Madonna age now. Madonna is one of the most influential women of the 20th century

Madonna. Real name: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, USA. American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, actress, director and screenwriter. The most commercially successful female singer to sell greatest number of her records among all female performers: more than 250 million albums and 100 million singles, deservedly bearing the title of “Queen of Pop”.

Madonna Louise is a name given at birth in honor of her mother, who was named Madonna Louise Fortin. In childhood Madonna They called her Little Nonnie so as not to confuse her with her mother.

Veronica is a Christian name Madonnas, which she took in honor of the good woman from the Gospel who gave Christ, who was carrying his cross to Calvary, a handkerchief to wipe his brow.

Stage name Madonna took at the beginning of her career, shortening her name Madonna Louise.

The most famous nicknames Madonnas- Maddy, Madge, Mo, Material Girl, Boy Toy, Veronica Electronica, Dita, Queen Of Pop, M-Dolla.

In childhood Madonna, by all accounts, was a sweet but mischievous child. She loved her mother very much. However, she dies of cancer when Madonna it was already more than five years. This was a tragedy for the girl. “After my mother’s death,” Madonna later recalled, “I had a terrible feeling that everyone had abandoned me.” Messana, Madonna's childhood friend, now an actress and mother of four children, remembers Madonna as "a very gentle, beautiful little girl with long, dark brown, slightly curly hair. She had a mole on her face that she intended to get rid of." Together with Madonna, Messana baked cookies as a child and sold them on the street in front of their house to earn a few cents for ice cream.

The Ciccone family was so devout that the children were woken up at six every morning to spend an hour in church before being taken to the parish school. In 1966, father Madonnas married the housekeeper Joan Gustafson who lived in their house. They had two more children. Madonna It was not easy for her to adapt to her stepmother.

At the end of 1977 Madonna, against her father's wishes, unexpectedly moved to New York. For some time she lived there in poverty, working with various dance groups. In order to earn money to live, she had to work as a model. In 1979 Madonna began playing drums in her friend Dan Gilroy's New York band, Breakfast Club. She soon switched to guitar, vocals and writing. That's how it began music career. Since then, Madonna has shown herself in many genres and directions. Her achievements have been recognized with numerous awards, including seven Grammy Awards. In 1998 Madonna entered the Guinness Book of Records for the album "True Blue", thanks to which she was at the top of the charts in 28 countries for the first time in history!

Film career Madonnas was not as bright and noticeable as her musical achievements, nevertheless, for her role in the film musical “Evita” she was awarded the prestigious Golden Globe Award.

She also tries herself in a new capacity - she becomes the author of a book for children, “English Roses,” which immediately sells off the shelves. Since then Madonna wrote several more books. In 2001 Madonna Accepted British citizenship. The British public loves it Madonna. The English-language press dubbed the singer Material Girl and Queen of Pop.

On April 28, 2008, she released the album “Hard Candy”. With the single "4 Minutes", Madonna broke Elvis Presley's record for the most number of singles in the top ten (Elvis had 36), and "4 Minutes" became the 37th. Elvis's record stood for 40 years. On August 23, 2008, Madonna's eighth world tour, “Sticky and Sweet Tour,” launched in support of the album “Hard Candy.” 85 concerts were planned. On her world tour, Madonna was accompanied by 16 dancers, 12 musicians, and several costume designers. The Sticky and Sweet Tour grossed $408,000,000, which is the second highest gross in music history (the first was the Rolling Stones' 2005-2007 tour, which grossed $558,000,000). On August 2, 2009, Madonna gave a concert in St. Petersburg as part of her “Sticky and Sweet” tour.

Discography:

Studio albums:
- Madonna (1983)
- Like a Virgin (1984)
- True Blue (1986)
- Like a Prayer (1989)
- Erotica (1992)
- Bedtime Stories (1994)
- Ray of Light (1998)
- Music (2000)
- American Life (2003)
- Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005)
- Hard Candy (2008)

Collections
- The Immaculate Collection (November 13, 1990);
- Something to Remember (November 7, 1995);
- GHV2: Greatest Hits Volume 2 (November 13, 2001);
- Celebration (September 18, 2009)

Remix albums
- You Can Dance (November 17, 1987);
- GHV2 Remixed: The Best of 1991–2001 (December 2001);
- Remixed & Revisited (November 25, 2003);
- Confessions Remixed (2006)

Soundtracks - Vision Quest (February 15, 1985);
- Who's That Girl (June 24, 1987);
- I "m Breathless (May 22, 1990);
- Evita (October 29, 1996);
- The Next Best Thing (February 22, 2000);

Madonna is a famous American singer, queen of popular music. Her hits occupied the leading positions in world ratings for a long time, and the singer herself was repeatedly awarded prestigious awards. music awards. The biography of this strong-willed woman had many difficulties. However, thanks to her individuality and hard work, she was able to conquer the whole world. Singer Madonna is known for her outrageous concerts and videos, revealing costumes and turbulent personal life.

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Biography of Madonna

The future star was born in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. At birth, the girl was given the name Madonna Louise Ciccone, as a result of which she became the namesake of her mother. The father of the family had Italian roots and worked as an engineer at a large automobile factory. Mom came from a Canadian-French family. In addition to the girl, the family had five more children.

Members of the Ciccone family were devout Catholics, but the future singer was distinguished by ridiculous behavior from childhood. During her childhood, she was not at all popular with her peers.

Madonna Louise liked to dance, and over time her father sent her to a ballet studio. After graduating from school, the girl entered the University of Michigan, but continued to study ballet. The coach convinced her to make dancing her profession, so the girl decided to quit her studies and move to New York.

This move was the most courageous act in his biography. future singer. There was a catastrophic lack of money. The girl worked in a cafe where they baked donuts and danced in several troupes.

In 1979, Madonna went on a world tour with French disco singer Patrick Hernandez as an artist in his troupe. Upon her return, the girl founded her own rock band with musician Dan Gilroy. Two years later, a second group was created, whose dance tracks were played in many New York clubs.

