What city does Madonna live in? Madonna (Madonna) - biography, information, personal life

Madonna, full name - Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, actress, director, and philanthropist. It is considered the most successful singer who has had a significant impact on modern music. Her album sales exceed 300 million copies. Winner of many awards.

Childhood

She was born in Bay City, Michigan, USA. Madonna's mother was her full namesake, and was of Canadian descent. She mainly did housework. Silvio's father had Italian roots, was an outstanding automotive design engineer.

By seniority, the girl was the third of six children. She studied at a Catholic school, with the exception of high school. From an early age she loved to dance.

During her last pregnancy, Madonna's mother was diagnosed with a malignant breast tumor. Being very religious, she decides to bear the child and refuses treatment until the birth. Having given birth, she dies a few months later, at that time she was only 30 years old.

Two years later, my father married a maid. Despite the fact that the family did not live in poverty, the stepmother introduced an austerity regime on everything: she sewed clothes on her own and used only semi-finished products.

In high school, Madonna attended a regular school, where she got the opportunity to participate in amateur performances, school plays and musicals. She also did cheerleading. She was an outstanding student, for which her peers often disliked her, considering her a little strange. The modest girl also did not seek to make friends. In addition, at home she had to endure the antics of her older brothers who were addicted to drugs.

Childhood photo of Madonna

However, Madonna still had several close people. Among them are the poet W. Cooper, who studied with her at the same school, and her philosophy teacher. From her childhood, the singer took out a sharply negative attitude towards drug addiction and a peculiar one - towards God, who allowed the death of her mother. The turning point of his youth was the shocking dance performance of fourteen-year-old Madonna at a school party, after which her father put her daughter under house arrest. Her reputation as an exemplary excellent student is finally destroyed.

From the age of 15, the girl begins to study ballet. Her mentor, gay K. Flynn, had a great influence on Madonna. Together they attended exhibitions and concerts, as well as gay clubs. The appearance of the Madonna becomes sloppy and eccentric, and her behavior also changes. She made her first sexual experience public throughout the school. After graduating, she goes to the University of Michigan and learns to dance there, despite her father's desire to give her a medical or legal education.

The path to a career

The teachers were surprised by the endurance of Ciccone, she was described as a very capable student. However, after studying for a year and a half, she decides to leave for New York, where she hopes to get into the dance troupe of P. Lang. She succeeds, but her earnings do not allow her to rent a house. From malnutrition, she begins to weaken, and the dance director gets her a job as a restaurant cloakroom attendant. Later, Madonna becomes a model, and also poses in the nude genre.

Madonna in her youth

She then lived in a cheap criminal area, where she was once sexually assaulted. After that, he experiences depression, leaves the Lang troupe and attends dance auditions. On one of them, the Belgian producers of the singer P. Hernandez were noticed, who were able to appreciate not only the girl's dancing skills, but also her voice. Ciccone spends six months on a European tour of the singer, during which time he manages to endure pneumonia. She does not give in to the producer's persuasion to sing in the style of pop disco, preferring punk rock, and returns to America, where her abandoned boyfriend D. Gilroy is waiting for her.

Gilroy prepared Madonna as a musician: he taught her how to play several instruments and invited her as a drummer to his group. In 1980, she created her own team, which did not last long. Then he collects the rock band "Emmy", in which he performs as a performer of his own songs and a guitarist. The financial situation continues to be disastrous.

A year later, Ciccone meets the owner of the recording studio K. Barbon, leaves the group and signs a contract with her. The new manager saw a future star in her, she decides that Madonna should perform without an instrument, but with a dance. Over time, their relationship worsens.

80s

Together with an old friend S. Bray, Ciccone writes several dance compositions, the recording of which he gives to the DJ of one of the clubs, M. Kamins. He arranges for Madonna to negotiate with S. Stein, the owner of Sire Records. Since then, the singer has become just Madonna. At zero cost and no photo of the singer, her first single "Everybody" proved to be quite popular, and she begins work on the album.

Ciccone early in his career, 1983

The first disc is released under the name "Madonna" in 1983 and contains several hits. The former manager of Michael Jackson F. Demann begins to work with the singer. The second album is released in a year and becomes the leader in the American album chart. The composition "Like a Virgin" has become a hit for more than one decade. In 1985, Madonna went on her first domestic tour, after which the number of her fans grew rapidly.

