Death of the singer's Madonna. Madonna - photo before and after plastic surgery

Quick answer: 58 years old as of August 2016.

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, better known to us as simply Madonna, is considered one of the most famous singers of the past few decades. She is an actress, director, screenwriter, dancer and writer. She is the most commercially successful singer in the world, having sold more than 100 million singles and about 250 million albums during her career.

The star was born in Bay City, Michigan, USA. Her father Silvio was Italian and worked as a designer for one of the American automakers. Mother Madonna Louise is descended from Canadian French. The born girl became the third child in the family (there were six in all). As she herself admits many years later, she was not loved at school and was generally considered a little crazy.

In 1963, her mother died of breast cancer and her father later married a maid who worked in their family. Then Madonna asked her father to send her to ballet school. After she graduated from high school, she entered the University of Michigan. At that time, she was still dancing, but after the university she planned to leave dancing. In 1977, she moved to New York, where at first she almost begged - she simply had no money.

In 1979, she formed her first rock band Breakfast Club with Dan Gilroy, and a few years later Emmy with Stephen Bray. It was these songs that New York DJ and producer Mark Kamins liked so much that he immediately brought Madonna with Seymour Stein, the founder of the record company Sire Records. And so began a full-fledged musical career of Madonna.

The first released single was called Everybody. It is interesting that initially the producers did not pin their hopes on him, but since there was very little time left before the release of the song, it was customary to release it into circulation. By the way, they did not put a photo of the singer on the cover of the single. As soon as the single entered the radio stations, it instantly became a super hit.

At the same time, the company thought about releasing the first album, but in order not to waste money, it was decided to release another single. So, Madonna wrote a song called Burning Up, which also broke into the lead among other compositions.

The first album under the name Like A Virgin ("like a Virgin") became Madonna's hallmark. It has become so popular that even now it continues to be in steady demand! After that, such successful records as True Blue, Like a Prayer, Blond Ambition Tour ... The latest album at the moment is a record called MDNA, which was very warmly received by critics. The audience also received her well - she managed to visit the top of the charts of many charts. Stars such as Benni Benassi, Michael Malih, William Orbit, Demolition Crew and so on took part in the recording of the songs.

Currently, Madonna continues to release albums, record video clips, play movies and even invent her own line of clothes. It is worth noting that her concerts are a very defiant show. For example, not so long ago she bared her breasts at one of her concerts. However, this is just part of the show, not least thanks to which the singer is so popular.

She has three children: Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon born in 1996, Rocco Ritchie born in 2000, and adopted child David Banda born in 2005.

Today Madonna Louise Ciccone is one of the richest and most influential women in the world of show business. In 2018, her fortune was estimated at $580 million.

Childhood and family

Madonna became the third child and the first daughter in the family, where two more sons and a daughter were subsequently born. As the first daughter, in accordance with Italian traditions, she received the name of her mother.

When Madonna Jr. turned 5, her mother died of breast cancer. A 30-year-old woman was carrying her sixth child, and chemotherapy meant an inevitable miscarriage. Being a religious woman, she couldn't go for it. The child was born, and a few months later the mother died. The father remarried to the family's maid, Joan Gustafson. So the girl had half-brother Mario and sister Jennifer.

Madonna grew up in a devout Catholic family in the suburbs of Detroit. As the singer admits, she was not a universal favorite in childhood, everyone considered her a girl "with regards."

- They treated me cruelly, but I did not allow to wipe my feet on myself and only emphasized my alienness.

But at the age of 14, the reputation of a good girl was destroyed: she came to the school talent contest in a bikini, and her body was painted with fluorescent paints. After a cheeky dance to the band's "Baba O'Riely" The Who her father became furious and put Madonna under house arrest, and at school they remembered this performance for a long time, calling her a "whore". The girl herself, being on stage, finally felt like who she is. And the concept of "virgin/whore" has been a leitmotif through her work ever since.

The mother of the future celebrity loved to dance. The daughter followed in her footsteps and convinced her father to enroll her in ballet lessons. Later, in high school, she performed on the cheerleading team. After graduating from school as an external student, Madonna received a choreographic education at the University of Michigan. One of the teachers convinced her not to waste time studying, but to build a career as a dancer. So in 1958, Madonna dropped out of college and moved to New York with a couple of tens of dollars in her pocket.