In 1983, the singer recorded her songs and promoted them among influential people in the world of New York show business. She received the greatest support from producer Mark Kamins, with whom the performer even had an affair. Kamins, through his acquaintance Michael Rosenblatt, arranges a meeting for Ciccone with the founder of the relatively independent Sire Records label from Warner Music, Seymour Stein. He immediately signs a contract with Madonna

Debut single The singer's track was Everybody, which she recorded on a demo disc. In just a few weeks, the song rose to the top of the popular charts. Then a fairly budget video was shot for this song, but it also captivated the widest audience. After this, the performer recorded the second single Burning Up, and it managed to repeat the success of the song Everybody.

This convinced the producers that the first full-length album of the rising star would be successful. In July 1983, their debut album entitled Madonna was released. It went unnoticed at first, but within a year it reached number 8 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 in the UK.

The second record, Like A Virgin, was purchased by more than 19 million people. Having gained fame, Madonna also tried on the role of an actress and starred in two films, in which she presented two new songs to the public.

In 1986, the True Blue disc was announced, recognized as the best in 28 countries. Such success was even included in the Guinness Book of Records. At the same time, the singer continued to act in films and actively toured.

Three years later, the pop diva entered into an agreement with Pepsi, under which her track Like A Prayer was featured in the company’s advertising video. The video contained religious symbolism, which was condemned by Vatican officials. The company had to break the contract with the performer, but for another 11 years the song was considered the singer’s most successful track. Subsequently, the star shocked the public more than once, releasing erotic videos and performing in revealing outfits.

Throughout her career, Madonna has collaborated with many famous musicians, including Björk and Justin Timberlake. The pop diva even performed main party in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita.

In 2012-2013, the singer was recognized as the highest paid celebrity. Her annual earnings were over $120 million.

The singer collaborates with leading fashion houses, and also tries herself as a screenwriter and director. In addition, the star founded a network of her own fitness centers.

Madonna's personal life

In 1985, the 26-year-old singer met actor Sean Penn. Their romance developed quite quickly and the young people got married that same year. The following year, Sean starred in the film At close range, especially for which the performer wrote the song Live To Tell. This ballad was included in the singer’s third album.

The leading role in the marriage belonged to the singer. In addition, she was then more popular than her husband. As a result, the actor received the nickname Mister Madonna. The couple's relationship began to deteriorate. Four years after the wedding, a public scandal occurred and the couple separated.

After the divorce, the pop diva found solace in an affair with the famous womanizer and actor Warren Beatty, but this relationship soon ended. During the same period, the singer was repeatedly accused of having close relationships with women, but the star herself emphasizes that she does not approve of same-sex relationships.

In 1996, the singer gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes. The girl's father is a semi-professional athlete Carlos Leon, Madonna's personal fitness trainer. Despite the birth of the child, the singer said that she did not see much point in marrying Carlos.

In 1998, the pop diva met the famous English director Guy Ritchie. Two years later, the couple had a son. In 2002, Richie directed the film “Swept Away,” in which his wife played the main role. Its heroine was a selfish American woman who went on a cruise with her rich husband and ended up on a desert island with a poor Italian sailor. The film allowed viewers to see the brilliant acting transformation of Madonna, because in the conditions of the struggle for survival, her heroine was able not only to find softness and a feeling of gratitude in her heart, but also to sincerely fall in love with the Italian, although their story was not destined to continue.

Despite the good start, the marriage of the singer and director did not work out and seven years later the couple divorced. Since then, the pop diva has had several high-profile romances, including with the young Brazilian model Jesus Luz, but these romances did not have a serious continuation.

singer Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone. Born 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 its list of “25 Most Powerful Women of the Last Century,” assessing her influence on modern music.

Madonna is the best-selling rock artist of the 20th century according to 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 entire history of recording among solo female 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 have generally received positive reviews from music critics, despite frequent media controversy regarding their themes of 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 won a record 20 MTV Video Music Awards and 7 Grammy Awards., including 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 first place on the main 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 as of 2016, Madonna is the richest female musician in the world with a net worth of $560 million.

The singer's 2008-09 Sticky & Sweet Tour ranks as the top-grossing solo artist of all time. Madonna's recognition in music and cinema is well known - since the late 80s the media has called her the “queen of pop”, and in 2000 the Golden Raspberry anti-award named 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 crushed by critics 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 a radiography technician. Father, Silvio Ciccone, an Italian-American, worked as a design engineer for the Chrysler/General Motors defense design bureau.

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

Madonna's mother was descended from the Jansenist early French settlers, and her piety bordered on fanaticism. My mother played the piano beautifully and sang, but she never wanted to perform in public.

During her sixth pregnancy, Madonna Ciccone (the eldest) was diagnosed with breast cancer. The 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 for the rest of her pregnancy and died a few months after the birth of her sixth child at the age of 30.

Madonna (the younger)'s rejection of the fact that God could allow her mother to die became an important aspect of the singer's life and work. 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 child died, but soon they had two more children. The stepmother cared mainly about her own children, but the father forced all the children to call the woman “mom,” which Madonna never did, considering the father a traitor to the mother’s memory.

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

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

Ciccone studied with excellent marks, and the teachers took on the role of a mother in her upbringing. The singer called philosophy and Russian history teacher Marilyn Fallows one of the two most important people in her childhood. Despite her grades, Ciccone was considered by her peers to be a “good girl”; she was disliked for her excellent academic performance and position as a teacher’s favorite, and boys were afraid to ask her out 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 in the same school a grade older. According to Cooper, the girl was shy and a little aloof, avoided society, dressed modestly and especially loved the books of Aldous Huxley and the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.

The key event of Madonna’s childhood is considered to be West’s performance at the school talent evening at the age of 14. In it, an 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” The group Who. The reputation of an exemplary excellent student was hopelessly damaged, the performance was discussed for a long time in the city, and the father put his daughter under house arrest. “Heroine of the day”, brothers and sisters began to tease: “Madonna is a whore”, although it had nothing to do with sex.

From the age of four, Madonna Ciccone imitated the dances of Shirley Temple, but took up ballet at almost 15 years old, which was acceptable for modern jazz choreography. Choreographer Christopher Flynn influenced her greatest influence. Flynn took 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. Appearance excellent students changed towards a sloppy bohemian appearance, scaring off others.