Then the first scandals arise around her. Photos of the naked singer from the past are published, after which the press begins to accuse her of participating in adult films. Madonna coped with the attacks of ill-wishers and continued to work. A new successful album is released in 1986. The appearance of the singer changes to Hollywood style. Acted in films, but unsuccessfully.

In 1989, the next disc was released, already the second, produced by Madonna herself. Her performances turn into real shows, combining concert, theatrical elements, as well as ballet and video accompaniment. Becomes the object of new scandals, accused of plagiarism, anti-Semitism. At the same time, the singer's audience is expanding significantly, and they begin to compare her with Marilyn Monroe.

Blond Ambition World Tour (1990)

90s

In 1992, Madonna opens a company in the entertainment industry and calls it Maverick. A new disc "Erotica" is released. The singer is perceived as the personification of sin, blasphemy and vulgarity. He aggravates the situation with his participation in the D. Letterman show, allowing vulgar behavior on television.

The 1994 album becomes a Grammy nominee. Madonna's performance style is complemented by R'n'B elements. Gradually, the attitude towards the singer softens. Her participation in the 1996 film "Evita" was highly appreciated, for her role in the film she received the "Golden Globe". At the same time, Madonna is fond of Buddhism, Kabbalah and yoga. In 1998, an album was released showing her spiritual transformation. "Ray of light" wins a Grammy.

Madonna in the new century

The beginning of the new millennium is accompanied by the release of the album "Music", a motion picture with the singer in the title role "Best Friend" and her move to the UK. In 2003, the next disc "American life" was released, which became the most unsuccessful in the singer's career because of her pacifist attitude. Madonna is accused of lack of patriotism, and her songs are banned from some American radio stations. The popularity of the singer falls somewhat.

In 2003, she tries herself as a writer for children. Her illustrated book, Roses of England, was received quite warmly, but a new scandal immediately followed after a kiss with Britney Spears during a performance. Madonna tried to disown allusions to unconventional orientation.

The 2005 album returns the singer to her former popularity. In 2008, the singer began working with young stars, releasing the disc "Hard Candy". The same name is given to the network of fitness clubs opened by her in 2010. In addition, a clothing line for young people has been launched. The 2012 disc becomes even less successful than American life. However, the tour following the album is popular. In 2013, Madonna is named the highest paid singer. The release of the new album took place in 2015.

Madonna with her children

Personal life

There were many men in Madonna's life. She had relationships with L. Kravitz, W. Beatty, D. Rodman, E. Kiedis and others. She was married twice. The first husband was actor S. Penn. Family life passed under the vigilant attention of the press, was accompanied by scandals and beatings, and lasted four years (1985-1989). In 1996, the singer gave birth to a daughter from her coach of Cuban origin K. Leon. She named the girl Lourdes.

In 1998, while visiting Sting, Madonna met her second husband, British director Guy Ritchie. Having become pregnant, she moved to London. In 2000, their son Rocco was born. After the wedding, the singer receives a new citizenship. The marriage lasted until 2008, the couple managed to adopt a boy from Malawi. In 2009, Madonna independently adopts a Malawian girl. Further, Madonna had affairs with men younger than her: fashion model H. Louis, dancer B. Zaibat. In 2015, information appeared in the press about the resumption of relations with her first husband.

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone(Eng. Madonna Louise Ciccone, born August 16, 1958, Bay City, Michigan, USA) is a singer, actress, director, songwriter, music producer and entrepreneur. On this page you will find a complete biography of Madonna, her success story and the main stages of her ascent to the musical Olympus.

I am interested in learning more about famous and successful people in order to understand what helped them achieve such heights in life. For this, we have where you can get acquainted with the biographies of prominent people of our time who have succeeded in life.

But now in this section there are only men. This is probably not entirely fair, and there are many amazing examples among women whose experience can be adopted. Therefore, let's urgently correct this injustice!

They say good things don't last forever, and sooner or later it ends. These are the words of people who have achieved nothing in life / Madonna

It is very difficult to write something new about a person known to the whole world. The popularity of our today's heroine really rolls over.

It's hard to be a modest "gray mouse" if you are the most commercially successful singer who has set a record for sales of her records - more than 250 million albums and 100 million singles. “Queen of Pop” is how her fans call her.

In this article, we will go through the known facts of her biography and trace how a simple girl from a large family managed to achieve amazing success.