She barely made ends meet, lived in poverty, worked at Dunkin' Donuts and collaborated with a number of dance groups. Now Madonna recalls that period of her life as the most desperate:

- When I arrived in New York, it was the first time I flew by plane, the first time I even called a taxi - everything was the first time. And I came with $35 in my pocket. It was my most courageous act in my life.

First steps to success

In the same year, she starred in the film "A Specific Victim" for a fee of one hundred dollars, playing a sex slave. Years later, Madonna attempted to buy the rights to the film in order to destroy all reminders of this infamy, but she never succeeded.

Madonna in the film "Specific Victim"

In 1981, Madonna broke up with Gilroy and began singing in the band Emmy along with drummer and Stephen Bray. At the same time, the girl signed a contract with Gotham Records, but the cooperation was short-lived - the manager of the aspiring singer did not share her views on creativity. Soon, with Bray's encouragement, she recorded a demo tape of four "street" tunes ("Ain't No Big Deal", "Stay", "Burning Up" and "Everybody"), which she distributed herself.

Madonna's demo tape impressed DJ/producer Mark Kamins, who played at the Danceteria club where Madonna frequented. Cummins introduced rising star with Sire Records founder Seymour Stein. The result was a contract for the release of the debut single "Everybody". Kamins and Bray began to fight for the right to be called Madonna's agent, while both were her lovers. The choice was not easy, but in the end the singer settled on Mark.

"Everybody", Madonna's very first music video

Before recording and releasing their debut album, Madonna's producers decided to test the waters and see if the singer's success was accidental or not. For this, a second maxi-single was written. If it becomes a hit, then they will give the green light to record the album, the producers said. A more experienced producer, Reggie Lucas, was selected to replace Cumings. In collaboration with him, Madonna recorded the single "Burning Up" with the song "Physical Attraction" on the B-side. A video was released for the first song, which got into MTV rotation.

First music video Madonna was just a staged number on the dance floor. But "Burning Up", replete with inviting angles of an uninhibited blonde writhing in languid ecstasy, was a real breakthrough in music industry. Before Madonna, none of the singers dared so openly exploit the sexual theme in the videos. Today it is the absolute norm in the pop industry.

Madonna

Madonna's debut album was called "Madonna" and hit the shelves of music stores in July 1983. It includes 8 songs in the genre of synthetic disco. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 190. The record took a year to reach number eight. Reviews from critics were mixed. Many music experts accused Madonna of excessive sexuality and deliberate "girlishness" and gave her "minute of fame" at most six months. But Ciccone only laughed, stating that she knows perfectly well what image her work has developed, but this does not mean that this is the only thing she can offer: “I keep everything under control and wait for this to be understood and confused.”

worldwide success

Madonna performed the lead single "Like a Virgin" at the very first MTV Video Music Awards. The singer took the stage wedding dress and a belt with the inscription "Boy Toy", and during the performance she rolled on the floor, showing the audience stockings with garters and white panties. For that time, the performance was shockingly sexy. Many years later, eyewitnesses recalled: “It was this moment that became a powerful impetus to the release of female power. This is one of the most significant musical numbers of the 20th century.”

Madonna - Like a Virgin (MTV VMA 1984)

In the wake of the first success in 1985, Madonna starred in two films. She got her first role in the film "Visual Search", where Madonna, in the episodic role of a singer in a club, performed the track "Crazy For You". Further, the singer appears in the film "Desperate Search for Susan", which introduced the world "Into The Groove" and revealed Ciccone as an actress. Many film critics believe that Suzanne is the only successful role in Madonna's filmography.

That same year, Madonna embarked on her first American tour, The Virgin Tour, with the Beastie Boys. Later, a video for the song "Material Girl" is recorded, and Madonna begins a relationship with actor Sean Penn. At the same time, Penthouse and Playboy magazines showed on their pages black and white photographs of the naked singer, which were taken in 1979. Madonna sued the rights to ban the publication of the pictures.

Madonna released her third studio album True Blue in 1986. It was described by Rolling Stone as "sounding from the heart". The disc included the ballad "Live to Tell", which the singer wrote for the film "Point Point", which starred her husband Sean Penn. And the name is a direct reference to Penn; Madonna gave him the nickname true blue, which means "devotee."

