. The husband had a heightened sense of ownership. He was jealous of his wife for everyone he met. Therefore, scandals and fights often broke out in the family, ending for the girl in an emergency room.

4 years after the wedding, the couple broke up. In another of the scandals, Sean beat his wife half to death, after which she reported him to the police and filed for divorce.

18. The birth of a daughter

After recovering from her first failed marriage, Madonna decides to start a new relationship. This time, the actor and coach Carlos Leon became the beloved of the American diva. In 1996, the couple's first child, the charming Lourdes Maria, was born. But the birth of a baby does not prevent the couple from dispersing. At the time of the breakup, the girl was barely 6 months old.

19. New relationship

In 1998, at one of the secular parties, the British drew attention to Madonna. A couple of years later, the couple gets married. A chic wedding took place in one of the oldest castles in Scotland. In the same year, the second child appeared in the couple - baby Rocco.

After 6 years family life happy parents decide to adopt a black boy, David Banda. According to the public, it was this act that provoked discord in the family. Two years after the adoption, the couple separated.

20. Without a husband, but not alone

Despite the divorce from her husband, the woman did not despair, and in the same year she took custody of the Malawian baby Mercy.

In 2017, African twins appeared in the family - Stella and Esther, 4 years old.