A person's dreams can be judged by what he has achieved in adulthood. She will turn 61 in August 2019. Madonna looks 100% for her age. In 2018, the singer took part in the #10YearChallenge, an Instagram flashmob where she shared a new photo of herself and a photo from 10 years ago.

The 10-year difference between the pictures of Madonna is almost invisible

The singer boasts more than one achievement. The girl from the state of the great lakes, as the Americans affectionately call Michigan, really achieved a lot.

Madonna's name is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, along with such stars as Louis Armstrong, ABBA, Queen

At the same time, as rightly noted in the official biography of the singer in the online version of the Hall of Fame, her achievements are not limited to the field of music, "and she is comparable to Marilyn Monroe in terms of celebrity."

By the way, this image is very close to Madonna, to which she brings her own unique charm. In 2015, it was in this image - beautiful, bright and inviting - that the singer met visitors on the official website www.madonna.com. Now the "style icon" in the image of "Madam X" (Madam X) is promoting her 14th studio album of the same name, which is scheduled for release in June 2019.

However, Madonna herself considers physical beauty, although beautiful, but ephemeral, and appreciates not her more, but "self-confidence that comes with achieving goals."

By the way, a very apt statement that I felt for myself. Be sure to arm yourself.

The fact is that when you have confidence in your own abilities, then you are not afraid of any new goals and obstacles. This is especially important for achieving financial success.

After all, when we earn money, we always risk something. People often avoid risk because they are insecure.

Let's say you wanted to get into some financial instrument or create your own business. If you have dozens and hundreds of conquered goals behind you, then you will consider the business not as a business, but simply as another goal that you want to conquer.

And you know you'll do it because you've done it more than once. For such people, failure is not terrible. They are charged with success. And they usually get it right. As you can see, even Madonna confirms this.

The success of the pop diva allows her to be very self-confident. I would like to give a list of all her awards, but a complete list of Madonna's awards will drag on a couple of pages. Therefore, I will leave this information for extracurricular reading and, as they say, I will be brief. Madonna has been nominated dozens of times and received American Music Award, Billboard Music Award, The American Moviegoers Awards, BRIT Awards, Japan Gold Disc Awards, Grammys and others.

In 1996, Madonna received the prestigious Golden Globe Film Award for her role in the film Evita. In 2012, she received this award for the second time for the soundtrack "Masterpiece" for the film "WE. We believe in love." All prizes and awards of the performer cannot be counted, because their number exceeded 290! She is named the best-selling singer of all time, and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

Madonna has more than 20 film roles, hundreds of songs and dozens of albums behind her.

Well, just not a woman, but some kind of "Shock Worker of Capitalist Labor". Her inexhaustible powers are impressive! In my opinion, it's time for the "hot thing" Madonna to present another award for the "hot" stage experience!

You may ask if I love her music and will I buy a ticket for her performance? I will answer you like this - “there are no comrades for the taste and color”, but what definitely attracts me in our heroine is her amazing ability to achieve her goals.

"Enageizer"-Madonna manages to show herself in many areas. If she decided to issue business cards, all her positions would not fit on the standard letterhead. After all, she is a singer, songwriter, writer, screenwriter, director, dancer, actress, businessman, designer.

Human cloning is officially prohibited, so we will discard this reason for Madonna's active professional activity as fantastic. So what helps her keep up "on all fronts"?

The singer herself reveals the recipe for success:

In a word, a visual aid of a multifaceted person who "made himself on his own." In this regard, the pop diva is convinced that a person is a material from which to make "a chic dress, or a doormat."

Do you know what you want? As my experience in training, consulting and coaching shows, people do not know what they want. And if they know, then most often it is something imposed on them from the outside and is not their “native” goals.

The same goes for ambition. Think big, don't be afraid to set yourself grandiose and important life goals. Buying an expensive car, an apartment and regularly going on vacation is hardly ambitious.

What helped her become like this?

As a child, Madonna had neither rich parents nor relatives associated with show business. She was born in 1958 into a Catholic family, where her mother, Madonna Louise Fortin, took care of the children (Madonna had three more brothers and two sisters), and her father, Silvio Ciccone, worked as a design engineer.

The head of the family adhered to a strict upbringing of his offspring, forbade watching TV, demanded excellent school grades and mandatory church attendance. Madonna's mother died of cancer when she was only 5 years old. For the child, this was a huge tragedy. Madonna's father married a second time, and soon Louise Ciccone had half-brothers and sisters.