The album made Madonna a global star and topped the charts in 28 countries. The Guinness Book of Records called this disc absolutely unprecedented. At the same time, the singer took part in the filming of the film "Shanghai Surprise" and played for the first time in the theatrical production of "Goose and Tomt" along with Sean Penn.

Outrageous queen

Madonna - Papa Don "t Preach

In 1987, Madonna appeared on film set tape Who's That Girl and recorded four songs for its soundtrack, including "Causing a Commotion".

In 1988, in the city of Pacentro, where the singer's ancestors lived, a four-meter-high statue of the Madonna was erected.

Madonna

In 1989, the album of the same name to the scandalous video was released, which the singer dedicated to the memory of her deceased mother and all members of her family. The lyrics touched on Madonna's childhood and the formation of Madonna's personality, the impact of her mother's death on her worldview, relationship with her father and, of course, female sexuality - this is the song "Express Yourself", for which the video was directed by David Fincher.

1990 was marked by the release of a video for the song "Justify My Love", co-written with Lenny Kravitz. The management of MTV banned the video from airing the channel due to erotic content, references to homosexuality and sadomasochism. The decision was supported by a number of music channels in other countries. Madonna found a way out - she was the first in the music industry to release a video in the "video single" format on the market.

Madonna

The next year is another scandal. coming out documentary"Truth or Dare", filmed during the Blond Ambition World Tour, during which the Toronto Police intended to arrest Madonna for faking masturbation on stage.

In 1992, Madonna founded her own company, Maverick, which was engaged in entertainment, in particular, the production of films, the release of music CDs and books. First of all, the company released on the shelves a book by Madonna called "Sex" with revelations and sexual fantasies of the singer, appearing in the text under the name Dita. The single "Erotica" was sold with the book, accompanied by a photograph of Madonna holding a whip. Despite the mixed public reaction, the book became a bestseller. In the first week, more than 500,000 people bought a copy of Sex, and a total of 1.5 million books were sold.

The release of the book was part of a deliberate promotion of the fifth album "Erotica", which was entirely dedicated to sex. However, the PR campaign also had a downside: the disc was expected to be a commercial success, but listeners perceived it more as an addition to the book, so Erotica did not break into the first lines of the charts.

On March 31, 1994, Madonna came to the studio of The Tonight Show with David Letterman. During the broadcast, she said the word “fuck” 14 times, handed her panties to the host and offered to sniff them, and when he refused, she said: “Money made you weak.” In a word, in the entire history of the program, this release was recognized as the most censored.

Fascination with Kabbalah

Shortly before that, Madonna played a major role in the musical Evita, dedicated to biography Argentine singer and later wife of dictator Juan Peron - Eva Duarte. Filming took place in South America, and Antonio Banderas became the woman's partner on the set. While preparing for filming, Madonna took vocal lessons, which, by the way, is clearly seen in the album Ray of Light, released a year later, recognized as the most successful since Like a Prayer.

The record symbolized the spiritual rebirth of the singer, which was influenced by many factors - from the birth of her daughter (after the filming of Evita, Madonna became pregnant and soon gave birth to her daughter Lourdes from the dancer Carlos Leon) to an affair with screenwriter Andy Bird. Madonna's songs no longer talked about the delights of an intimate life, but called for attention to an environmental catastrophe, talked about the universe and metaphysical categories. The 39-year-old woman abandoned provocative outfits and began to wear a sari and covered her face with a veil.

The public favorably accepted the new image, and in 1999 Madonna received three Grammys at once. Prior to that, her collection had only one such figurine - received in 1991 in the nomination "best video clip". In general, the album was able to compete even with the boy bands that flooded the music market and young singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

pop queen of the world

Madonna

At the same time, her attempts to be realized in big cinema failed. In 2000, Ciccone starred in the romantic comedy Best Friend alongside Rupert Everett. Reviews for her acting work were devastating. A year later, the film Swept Away, directed by Guy Ritchie, at that time Madonna's husband, received five Golden Raspberry anti-awards, including the most offensive nominations for "worst female role", "worst film" and "worst director". Since then, Richie has sworn off shooting his wife in his films, and the singer agreed only to small roles, for example, in Die Another Day with Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.