Biographers Andersen, Taraborrelli and Lucy O'Brien point out that although at age 14, Madonna had a reputation as a slut, but only at the age of 15 she had her first sexual experience with 17-year-old Russell Long, which the whole school and her father learned about at Ciccone’s suggestion. According to Lucy O’Brien, the fight against stereotypical attitudes towards women based on the “virgin/whore” criterion and the desire to tell others about her love experiences became the main themes of the singer’s work.

Madonna Ciccone graduated from school in 1976 a few months before her final exams. She continued her dance education on a full-time basis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where Flynn received a professorship. The choice of a “frivolous” profession put a rift in the singer’s relationship with her father, who wanted his daughter to become a doctor or lawyer. The father believed that his daughter could find better use for her excellent certificate, which she successfully passed IQ test(according to biographers Christopher Andersen (1991) and Randy Taraborrelli (2000) The singer’s result 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 very few people, and Madonna moved into a university dormitory full of hopes for her brilliant future. According to teachers and colleagues, she had rare stamina even for a dancer, which was further developed by ballet training, and subsequently allowed her to become less out of breath while performing songs with simultaneous dancing.

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

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

Having passed a tough casting, she entered the Lang group, but was far from being in the first lineup, which did not allow her to pay rent. The dancer worked part-time at Dunkin’ Donuts, where she burned a donut oven while dancing behind the counter, and at Burger King, where she also didn’t last, pouring jam on a rude customer. She soon made her debut on the New York stage in Lang's production of I Never Saw Other Butterflies, as a boy from the Jewish ghetto.

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. At the same time, she worked part-time 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 orally raped by a maniac armed with a knife. After a mental injury, Madonna Ciccone became absent-minded in her classes and stopped believing in her dance future, even with the troupe of Lang, a student of the iconic Martha Graham.

Due to a lack of funds to pay rent, Ciccone began auditioning for Broadway musicals and as a backup dancer. In 1979, during the casting as a backup dancer for the world tour of the French disco singer Patrick Hernandez, Madonna Ciccone's performance was liked by the singer's Belgian producers Van Lieu and Perrelin. Professionals cannot help but pay attention to her plasticity and praise her pleasant voice, which sang the Christmas song “Jingle Bells”. To the complete surprise of Madonna, who had not previously considered herself a singer, she is invited to Paris, where they promise 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 Hernandez’s tour in France, Belgium and Tunisia. The producers convince her of the prospects of a singing career, 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 fell ill with pneumonia and, after recovery, flew to New York, succumbing to letters and persuasion from her boyfriend Gilroy, who was waiting for her in New York. Gilroy has a huge influence on Madonna Ciccone's transformation from dancer to musician: teaching her how to play drums and electric guitar and the basics of composition. After daily drumming lessons to Elvis Costello's disc, Madonna becomes a pretty good drummer and is accepted into Gilroy's Breakfast Club group. After a few months, the drummer begins to “pull the blanket over herself,” offering her own material and leaves the team along with the guitarist who joined her.

In 1979, she starred in the amateur film “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 Berke, the singer formed the quickly disbanded group Madonna And The Sky, 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). Emmy imitated the early Pretenders, and Madonna played guitar in the group and sang her own songs. The singer's ex-boyfriend Stephen Bray sits on drums and with him the Emmy group continues to search for its own direction.

In the spring of 1981, Madonna Ciccone meets the owner of the Gotham recording studio, Camille 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 in order to allow her to 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 - performing on stage in men's pajamas, asking for food from guys she meets, riding only a bicycle and living illegally in a cheap studio.

At first, Madonna awakens only maternal feelings in the thirty-year-old lesbian Barbon: Camilla rents her ward a place to live, sets a salary of $100 a week and gives money as needed. Ciccone's group makes several demo recordings and plays in small clubs and at student parties.

Barbon unsuccessfully seeks a contract with a label for the singer, but the bosses of the major labels do not want to take risks. Barbon sees the new Chrissie Hynde in the singer, but soon begins to abuse alcohol, be jealous of Madonna towards everyone and cause scenes.

The drummer of Madonna's band, African-American Bray, 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 are left alone and write four songs: "Everybody", "Ain't No Big Deal", "Stay" and "Burning Up". By that time, Barbon had already been offering the singer to labels for a year and a half as a new rock star, and the ward decided to secretly distribute a dance cassette with a demo recording at the Dunsteria club in Manhattan, where representatives of labels and the press sometimes dropped by.

Club DJ Mark Kamins is impressed by Madonna's demo recording. He takes the tape and arranges for them to meet with Island label boss 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. Kamins is so annoyed by the failure and immediately, through his acquaintance Michael Rosenblatt, arranges for Ciccone a meeting with the founder of Sire Records, Seymour Stein, who immediately signs her, even while lying 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 does not give permission to release the singer’s early songs.

Already in the 2000s, Barbon confessed to his then alcoholism and forgives Madonna for the offense. Barbon praises her importance in the singer's life, believing that thanks to her Madonna "didn't have to sleep with someone to get on stage," and "although at first there were rumors that someone was investing money in her, eventually they started her take it seriously".

All rights to Madonna's songs up to this demo belong to Gotham Studios and Barbon, and the question arises of what to release as a test single. All the songs on the cassette were co-written, but the friends traded rights - Bray's 100% credit for "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 "Everybody" is supposed to be on the flip side.

While the release is being prepared, Bray manages to sell “Ain’t No Big Deal” to another studio, which is recording a new vocalist. Time for new entry no, and “Everybody,” as Madonna wanted, is released as a single. With zero budget for promotion, they decide not to put the singer’s photo on the cover, so as not to scare off the non-white audience of the “black disco-soul singer.” "Everybody" climbs to No. 3 on the Hot Dance Club Songs chart and then to No. 107 overall, just shy of the top 100 on Billboard's Hot 100. Management considers this a great result, given the zero PR costs, and wants to make sure that "Everybody" is not a fluke.