Now the show business star admits that there were many terrible and unpleasant things in her life, but she does not want to be pitied, because she does not feel sorry for herself. The formation of Madonna's personality took place rather than due to some conditions, but in spite of it.

She had to sweat a lot to get to the top

Since childhood, the girl wanted to stand out from the crowd, not to get lost in the crowd. With her outrageous antics, Madonna already at a young age attracted the attention of others, which, apparently, she did not receive in the family. Either the girl will dress in multi-colored stockings, or she will perform a dance in one bikini at the competition of young talents.

In high school, Madonna participates in public life, shows organizational, acting and dancing skills. Despite classes in a drama club and a ballet studio, Madonna also has excellent academic performance in school subjects.

Although what is there to be surprised, because her IQ is 140 points! According to this indicator, the pop star is 3 points ahead of Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States.

After school, Madonna continued her dance education at the University of Michigan, where she, as the best student, was awarded a scholarship. On the recommendation of a ballet teacher, and of her own free will, Madonna soon leaves the university and moves to New York to continue her career as a dancer.

A city with great opportunities did not welcome her with open arms. Madonna will later call her arrival in the metropolis, without money and with grandiose plans, the most courageous act in her life.

"My fear of something usually means I have to do it", Madonna admits. It is this quality in her that impresses me very much. After all, courage is not the absence of fears in a person, but, on the contrary, the courage to look them in the eye.

The taxi driver, who threw the young provincial woman into the center of New York, took from her neither more nor less, but almost half of the available cash - $ 15. At first, Madonna lived practically in poverty, periodically spent the night in attics, and sometimes even checked the contents of garbage cans in search of food. However, this did not break our heroine and did not spoil the character of the future mega-star. Her distinctive quality has always been the ability to communicate and make acquaintances.

Madonna accidentally meets the Gilroy brothers, who had their own small orchestra. Soon they find a new friend a place to stay and take them to their ensemble. Madonna comes to the conclusion that not dancing, but singing can be the chance that will lead her to worldwide fame and adoration.

She earns funds for her audio recordings, which she unsuccessfully tries to promote in clubs.

There is still not enough money, and during this period Madonna manages to work as a cloakroom attendant, a model in an art studio, and does not neglect nude photo shoots.

In the end, the persistent girl meets the famous New York DJ Mark Kamins, with whose support in 1982 she releases her single "Everybody". After the success of this song, the recording company Sire Records concludes a contract with her.

In 1983, the debut album "Madonna" was released.

The pop diva admits: “I pulled myself up by the straps of my own bra.” To those who hasten to nod their heads, they say, we know how she made her way onto the stage, we will answer in Madonna's own words:

The debut album immediately brings the singer the long-awaited recognition. The song "Holiday" from this disc is in the TOP-20 of American singles, and the next year it hits the top ten in Europe. In 1984, Madonna released a new album "Like a Virgin", the hit of which was the song "Material Girl".

This entry gives the singer an eponymous nickname and sticks securely to her. Madonna agrees that she is a very "material girl".

Her income is growing rapidly, and in 1992 her and the TV presenter Oprah Winfrey announced as the two richest women in show business

The personal fortune of the queen of pop is estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars. Starting from scratch, the star now has a whole staff of assistants working on her image, but still takes part in financial affairs, squeezing every last cent from discs, videos and shows.

Madonna's work has changed over time. In the 80s, she toured the United States, trying on different, but always intriguing looks. According to statistics, Madonna sells more albums than any American singer.

In 1989, the outrageous Madonna surpasses herself in the video for the song "Like a Prayer". A candid video with ambiguous religious motives received strong disapproval from the Catholic Church. As a result of this hype, Pepsi terminates a previously concluded advertising contract with the singer.

Madonna’s motto of creativity of that period is clearly expressed: “scandals are the best advertisement”, and the singer deserves another nickname “marketing genius”

In 1990, the singer became the first businesswoman to appear on the cover of Forbes magazine.

Madonna creates a controversial image for herself. No one knows what to expect from her next video or provocative PR move. Her activities cause a certain resonance in society, and this is exactly what she has always aspired to - power and glory.

In addition to a huge number of admirers, Madonna also has an army of ill-wishers, some of whom condemn "flirting" with religion, and some do not approve of creativity in general.

The heroine herself shares her memories as follows:

If we compare the behavior of the star in her turbulent youth and now, we can say that Madonna has "settled down." She no longer arranges public scandals, confirming the image of a self-sufficient and calm woman.