But 2003 brought Madonna the first failures in the musical field. The disc "American Life", in which the singer touched upon a number of topical political issues and revealed spiritual abscesses, no longer wanting to endure being treated as a "mercantile girl". The album was not a failure from a commercial point of view, but still inferior to the previous ones.

The tenth studio album "Confessions on a Dance Floor" (2005) rehabilitated Madonna in her own eyes. It is worth noting that the first song "Hung Up" became Madonna's main hit throughout her career.

Madonna - Hung Up

On March 26, 2012, Madonna's twelfth album, MDNA, was released. This album on the first day led the tops of all charts in the UK and the US. But, everything was not so rosy. Critics called the album very gloomy, linking it to the singer's painful breakup with Jesús Luz. The video for the second album, the single Girl Gone Wild, is censored due to explicit scenes. The record, devoid of a promotional tour in support, becomes the worst in terms of sales in the singer's career, breaking the anti-record of American Life in 2003.

The singer is embarking on the MDNA Tour, which kicks off on May 31 and is the most successful tour of 2012. The concerts cause public outcry in the US due to the use of mock weapons on stage. Billboard lists Madonna as the music industry's record-breaking $34.6 million for the year. In 2013, Madonna received 3 Billboard Music Awards. In August 2013, Forbes magazine names the singer the leader of the year in terms of income among celebrities with earnings of $125 million.

madonna ft. Nicki Minaj - Bitch, I "m Madonna!

In December 2014, 13 demo versions of songs that were recorded while working on Madonna's thirteenth studio album were leaked to the Internet. Enraged by what happened, the artist recorded several menacing messages against the pirates. A few days after the leak, on December 20, Madonna officially announced the thirteenth album, called Rebel Heart. The album was released on March 10, 2015.

Fashion designer and entrepreneur

Among other things, Madonna opened a chain of fitness clubs called "Hard Candy" - in honor of her 11th album.

Madonna's personal life

During her life, she often started relationships with non-public men and was never embarrassed by a big age difference.

Very soon married life disappointed Ciccone. It turned out that both spouses have a violent temperament and an innate tendency to constant rivalry. The situation was aggravated by Penn's drunkenness. By 1988, their marriage had practically broken up. In 1989, the artist demanded a divorce.

One night, Penn broke into her house, tied her to a chair, and beat her for several hours. By cunning, the girl got out of the house and got to the police station. Penn denied everything, although the policemen, who were horrified by the bruised and bruised pop idol, had no doubts. However, the case did not reach the court - Madonna asked not to open a criminal case against her ex-husband. “He always had trouble controlling his anger,” she later said.

Over the next few months, Madonna recovered from psychological trauma. In 1990, the singer started an affair with Warren Beatty, whom she met on the set of Dick Tracy, and in 1991 she remembered a short affair with model Tony Ward, who starred in her frank video Justify My Love.

In 1992, she dated rapper Vanilla Ice. After their break in the career of a man, a recession set in, and a pattern was revealed in the press that every man who met with Madonna suffered a professional collapse or personal tragedy after breaking up with her. This is also true of rapper Tupac Shakur and basketball player Dennis Rodman, with whom Madonna had affairs in 1994.
When Lourdes was one year old, the paparazzi caught Carlos in the company of another woman. Like a real man, he did not begin to talk about the details of the gap and rejected all the multimillion-dollar offers of journalists who elicited the ins and outs of their novel. He did not disappear from the life of Madonna and Lourdes, and always tried to spend his free time with his daughter.

Then the singer had a short relationship with screenwriter Andy Byrd, which ended in 1998 after his careless phrase thrown to reporters: “Well, we have a passionate relationship, but they should be worked on.” After the breakup, she realized that she was pregnant. The woman immediately refused an abortion. A dilemma arose: tell Byrd about the pregnancy or not. But fate decided it herself - a miscarriage occurred.

That same year, at Sting's party, Madonna met British director Guy Ritchie. In a matter of days, they became close. The director was 10 years younger than the actress and had just brilliantly presented her debut film "Lock, Stock, Two Smoking Barrels" to the public. As it turned out later, Richie was aware that Madonna would be at the party, and went there with one goal - to get to know her.

At the same time, he always treated the singer not as a star, but as an ordinary person. “He called me Madge and made me wash his car,” she recalled. Their romance developed rapidly. In 1999, Richie accidentally met Madonna's ex-lover, Byrd, in the park, hit him in the face with all his might.
Kevin Sampaio is Madonna's new lover

Madonna now

Rumor has it that she will play the lead role - silent film star Norma Desmond - in the musical Sunset Boulevard.