At Madonna's request, a more experienced Warner Bros. in-house arranger is selected to replace Kamins. Records by 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, their debut album entitled Madonna was released. At first it goes unnoticed, but within a year it reaches number 8 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 in the UK chart. The singles “Borderline” (written by the Lucases), “Lucky Star” (written by Madonna and dedicated to the retired Kamins) and “Holiday” became hits. Madonna considered the disc rather mediocre and was not too happy with working with Lucas, but years later the disc became a post-disco classic.

According to O'Brien, her music on the album sounds like a cross between Pat Benatar and Teena Marie. Madonna is the author of most of the album's songs, but the main commercial success comes from "Holiday" by third-party authors, found by the singer's boyfriend DJ John "Marmalade" Benitez. This influenced the skepticism towards Madonna as an author capable of writing a hit. The singer also received serious criticism for her “girlish” vocals and performance style. Billboard writer Paul Grain made a prediction: “Cyndi Lauper will last for a long time, but in six months no one will need Madonna”.

The singer responded to criticism: “People think that if you are sexy, attractive and excite the public, then you simply have nothing more to offer. This is the only image I have formed. It probably looks like this on the outside, and I fit the stereotype, but I do all this completely consciously. I have everything under control and am waiting for people to understand this and be confused.”.

After recording the album, on Stein's recommendation, Freddie Demann, who had previously worked for. Despite initial criticism, in 2013 Rolling Stone named the album one of the 100 best debut albums of all time. Currently, sales of the Madonna album amount to 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 in first place on the Billboard Hot 100 chart 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 title "Material Girl"(Russian material girl, mercantile girl) is fixed as the singer’s nickname.

In 1984, Madonna performed the “title track” at the first MTV Video Music Awards and, breaking her heel, came out of the situation as follows - she began to kneel and lie on stage in a wedding dress and a belt with the inscription BOY TOY, which shocked the television 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, Evangelist Mark, and the zodiac sign of Madonna Ciccone, the Bride of Christ and a modern, experienced maiden in crosses and fennel. "Like a Virgin" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "200 Iconic Songs of All Time" list..

In 1985, the singer starred in an episode of the film “Visual Search”. The film's soundtrack contains "Crazy For You", Madonna's second No. 1 single in the US. Madonna later appears in the film Desperately Seeking Susan and this role is rated positively by critics. The film features the song "Into The Groove" - ​​the singer's first UK No. 1 single, and was written by Madonna Ciccone (with Bray), which gives her good press in the UK. The singer's first tour, The Virgin Tour, took place in the United States in 1985, with the Beastie Boys performing as the opening act. The performances reflect the surge in the singer's popularity at this time: concerts start with halls of 2,000 people, and 3 months later 22,000 spectators gather at Madison Square Garden. Tour calls “Madonnamania”: girls dress en masse “as Susan/Madonna” from the film and clips.

In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published black and white photographs of the singer nude, taken in 1979 and subsequently sold by photographer Martin Schreiber. This causes the first scandal in Madonna Ciccone's newly launched big career, which threatened her career, which she deals with with her own hands. In the midst of criticism at the Live Aid charity concert, while dressed in several layers of outdated clothing, the singer is seen shouting “Take off your clothes!” crowd. She says that she will not take off her jacket even in the wild heat, since in a few years it could be used against her.

The New York Times editorial with the headline “Naked Photographs.” Madonna: “So what?”” becomes the basis of the film by the singer’s friend Keith Haring. As soon as the scandal with the photographs subsided, in early August the Los Angeles Times disseminated information that the film “A Specific Victim” (1979) with the participation of the artist was pornographic, which was immediately picked up by other publications. In October, the newspaper will write a refutation that, to the “disappointment of fans,” this is not so. In the summer of 1985, on her own birthday, Madonna married actor Sean Penn. The wedding is accompanied by the invasion of journalists in helicopters during the pronouncing of marriage vows. In his diary he called this day “the most exciting of his life,” noting the guests were “a delightful mixture of celebrities and nonentities.”

Third album True Blue with dedication to Sean Penn comes out in 1986. Rolling Stone magazine describes it as "sounding from the heart." The record becomes Madonna's producing debut (together with Patrick Leonard) and is the singer's most “gingerbread” and commercially successful release. 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 singer’s iconic ballad “Live to Tell,” written for the film Point Blank. "Live to Tell" becomes Madonna's first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 as a writer.

Three songs from the album hit the first line of Billboard: “Live to Tell”, “Papa Don’t Preach”, “Open Your Heart”, and the top five included “True Blue” and “La Isla Bonita”. That same year, the Madonna/Bray song “Each Time You Break My Heart” performed by Nick Kamen topped the UK chart, giving Madonna the much-coveted recognition as a successful songwriter.

Madonna - La Isla Bonita

In 1987, Madonna is hospitalized for an X-ray after being hit in the head with a baseball bat. The press is awaiting trial, but the singer is not suing for domestic violence, since 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 of sadomasochistic relationships in the celebrity family. In the same year, the singer starred in the film “Who’s That Girl?”, which failed miserably. However, the success of the film's soundtrack is great - the title track of the same name becomes a No. 1 hit in the US and UK. The New York Times magazine calls the film the worst film of the year. In the same year, he goes on the Who’s That Girl World Tour, which completely compensates for the negative effect of the failed film. Critics praise the performances for their theatricality and "transforming 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, acrobat and clown. The projection on stage of Tamara Lempicka's The Musician (1928) shows a brightly painted woman with long nails holding a lyre against the backdrop of New York skyscrapers, and became a characteristic of Madonna's work for many years. According to the authoritative music critic Lucy O'Brien, Madonna is an urban mix high art with glamor and vulgarity, where she is at the same time a muse, a creator, and a sexy woman. By August 1987, Penn was released early from prison, and in December Madonna filed for divorce for the first time, but unexpectedly withdrew them two weeks later.

In 1988, the singer made her Broadway debut in the production of Move Over., 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 begins to become friends with actress and open lesbian Sandra Bernhard, causing misunderstandings among the public.