The pop diva, in addition to musical creativity and writing, is busy managing her own company Maverick, which releases films, books and music albums.

And if earlier the singer stated that “everyone has every right to share my opinion”, now Madonna admits that life has taught her to give in. After all, compromise is not a weakness, but an opportunity. "get your way by more subtle means."

Well, flexibility and the ability to adapt is a useful quality in the arsenal of a purposeful person.

Madonna has four children - daughter Lourdes, whose father was fitness trainer Carlos Leon, son Rocco with ex-husband filmmaker Guy Ritchie, and adopted son David and daughter Mercy. About what role the heirs play for Madonna, her words say: “The most important thing in life is children. It is in children's eyes that we can see the real world."

It is to them that she tries to give what she did not receive at one time from her mother because of her early death: home comfort, proper upbringing and true family values. Madonna tries to devote a lot of time to her relatives, realizing that there can be many pop stars, and the mother of children is only one.

Madonna remains a workaholic, waking up early in the morning, putting in several hours a day to keep fit.

The self-made lady doesn't want to stop there. " I am my own experiment, and my own masterpiece", she says.

It is difficult to find a large number of world famous stars on the American stage. Madonna's biography is the epitome of the idea that anyone can succeed. The singer is a creative person, and in different periods of her life she was a director, writer, producer. Her story has had ups and downs. In the 20th century, she became a symbol of the sexual revolution.

Childhood

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan. She was born on August 16, 1958. Her mother, Madonna Louise Fortin, worked as an X-ray technician and she was of French Canadian descent. Father, Silvio Toni Ciccone, was a design engineer at a car factory. He was an Italian American.

Madonna was the first daughter in the family and therefore she was given the name of her mother - it was an Italian tradition. When the girl was 5 years old, her mother died of breast cancer. Louise Fortin was carrying a child, and chemotherapy would have caused a miscarriage. A religious woman could not commit such a crime. Therefore, she safely gave birth to a baby and died a few months later.

Madonna's father did not stay long as a widower and married a second time. His chosen one was Joan Gustafson, the maid of the family. The girl had half-brother and sister - Mario and Jennifer.

The childhood of the future pop diva was not the most joyful. She grew up in a devout Catholic family. The girl was considered strange and she was not a universal favorite. Some peers treated her cruelly, but Madonna fought back. She did not have the desire to become like everyone else, she increasingly emphasized her alienness.

At school, she studied well and this made her popular with teachers, but her classmates hated her. Some manifestations of protest from Madonna:

• lack of makeup;
• unshaven armpits;
• jazz choreography classes;
• learned to play the piano and guitar.

At the age of 14, she entered the school talent contest in a bikini. Her body was painted with fluorescent paints. She danced to the song "Baba O'Riely" by The Who. Her father witnessed the incident and he was furious at what he saw. He put her under house arrest and repeatedly called his daughter a whore. Therefore, in the future, Madonna often reflected her condition in songs. Through her work passes the thought of virgins and fallen women.

The stepmother was very fond of dancing and so the girl asked to enroll her in ballet lessons. In high school, she participated in the cheerleading team. After leaving school, Madonna received a choreographic education. The teachers convinced her to quit her studies and start a career. The girl decided to take the advice.

Young Madonna lived in poverty. She performed on stage, worked part-time in a cafe, but chronically lacked money. She arrived in New York with $35 in her pocket.

Path to glory

First time future star tried to sing in the rock band Breakfast Club. In parallel, she played the drums. At the same time, she was invited to participate in the filming of the film. She got the role of a sex slave. Madonna later tried to buy the rights to the film, but the shame remained with her.

She tried to make contacts with managers, but to no avail. They did not share her original view of music. Therefore, the singer recorded demo tapes with four songs and began to distribute it on her own.

There were many key dates in Madonna's life. One of these is an acquaintance with Mark Kaminsky. It was he who introduced her to the founder of the recording studio, Seymour Stein. Soon the single Everybody was released.

The merit of the singer was that she was the first to allow the use of sexual motives in videos. Now this is a completely ordinary phenomenon, but for the last century it was a serious breakthrough.

Her albums have repeatedly become the best-selling. The first works of the singer caused mixed impressions from critics. Someone condemned her for her uninhibited behavior, others supported her. The album True Blue took the top of the charts and made Madonna a world-class star.

She has had several film roles - cameo roles in Crazy For You, later in Desperate Search for Susan and Shanghai Surprise. But as an actress, the singer did not gain fame.