The name of Madonna is known to everyone and everyone. And now we are not talking about a religious name, because Madonna is a legendary pop diva who was able to conquer the whole world with her talent, independence, courage and determination. Not to mention the fact that she did not pay attention to life's hardships and problems. Something that didn't always work out as well as she wanted. Her life path was filled not only with rose petals, but also with thorns that pricked very painfully. But there was always a bright woman in front of the audience, who never yielded to anyone in charisma and charm. Therefore, let's take a closer look at who she is, this mysterious and at the same time, everyone famous Madonna. After all, she looks really beautiful, and even young actresses and models are trying to penetrate the mysteries of her eternal youth and charm, self-confidence and passion for singing.

Height, weight, age. How old is Madonna

Height, weight, age. How old is Madonna - all these questions cause conflicting answers, because the singer seems forever young and always beautiful. It is even difficult to imagine what she does to always remain so. Therefore, various rumors often circulate, which may not be confirmed, but still go around the name of a celebrity. Madonna in her youth was uncensored, often discussed in the press, and it was all done quite harshly. The real name of Madonna actually sounds like that, this is her true name, which her mother once gave her. So, today the world-famous woman is already 58 years old, although it is very difficult to believe in this. The height is 163 centimeters, and the weight is 54 kilograms. Therefore, there is no need to say that she looks like a true queen, which she is on stage.

Biography and personal life of Madonna

The biography and personal life of Madonna deserves special attention, because it is not difficult to guess that she experienced the most different things in her life, otherwise she would not have been able to achieve such heights. Often there are such requests as Madonna without makeup, because many people wonder how much the singer looks like herself if her makeup is removed in several layers. But let's now consider her biography and personal life, which deserves attention. She was born into a Catholic family, was the third child out of six in the family, and already at the age of five she lost her mother. She went to a Catholic school, after graduation she decided to enter a dance university. By the way, from early childhood she studied ballet, danced, in a word, developed creatively. True, then she still did not think about how to really become famous, become famous not only in her country, but throughout the world.

But she did not finish her studies at the university and moved to New York in the late seventies. IN big city it was very hard, because there was no work, in addition, the young girl had nowhere to stumble. She lived practically in poverty, selling donuts and moonlighting in various dance troupes. Ahead of her were even greater difficulties on the way to the top. The young woman's musical career began in the early eighties, when she became involved in various bands and tried to record her own albums.

She also proved herself over time as an actress, because she was able to act in more than two dozen films. In other words, she was able to realize herself, despite the fact that it was really very difficult in places. As for her personal life, Madonna has been married several times. She first married Hollywood actor Sean Penn, then for director Guy Ritchie, with whom she lived for seven years, after which she divorced. Madonna has many children, both biological and adopted. The famous singer remembers very well how hard it was for her in childhood and adolescence, so she strives to give happiness to children who are not too lucky in life. But at the same time, she does not forget to continue to build her personal life, which is constantly replaced by new men and fans. It is even sometimes surprising how active a woman who is already almost sixty years old behaves.

Madonna's family and children

Madonna's family and children today are herself and her children. Although she can often be seen in the company former first husband Sean Penn, anyway, so far there has been no official statement that she is getting married again. But she has a lot of children whom she loves and who love her. She has four of them in total, of which the daughter Lourdes from her first marriage, then the son Rocco. Two more children are adopted: a boy from Africa, David, and a girl, Mercy. So Madonna repeatedly became a mother, apparently realizing that the main task of a woman is not even to make an amazing career, but simply to give happiness to little creatures.

Madonna's Sons - Rocco, David

Madonna's sons - Rocco, David are her heirs, however, the first boy was her biological heir, and David is adopted. True, this does not prevent a star woman from loving them in exactly the same way. Especially considering that the singer had significant problems with the adoption of David. When all the documents were submitted, the boy's parents suddenly showed up and claimed their rights to him. And this despite the fact that up to this point in the direction of the child there was no attention. And although the "kind" relatives did everything possible to prevent the adoption, anyway, the baby found a new home and became happy. Son Rocco was born to Madonna from her second marriage to director Guy Ritchie.