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

At the beginning of 1989, Madonna signed a contract with Pepsi, according to which her new song "Like a Prayer" debuts in the company's advertising. The commercial is harmless and shows the singer's childhood, but the video for the song contains an anti-racist message and many Catholic symbols, including stigmata and burning crosses. The ambiguous relationship between the Madonna heroine and the animated statue of a black saint shocks television viewers and provokes public organizations. The company removes the advertisement from rotation and terminates the contract, but the singer receives her due amount of five million dollars. Vatican officials condemn the video clip, and some cardinals threaten Madonna with excommunication, but it remains a threat. The song was named by the British weekly New Musical Express as the 3rd best in the history of pop music, VH1 put 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 was written and produced in collaboration with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray. The singer is producing her second album in a row and it is obvious that she wants to prove that True Blue's success was not an accident. Rolling Stone magazine describes the album as "... as close to art as pop music can get" and included it in its "500" list. best albums of all times." Leonard calls him a "divorcee" because of the singer's depression due to her painful breakup with Sean Penn. 'Express Yourself' Becomes a Feminist 'Call to Arms' with a “preach of self-respect”, representing the transition from reflection to action. The theme of other songs is expected to be domestic violence(“Till Death Do Us Parts”), nostalgia for lost relationships with brothers and sisters (“Keep It Together”), dreams of a child (“Dear Jessie”). All songs on the album Like a Prayer were written by Madonna, which makes the album the most personal, since the previous discs contained one or two songs by third-party authors.

Madonna - Like A Prayer

In 1990, the film with Madonna “Dick Tracy” and its soundtrack called I’m Breathless were released. The director of the film was Warren Beatty, who received a refusal from the singer to marry him after a year of dating. I'm Breathless contains songs famous composer Stephen Sondheim and the author duo Madonna-Leonard. For the first time, the singer enters the territory of jazz and the Broadway musical, which critics regard ambiguously. The most successful of I’m Breathless is “Vogue”, which topped the main charts. Recitative “ladies with an attitude; fellows that were in the mood...” written by Madonna on the plane as an illustration of the 30s, but becomes a characteristic of modern times. In Russia it is known as the epigraph of the first chapter of the book “Spiritless”. The title of the book is a partial translation of the name of Madonna's character from the film - "Breathless".

The Blond Ambition World Tour took place in 1990 in support of the albums Like A Prayer and I'm Breathless. Rolling Stone praises the tour for its innovative interweaving of theater, ballet, film and concert on a production level unheard of at the time. The show's central message of juxtaposing masturbation and religious frenzy culminates in a call for a boycott of the singer's performance in Rome.

Madonna tries to justify herself on the spot by giving a great speech at 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 ​​how to live on anyone, I simply describe to the audience my understanding of life, and let them evaluate everything 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 a 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 prohibited from being shown on television due to the presence of erotic scenes. "Justify My Love" is the source of several scandals, the first of which is related to plagiarism. Madonna uses the text of a letter she came across from Ingrid Chavez, the then-girlfriend of the song's co-producer Lenny Kravitz, not wanting listeners to attribute it to the fantasies of another woman. The Chicago Sun-Times branded the singer with disgrace with words about the “unprecedented meanness” of stealing the song.

Madonna makes excuses and rewrites the song, replacing the lyrics with quotes from Revelation, but immediately receives accusations of anti-Semitism, which she also has to reject. The unrhymed lyrics of “Justify My Love” about the desire to make love and scandals affect the singer’s self-esteem and author’s vanity, making a qualitative leap in creative searches Madonna, taking her into “adult” territory for the first time.

In 1991, Sondheim's song "Sooner or Later" from Dick Tracy won an Academy Award and was performed by Madonna at the ceremony as . It was from this moment that the singer was called the new Marilyn and began to be compared with the late sex symbol, immediately predicting the same unenviable fate. A documentary about the tour was released the same year and is called “Madonna: Truth or Dare.” The fragment with the 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 film 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 ten highest-grossing documentaries of all time, and the New York Times calls the film "a smart, daring, vivid self-portrait."

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

In 1992, the book-photo album “Sex” was published."Sex" contains illustrated sexual fantasies of her alter ego "Mistress Dita" talking to a psychoanalyst. The book is framed in a metal cover as an art object and is intended to be a manifesto. "Sex" has sold 1.5 million copies in America alone and is causing a stir negative reaction in the media and AIDS-scared society.

The press holds a multi-page funeral for Madonna's career, considering that she has gone too far. The book "Sex" touches on the themes of masturbation, and draws clear parallels 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, like finding a poisonous mushroom, you realize that the one who is called the “new little Piaf” is driven more by a thirst for money than a thirst for sex.”.

“Sex” and the violent reaction to it in society has become the topic of many scientific studies and is considered the most powerful inoculation against the exhibitionistic celebrity/musician in a voyeuristic society. The book has been the most wanted book out of print for several years. After the release of “Sex,” boyfriend Vanilla Ice 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 took second place in the American charts, and the lead single reached third place on the Billboard Hot 100. In the year of release, Erotica was lukewarmly received by critics and listeners due to the "shadow of the book", but subsequently began to be considered one of the most strong works singers. The singles "Erotica", "Rain", "Deeper and Deeper", "Bad Girl" and "Fever" (a cover version of an Elvis Presley song) did not have the same chart success as the singer's previous works.

In 1993, without a theatrical release, the film “Dangerous Game,” directed by Ferrara and starring Madonna, was released straight to video. leading role. The New York Times calls the film "angry and painful, where the pain seems real."

"Dangerous Game" contains Sarah/Madonna's account of a real-life rape that took place 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 tour of “The Girlie Show” in Europe and South America (instead of the USA and Canada) contains more burlesque, irony and clowning than eroticism, which softens the negativity after the release of the book “Sex”, the album Erotica and film roles. Concert in Puerto Rico causes pickets: dressed in military uniform the singer, in response to the audience whistling when a huge American flag appears, holds a Puerto Rican in the crotch area. The episode was interpreted ambiguously due to the singer's numerous romantic interests with Puerto Ricans, and was later subjected to scrupulous analysis as an example of the mutual influence of Latin American culture and the United States.