In 1986, the star was at the center of a scandal. Her music video Papa Don't Preach has angered the Catholic community. In a short story, the topic of teenage pregnancies was touched upon. The singer was accused of promoting a dissolute lifestyle, and she was not afraid to respond to criticism. According to her, the main message of the clip is not a call to constantly change sexual partners. Any authoritarianism is unacceptable. It doesn't matter who it comes from: father, society, church.

Madonna's subsequent work was no less successful. Her songs were sorted into quotes, and concerts gathered crowds of thousands. Later, she tried herself as a fashion designer, entrepreneur, writer. But her main work is music.

Miscellaneous data

Singer Madonna was and remains one of the most beautiful women. She celebrates every birthday with joy and increasing age does not make her worse. . Its main characteristics:

• height: 158 cm;
• weight: 54 kg;
• hair color: dark, but often repainted.

The parameters of her figure have repeatedly become a reason for envy. Even at the age of 60, Madonna looks great. The singer is often the centerpiece of the news. More than 13 million people have subscribed to her official Instagram. The YouTube account is less popular - 2.6 million.

Her filmography is rather modest and Madonna did not have much success as an actress. She received two Golden Globes, but still she became famous thanks to her musical career. The singer's clips have repeatedly received various awards and they have been repeatedly recognized as masterpieces.

Madonna's discography includes 13 albums. She is not going to stop there and is working on new singles. The latest songs of the pop diva are no worse than the old works.

Personal life

Madonna often changed men in her youth. She did not hesitate to start relationships with non-public personalities or with those who are older than her. You can write a separate book about the love affairs of the singer.

real serious relationship she started with Sean Penn. They met in 1985 and the singer dated Prince, but she castling easily. Her chosen one was two years younger, he was known as a rebel and a cinematic genius. The engagement was concluded in August 1985.

The marriage lasted four years. The couple had a violent temper, they sorted out the relationship, a loud scandal. Sean often drank and this also became a reason for quarrels. Both of them were creative personalities, which pushed them to constant rivalry.

A little later, Sean beat Madonna. She managed to escape and run to the police station. But the singer did not start a trial. She knew that her ex-husband had problems with anger control and decided not to aggravate the situation. After that, the pop diva had to treat psychological trauma.

She had several brief affairs. In 1997, she began dating coach Carlos Leon. From him she gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes. Girlfriends urged Madonna to marry, but Carlos himself began to lose interest in the chosen one. He was annoyed by the popularity of the singer. He has always been in her shadow.

A year later, journalists received evidence of Carlos' betrayal. He behaved nobly and refused to give any comments about the break with Madonna.

The singer started a short affair with Andy Bird, became pregnant from him, but there was a miscarriage. The couple broke up and Guy Ritchie became the new chosen one. The director himself was looking for a meeting with the pop diva, but he did not perceive her as a star. She was an ordinary person to him. Their romance was fast paced. Once it got to the point that Guy Ritchie hit Byrd.

The couple got married in 2000 and soon had a son, Rocco. The couple later decided on a black boy. They named him David Banda Malawe. He was given a double surname - Ciccone-Richie. The marriage did not last long and everything came to a divorce. The official reason for the breakup was not announced. It is believed that Ritchie is tired of Madonna's passion for Kabbalah.

Childhood

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in 1958 in Michigan, USA. Her family was very pious, sometimes her mother's faith reached fanaticism, which caused many problems for the girl's father. Madonna never considered her name unusual, since her mother had the exact same name in the tradition of their family, so she was not surprised that she was not teased. The upbringing in Madonna's family was strict, despite the wealth that their entire family had, the girl's parents forced her to save literally on everything. Fresh food appeared in the house extremely rarely, the main part of the diet was frozen semi-finished products. Clothes in most cases were made by the stepmother independently.

First attempts to show their identity

The girl's father was a kind man, but because of his work he did not have time to pay due attention to all six children. The frequent struggle for her father's attention led Madonna to hate her brothers. Being drugged, they often mocked their sister in an attempt to attract the attention of their father. At school, Madonna found peace for herself only on the stage of the theater. She was a loner who preferred loneliness to noisy companies. Many considered her too unusual and it was difficult to accept the fact that she was good at everything. The turning point that decided the fate of Madonna was a school performance. Having painted her body with paints, the girl performed a dance to the song "Baba O'Riley". This event turned her whole world upside down, and broke the image of a diligent girl that had entrenched in her. The father, furious at this trick, punished Madonna, and the neighbors will remember this performance for more than one year.

University years

At the age of 15, the girl began attending ballet lessons. The mentor saw in Madonna the potential for something great and began to expand her horizons. Excellent grades and an excellent memory contributed to the completion of school studies as an external student. After receiving her diploma, Madonna applied to the University of Michigan for the Arts. Relations with his father deteriorated and communication ceased, he saw a different future for his brilliant daughter. Magnificent abilities were concluded not only in the mind of Madona, but also in her body. Incredible stamina allowed her to train several times longer than her classmates. Despite all her talent, the girl still lacked technicality and experience and she had to look for ways to stand out from the crowd otherwise.

In pursuit of a dream

In 1978, the girl leaves everything and goes to New York to do great things. Her goal was the team with which the famous choreographer Pearl Lang worked. Perseverance and skill allow Madonna to perform in her production in a few months. In order to provide for herself, the girl works as a cloakroom attendant in her free time. Living on the pennies she receives from various part-time jobs, Madonna has to live in dangerous areas of New York. At the age of 20, when the girl was returning home, she was raped by a gang living nearby. Refusing to report to the police, the dancer continues to stubbornly pursue her dream. However, the intense pressure from the stressful experience causes her to lose faith in herself. Gradually, she begins to lose concentration in training and attend them less and less.

Discovery of singing talent

During one casting that she passed, the agents of a well-known company noticed her and invited her to sing "Jingle Bells". After much persuasion, she agreed and was quite surprised that she was praised. Madonna was offered to move to Paris where professionals would work on her and make her a star. The girl agreed and soon left the country. However, already in 1981, Madonna returned to the United States and met Camille Barbon. The woman saw the talent in the young lady and began to develop it. Madonna's new manager, Camilla, tried to do everything for her, including providing for her needs. At first, everything went well, but soon Barbon began to drink a lot and this affected her attitude towards the singer. Constant scandals, attacks of jealousy in public and incomprehensible mockery led to frequent quarrels. All this time, the singer is trying to promote her independent songs in secret from the drunkard Barbon.

First contract

She manages to find a DJ who is ready to help her sign a contract with a major record company. However, everything went downhill due to the poor health that Madonna was in due to poor living conditions. But the refusal did not stop the assertive girl, and soon she signed a contract with Sire Records.

In 1983, the first studio album "Madonna" was released. The album was received ambiguously by the public and was not noticed for a long time. However, the artist's talent and extraordinary ideas were hard to miss.

In 1984, another collection, Like a Virgin, was released. This material was considered more successful and it brings the first positions in the Billboard Hot 100 charts. The tour on the occasion of the successful release of the album takes place in many cities of the USA. At the beginning of the tour, Madonna was able to gather only 2 thousand spectators, by the end of her tour, the halls for more than 22 thousand people were filled in a few days. It would seem that everything was fine, but the difficult past returned at the most unexpected moment.

A series of failures

Shortly before the wedding with Sean Penn, the singer is at the epicenter of the scandal. The journalists got old photos of the naked singer. All this instantly takes on an incredible scope and the media begin to cover the singer with tons of false rumors.

In 1987, the artist was hospitalized with a head injury. While drunk, her husband hit the singer on the head with a baseball bat. As expected from the media, there will soon be a lot of articles on this topic. In one of them, there were speculations about sadomasochistic relationships in the family and the participation of the singer in porn shootings. However, the singer ignores all the gossip and soon everything subsides by itself.

In 1989, the singer was excommunicated from the church because of the video "Like a Prayer". If the church took this clip negatively, then the music industry was delighted with the masterpiece created by Madonna, calling it the future of musical art. In the same year, the singer divorced her husband, which led to her depression.

From the beginning of 1991 to 1994, the singer provokes many scandals, changing every day.

Return to the top

The stabilization of her mood occurred in 1994, after the release of the album "Bedtime Stories". The audience received the new compositions well, which raised them to a leading position in the world charts.

In 1996, the singer gave birth to a daughter - Lourdes Maria Ciccone-Leon, despite having a joint child, relations with Carlos Leone soon break up. 1998 gave Madonna's fans a new album, Ray of Light, which was the first in her work to receive only positive reviews from critics. First positions in the Billboard Hot 100 chart and national charts return Madonna to the top of popularity. For this album, the singer was awarded the Grammy Award for the first time, which was an incredible surprise for her.