Her sixth studio album, Bedtime Stories, was released in 1994 and became her first Grammy-nominated album. The hits are “Secret”, “Take a Bow”, “Bedtime Story” and “Human Nature”. Babyface/Madonna's "Take a Bow" hits 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 changes 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 ( worked with Björk). "Bedtime Story", the lyrics of which were written by the already recognized Björk, becomes an important milestone. Madonna perfectly masters the “Bjorkian architecture of the text” and lays the foundation for her next albums in it. The relationship with rapper Tupac Shakur ends for a racist reason - his friends “couldn’t believe he was hanging out 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, during the press coverage of this story, 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 became a hit. The album reminds the public a little about Madonna’s talent as a songwriter and producer, which the press had not previously paid attention to amid the scandals. According to Taraborrelli, “for the first time about her career was spoken about more honestly and fairly.” In 1996, the singer starred in the film adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Evita., where he performs songs from the soundtrack. For the recording, 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 singing with her diaphragm for the first time. The film about , the controversial wife of the Argentine president, 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 UK Singles Chart, and the singer receives a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical.

In October 1996, Madonna gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone-Leon. 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 separate, and Madonna incurs wrath public organizations“for a complete family” and accusations of “pregnancy for the purpose of promoting a film.” The singer baptizes the girl in Catholicism and named her 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 physics lesson, a bridge between science and spirituality” rather than a religious teaching.

Seventh studio album by singer Ray of Light (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 album received critical acclaim, and the authoritative music publication Slant Magazine called it “one of the greatest pop masterpieces of the 90s.”

The disc was included in the list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and took 28th place in the "100 Best Albums of the 1990s" according to Rolling Stone magazine. The release was also accompanied by commercial success: the album topped the national charts in Australia, Canada, the UK and most European countries, and in the USA it finished at number two on the Billboard 200, losing first place to the soundtrack to the film “Titanic”.

Ray of Light has sold more than 16 million copies worldwide. Album single "Frozen" the first time in the singer’s discography since “Vogue” (1990) that it reached number one in the UK chart. In the US, the song reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, where Madonna set the record for the most number of singles to reach number two. On the disc, the singer “looked carefully into the past and thought a lot about the mystical side of existence.” After Ray Of Light, Madonna was again seen as a progressive musician. Evaluating the work, the singer tried in every possible way to praise the “brilliant” producer of the album, William Orbit, but he himself considered his contribution to “her” album to be rather modest. Following the established tradition of a condescending attitude towards pop authors/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 - Frozen

The hits included "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 a song in Sanskrit "Shanti/Ashtangi" and "Ray of Light" wearing an Indian outfit with a dot on his forehead, symbolizing devotion to God, sparked protests from the country's Hindu organizations and accusations of blasphemy.

The singer’s image was influenced by her passion for the book “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Also in 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 for Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, where she met Guy Ritchie, her future husband and father of her second child. Richie was not free, dating model Tanya Strecker, and romantic relationship with the singer arose a year later, and their development included a public bar brawl between Ritchie and Bird. This story later became the basis for Robbie Williams' song “She's Madonna” (2006).

In 2000, the film “Best Friend” starring Madonna was released, for which she recorded a hit "American Pie" and the ballad "Time Stood Still". These songs ended the era of the Ray of Light album. In early 2000, she became pregnant by Guy Ritchie, who worked on the film Snatch. and was forced to move to London with him 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 rave reviews from critics and went to No. 1 in both the UK and the US, repeating the success of Like a Prayer (1989). Under the influence of the disc's co-author and co-producer, Mirve completely changed her sound and began using 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 video for "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was banned from MTV and VH1 due to scenes of violence. For the album, the singer chose a grotesque image of a cowgirl, expressing an ironic attitude towards America as a London resident.

Married Richie on December 22, 2000, the former stepson of a baronet, which automatically ranked the singer among the English aristocracy. The wedding in a Scottish castle took place according to the Presbyterian rite. Soon Madonna became a British subject. The Michigan native's fake British accent became a source of irritation for Americans and irony for the British. This has taken root in the colloquial language with the expressions “Madonna syndrome” and “Madge complex.” Life on his own estate, Ashcombe, 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 drama. After the terrorist attacks of September 11, Madonna excluded from the show the moment of shooting a samurai with a gun, according to the plot, who was trying to cut off her head. For the first time since the early 1980s, the singer began accompanying on guitar, and was nominated for an 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 her cameo role in the film, the singer received the Golden Raspberry Award, in addition to the title of Worst Actress of the Millennium. The song received a Golden Globe nomination in the category "Best original song"and to "Golden Raspberry" as "Worst song." Movie "Gone" was critically panned and released straight to DVD in the UK. At the moment this is last picture Madonnas as actresses.

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

In France it was a great success due to the pacifist mood, since this country did not participate in the operation against the Taliban. The video for the title song featured a parody of American President George W. Bush and his kiss with Saddam Hussein. After accusations of lack of patriotism, there was a ban on playing Madonna's new songs on American radio stations. A week before the release, she said that “there is no better time for a pacifist video than during war.” At the last moment, she withdrew the clip, stating that she “did not want 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 dressed as a groom, and Christina Aguilera played the role of the bride. The French kiss with Spears caused a scandal in the press due to its hint of lesbianism. The singer justified herself by the logic of the kiss in the stage images she performed.

Madonna and Britney Spears - kiss

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

In 2005, Madonna Ciccone suffered an accident at her Wiltshire estate. The new horse unsuccessfully threw the singer to the ground during her first ride. Before the accident in the village, Madonna had completely grown into the role of an English aristocrat (by marriage), a reclusive wife and mother of the family. In addition to the British accent and horse riding, she began drinking ale in local pubs and learned to fish. The singer began hunting 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 this, the singer changed internally and outwardly lost a lot of weight. The album was called Confessions on a Dance Floor and returned Madonna to the leading position in almost all the charts, as well as the title of queen of the dance floor. This happened not least thanks to the mega-hit “Hung Up”, written based on an 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 near death due to a fall from a horse. This was the performance of the classic ballad “Live To Tell” a la Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns on a mirror cross, accompanied by video of children suffering in Africa and quotes from Matthew 25:40. At the end of the issue, addresses of sites for collecting donations for sick African children were shown. This speech raised questions and anger among activists of social movements, which quickly faded due to the spread of the video through the Internet, the singer’s statements and the meaning of the song itself.