Bold statements. Censorship in the USA

In 2000, Madonna marries Guy Ritchie, from whom she gave birth to a son.

In 2001, the singer staged a large-scale tour, which had to be interrupted due to the September 11 attacks. During the concert, she gave a speech in which she accused the US government of causing this violence. Such bold speeches led to a negative attitude from the government.

In 2003, the collection "American Life" was released, after the release of this album, the singer was accused of anti-patriotic views and banned from holding concerts. The thing is that in the video of one of the songs of this album, topics were raised that showed the ruling power of the United States from the worst side.

In 2005, the singer released a new album - "Confessions on a Dance Floor". Great shows and a world tour helped this collection to take the top lines of the charts. Released in 2008, "Hard Candy" does not cause a strong reaction from the listeners due to the simplicity of the songs.

Recent appearances

In 2010, the singer agrees to cooperate with the creators of the Glee series and transfers the rights to all her songs to them. In the same year, she opens a network of fitness clubs around the world and visits many of the countries personally. In the winter of 2014, shortly before the release of the Rebel Heart album, information was leaked and many of the songs were released to the public. However, the singer did not lose her head and released the songs, as planned.

During the tour in 2015, the singer becomes the record holder for the amount of money collected during the tour, most of which she gives to charity. In 2016, the singer appears in the chamber performance Tears of a Clown.

In January 2017, the singer protested against Donald Trump, which caused a harsh reaction and many bans on his part. Now most of her public appearances have been canceled due to the Trump scandal.

• According to the Guinness Book of Records, Madonna is the most commercially successful performer in the history of music, as well as the best-selling rock singer of the 20th century, namely Madonna.
• The singer actively professes Kabbalah. Religiosity, however, does not prevent her from shocking the audience with her appearance at concerts. Nevertheless, Madonna is so superstitious that she never accepts gifts from people she does not know from hand to hand.
• The sports singer is very anxious about her figure, spending many hours in the gym. Even now many young girls can envy her forms! Perhaps that is why she was cast as a fencing teacher in the James Bond film Die Another Day.
• She would like to live in Manhattan and share secrets with Demi Moore, but her reputation played a cruel joke on her. Madonna was unable to purchase the apartment she liked in Manhattan, in the famous San Remo building where Demi Moore lives, as the tenants' committee did not approve her application. The residents decided that Madonna's fame would create too much trouble and noise for them.

Awards:

• Grammy Awards Best Long Form Music Video (1992)
• Grammy Awards Best Dance Recording (1999)
• "Guinness World Records" top-charting song in most countries (41) (2005)
• "Guinness World Records" The most successful album-selling singer of the 21st century in the UK. (2011)

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 have a successful career on a major label without losing 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 were the songs "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 her mother's memory.

The family was quite wealthy, but Gustafson brought to the family the Protestant spirit of total savings on clothes and food - 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 by performing a dance to the famous song "Baba O" Riley" by The Who. The reputation of an exemplary excellent student was hopelessly damaged, the performance was discussed for a long time in the city, and her father put her 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 the student 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 impossibility of being 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 of ​​New York, where she was once oral raped by a maniac armed with a knife. 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 at the suggestion 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.

Club 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 Ciccone a meeting with 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 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 Dance Club Songs chart and then to number 107 overall, just short of the top 100 on 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. At the moment, Madonna's album sales are 10 million copies, but this was greatly facilitated by 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 a wedding dress and belt with the inscription BOY TOY, which shocks the TV audience. The song talks about "metaphysical virginity", and the video filmed in Venice (the city of Venus) combines sacred and profane images: Leo - 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 fenki. "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 the Live Aid charity concert, 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.

Due to 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 painting 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 for the first time files for divorce, 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 magazine described the album as "... as close to art as pop music can be" and included it in its list of "The 500 Greatest 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 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 peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, where Madonna set the record for the most singles to reach 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. This has taken root in the colloquial language with the 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 were shown addresses of websites to collect donations for sick African children.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 film about the catastrophic state of affairs in the African country of Malawi called "I am because we are", which was shown at the Tribeca Festival in 2008.

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, depicted Guy Ritchie as a blatantly homophobic 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 at 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 holder for the 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 Madonna's thirteenth studio album took place on the Internet. The artist was furious about what 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 residence in Lisbon, where her adopted son David Banda has 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 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 the British director, 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. Divorced in 2008.

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".