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

In 2007, Madonna Ciccone began to master the new profession of film director, writing the script for a partly autobiographical parable film "Dirt and Wisdom". In the film, the hero tries to promote his rock band, while earning his living by beating up masochists for money and dressing up as. “Dirt and Wisdom” with Evgeny Gudze in the title role was included in the Panorama program at the Berlin Film Festival, 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 Russian swearing brought into the British non-commercial film.

The eleventh album Hard Candy was released in early 2008 and topped the charts in 37 countries, including the US and 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 singer explained the reason for the change in style with her 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 her 2003 anti-war album. The album received mixed reviews from critics for the lack of originality characteristic of previous works, and some crisis of the singer herself, reflected in the provocative cover of the album, which sharply contrasts with the style of “Ray of Light”.

The album's first single was a duet with Timberlake, 4 Minutes. The song 4 Minutes only partially met 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 United States due to low rotation on radio, despite record-breaking The song became her record 13th No. 1 single in the UK, and "Give It 2 ​​Me", featuring Pharell Williams, became a hit in Europe.

The tour in support of the album was called the Sticky and Sweet Tour and did not contain provocative material. Sticky and Sweet Tour broke the tour success record for solo artist, previously established by Madonna herself with the previous Confessions Tour. The book by the singer's gay brother Christopher Ciccone, Life with My Sister Madonna, published against her will in early 2008, showed Guy Ritchie as an obvious homophobe and a slippery guy 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, whose desire to adopt 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 third collection was released best songs Madonnas Celebration, which ended the singer’s relationship with the Warner Bros. label. The singer's boyfriend, model Jesus Luz, starred in the video for the song "Celebration". In 2010, Madonna exclusively granted the rights to her entire catalog of songs to the television series Glee. In April 2010, the episode "The Power of Madonna" was released. The episode received the singer's approval, 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 the youth clothing brand Material Girl. 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 screenplay. The film received scathing criticism, but Andrea Riseborough's performance as Wallis Simpson and the film's soundtrack drew rave reviews. The continuation of the “Russian” theme in Madonna’s second film was noted: the main character’s name is Eugene and he is depicted as an intelligent, positive character.

At the beginning of 2012, Madonna's song “Masterpiece” from the film “Us. We Believe in Love" was recognized as the best at the Golden Globe Awards.

Madonna - Masterpiece

On February 5, 2012, Madonna performed at halftime of the 46th Super Bowl, which aired on NBC. She sang a medley of “Vogue”, “Music”, “Open Your Heart”, “Express Yourself”, “Like a Prayer” and a new song “Give Me All Your Luvin’” with Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. And group LMFAO. Madonna's game and performance became the most watched television program in US history. Patriotic critics noted that the singer inappropriately mocked the “sacredness” of the Super Bowl for Americans by using images of the goddess Isis/Cleopatra performed by Elizabeth Taylor. In the US, the new single set a record for top ten hits for a solo artist, breaking the achievement. The single was a flop 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 record of a painful divorce, and The Telegraph called it a "late-break 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 album, without a promotional tour in support, became the worst-selling album in the singer's career.

The MDNA Tour began on May 31 and became the most successful tour of 2012. The concerts caused a public outcry in the United States due to the use of imitation weapons on stage. Billboard once again named Madonna the record holder for music industry income - $34.6 million for the year. In 2013, Madonna received 3 Billboard Music Awards. In August 2013, Forbes magazine named the singer the top celebrity earner of the year, earning $125 million.

On September 24, Madonna released a 17-minute short film, "secretprojectrevolution", performing a cover of Elliott Smith's "Between the Bars" at the premiere. The film was billed as a human rights film and was the result of a collaboration between director Madonna and 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” site. The film became the first project within the framework of a joint campaign between Madonna and VICE called “ArtForFreedom” (Russian: Art for Freedom). The film was accompanied by the launch of Madonna's magazine of the same name 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 occurred on the Internet. The artist was furious at what happened, later leaving several threatening messages addressed to the pirates. A few days after the leak, on December 20, Madonna officially announced her thirteenth long play, called Rebel Heart. In connection with the pre-order of the album, six new songs out of a possible 19 have become available, including the lead single "Living for Love". The album was released on March 10, 2015.

In the 2016 presidential elections, she supported her distant relative -. Two weeks before the election, she announced a performance by 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 mass protest “Women's March,” Madonna twice used obscene language towards opponents of the action. In a performance that followed the speech with songs like “Express Yourself” and “Human Nature,” she changed the latter line to an expletive directed at the 45th president, with whom she had been in open feud since the early 1990s. The singer was criticized for swearing and speaking out loud “anti-patriotic” thoughts about the explosion of the White House. There was no prosecution due to the general context of the speech, in which she also quoted the Anglo-American poet Auden.

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

Madonna's height: 163 centimeters

Madonna's personal life:

Madonna's first husband was an actor and director, an Oscar winner. Sean Penn. They got married in 1985, and 4 years later Madonna decided to get a divorce - they often argued, and her husband also beat her.

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

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

Madonna and Carlos Leon

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

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

Madonna and Guy Ritchie

Madonna discography:

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 - Susan's Search in Vain
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 tell you my secrets
2002 - I am because we are
2008 - Dirt 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 Wallet"
"English roses. Love and friendship".

Madonna and Guy Ritchie were considered perfect couple. They had whirlwind romance, and the celebrity wedding was discussed by the whole world. Before the official wedding, they already had a baby eldest daughter, and in 2000, a son. The couple decided to tie the knot after their son's christening in 2000, but the couple was not destined to stay together for the rest of their lives. Their family boat could not withstand the constant storms and crashed. went to England, and Madonna stayed with the children in the USA. the son of Madonna, does not leave the tabloids of the Western press, he became the hero of our article today.

After my parents' divorce

After Guy left the family, Madonna said that she would raise children herself well. But this was said only for the press, and very soon, leaving the children with nannies, the singer rushed on to conquer the stage.

The children practically did not know her, because she hardly saw them. In addition to her own children, Madonna also has adopted children. No one understands why she needed to adopt children from the orphanage, because she didn’t care about her relatives. She looked at the world from the height of her pedestal, and the children grew up on their own.

You might think that not everything is so bad

This can be said by those who witnessed Madonna’s joint performances with her children. She showed the guys from the stage to the whole world, posted joint photos on Instagram. There was a time when there were rumors that Madonna’s son Rocco did not even have the opportunity to study properly, as he constantly spent time on tour with his mother. Yes, there was such a moment. Madonna took turns taking her children on trips around the world, not so that they could see other countries, but so that they could be her assistants behind the scenes.

Does Madonna's son have cancer?

There was an occasion when Madonna brought eleven-year-old Rocco on stage to perform a song together. The audience was struck by the boy’s thinness and pale skin. Moreover, the boy was completely bald and looked like a criminal, and not the child of a successful singer.

Immediately there were suggestions that Madonna’s son was seriously ill, he had cancer. This news spread all over the world, but the singer did not comment on this event in any way. Her silence was taken as confirmation of the fact. However, a couple of years later, Madonna’s son appeared again, and the photo of the thirteen-year-old boy amazed everyone. He was absolutely healthy, with plump rosy cheeks, and became very similar to his father, director Guy Ritchie.

Difficult childhood

Madonna, although she practically did not take part in raising children, still tried to keep them in harsh conditions. Children under the age of fifteen were prohibited from using the Internet, having personal phone. These prohibitions also extended to watching television. Madonna wanted her children to completely obey her, read a lot, have everything of their own free time devoted to studying.

She also managed her studies in her own way: the kids really had a busy schedule, and their mother learned about their every achievement and success, as well as failure, being several thousand kilometers from home. If the result did not satisfy her, she deprived the children of other joys.

Madonna took her children's diet seriously. She excluded all sweets from the menu completely, choosing a macrobiotic diet for the children.

Why doesn't my son like Madonna?

Madonna posted her speech on the Internet about how Rocco doesn’t love her at all. She says that she tries only for the benefit and good future of the children, does not spare her strength, and earns them a worthy inheritance. Meanwhile, Rocco posts terrible reviews about his own mother online, calls her names, says that he dreams of running away from her.

Madonna's son actually wrote on the Internet that he hated his mother, his life and everything connected with her. He called her names in every possible way and threw mud at her. Perhaps it's just adolescence, hormones and everything else, but Madonna wrote that her son does not recognize her talent and he needs a mother who will always be nearby, standing at the stove to cook dinner.

Escape from mother

During the summer holidays, fourteen-year-old Rocco went to London to spend time with his father. As soon as he entered England, he immediately removed his mother from access to his social networks and blocked all her possible approaches to him.

When the summer ended, the son of Madonna and Guy Ritchie refused to return to the USA to his mother, he said that he would live with his dad. Madonna did not like this at all, and she decided to influence her son through her ex-husband. But Guy refused to give up the child without his consent. On this occasion, the singer filed a lawsuit against her ex-husband, saying that he was holding the child on purpose.

Reasons for escaping

According to insiders, Rocco does not want to return to his mother’s domain for many reasons. The first reason is her constant absence and terrible disposition, and the second reason was the freedom acquired by the boy. He can calmly walk in the park, hug girls, play the guitar until the morning with new friends. The father understands youth and allows his son almost everything.

At the same time, reporters are not following Rocco in droves asking questions about his mother; all his current friends are real, and not those who are friends with him in order to get into the house of Madonna herself.

By the tribunal's decision

The process lasted about a year, during which the boy’s fate was decided; his parents divided him among themselves. The teenager did not receive any pleasure from this case; on the contrary, he was afraid that the court would decide to return him to his mother. He was very nervous about this, and for a fragile psyche this is very bad.

However, his worries were in vain; the court, having considered the child’s desire to remain in England with his father, took note this fact. The solution was to leave the guy with Guy Ritchie, and Madonna could visit him. She had to come to terms with this fate, and they celebrated their son’s fifteenth birthday together.

Troubled teenager

All the guy’s experiences affected his character badly. Madonna's son Rocco has never had a calm disposition, and latest events had a negative impact on his psyche.

Richie's neighbors, noticing his son with a rolled-up cigarette in the yard, called the police. It turned out that the guy had marijuana, and the amount of it in the house could lead to a real prison sentence for the young man. Rocco was arrested, but still released, perhaps because of Guy’s connections.

This was not the first time Rocco was caught with drugs. There are many pictures online where he and his friends smoke weed and drink alcohol. Perhaps the mother could use some help now, and perhaps it was they who had that effect on the guy. Got to freedom and enjoying it!

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone(English: Madonna Louise Ciccone, born August 16, 1958, Bay City, Michigan, USA) - 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 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 purpose, I created where you can get acquainted with the biographies of outstanding people of our time who have succeeded in life.

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

They say that good things do not last forever, and sooner or later they come to an end. 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 throughout the world. The popularity of our today's heroine is really off the charts.

It’s hard to remain a modest “gray mouse” if you are the most commercial successful singer, which set a record for the sales of its records - more than 250 million albums and 100 million singles. “The Queen of Pop” is what her fans call her.

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

A person's dreams can be judged by what he achieves in adulthood. At 59 years old, Madonna looks 100% and can boast of more than one achievement. The girl from the Great Lakes State, as Michigan is fondly called by Americans, has truly 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 singer’s official biography in the online version of the Hall of Fame, her achievements are not limited to the field of music, “and in terms of celebrity she is comparable to Marilyn Monroe.”

By the way, Madonna is very close to this image, to which she brings her own unique charm. See for yourself - on her website www.madonna.com the singer will greet you exactly like that - beautiful, bright and inviting, as befits a real “style icon”. However, Madonna herself considers physical beauty, although beautiful, to be ephemeral, and values ​​it more than “the self-confidence that comes with achieving goals.”

By the way, a very apt statement that I experienced myself. Be sure to take it into your arsenal.

The fact is that when you have confidence in your own abilities, then you are not afraid of any new goals or 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 lack confidence in themselves.