Daughters of the Madonna - Lourdes, Mercy

Madonna's daughters - Lourdes, Mercy are her favorite daughters, and here is the same as her sons, because Madonna's daughter Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon is her first biological daughter, who was born in marriage to Hollywood actor Seann Penn. Now she is already an adult woman, however, it is impossible to say exactly how much she followed in the footsteps of her star parents. The second daughter, Mercy, is adopted, and at the same time allowed the singer to become a mother for the fourth time. The celebrity herself does not have a soul in her daughters, teaches them to always be on top, beautiful, successful, and most importantly, not to pay attention to life's difficulties that have always been and will be in reality.

Madonna's Husbands - Sean Penn, Guy Ritchie

Madonna's husbands - Sean Penn, Guy Ritchie became the famous singer's legal husbands. I would like to note that Madonna's personal life does not stand still, that now, when she has already been married twice, she still has vivid novels in her life that make the press simply hold their breath. The first marriage with Sean Penn lasted several years, after which the star couple broke up, the singer lived with Guy Ritchie for seven years, but after that the marriage also could not stand the test of time. Although from every man, Madonna had legitimate and adopted children, all the same, this could not save their family. However, given the millions of celebrities, they are not particularly worried about this. Today, Madonna constantly starts bright novels with young boys, among them there are actors, models, mannequins. She fully enjoys life, but at the same time, most likely she is in no hurry to marry again. Although lately she has been more and more often noticed in the company of her first ex-husband Sean Pen.

Instagram and Wikipedia Madonna

As mentioned above, only the lazy does not know about the Madonna, or pretends not to know. After all, it is difficult to imagine someone more famous than this amazing, interesting, talented woman. One has only to say her name, and every viewer will nod, even if he has never heard her songs or watched a single movie with her. Therefore, it is not surprising that there is a lot of information about it on the Internet that can be found on almost any site. The first source is, of course, Madonna's personal Wikipedia page (https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_(singer)).

There you can find the necessary information about how she lived before she became famous, what was her creative path, and much more that accompanied her throughout her career. The singer also has a personal page on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/madonna/?hl=ru), where you can already get to know her life more closely. Photos from her concerts, family photos are posted, she shares her future plans with fans, talks about what she is going to do next. If you want to get in touch with a celebrity at least a little, then this is best done directly with her, that is, through social networks.

Madonna. Real name - Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. She was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, USA. American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, actress, director and screenwriter. Most commercial successful singer, who has sold the largest 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 the name given at birth, in honor of her mother, whose name was Madonna Louise Fortin. In childhood Madonna They called him 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 carried his cross to Calvary, a handkerchief to wipe his forehead.

Stage name Madonna took at the dawn 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 playful child. She loved her mother very much. However, she dies of cancer when Madonna was over five years old. For the girl, this was a tragedy. “After the death of my mother,” 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, remembers Madonna as "a very delicate, beautiful little girl with long, dark brown, slightly curly hair. She had a mole on her face, which she intended to get rid of." Together with Madonna, Messana baked cookies as children 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 every morning at six in the morning to spend an hour in church before being taken to the parish school. In 1966 my father Madonnas married the housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, who lived in their house. They had two more children. Madonna did not easily adapt to her stepmother.

At the end of 1977 Madonna, against the will of her father, unexpectedly moved to New York. For some time she lived there in poverty, working with various dance groups. Including, in order to earn money for a living, she had to work as a model. In 1979 Madonna began playing drums in her buddy Dan Gilroy's New York band, the Breakfast Club. She soon switched to guitar, vocals and writing. Thus began her musical career. Since then, Madonna has shown herself in many genres and directions. Her merits are marked by many awards, including seven times she became the winner of the Grammy Award. In 1998 Madonna got into the "Guinness Book of Records" for the album "True Blue", thanks to which for the first time in history she was at the top of the charts in 28 countries of the world!

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

Also, she tries herself in a new capacity - she becomes the author of the book for children "English Roses", which immediately disperses from the shelves. Since then Madonna wrote several more books. In 2001 Madonna took British citizenship. British public love Madonna. The English-language press dubbed the singer Material Girl and Queen of Pop.

April 28, 2008 she releases the album "Hard Candy". Thanks to the single "4 Minutes", Madonna broke Elvis Presley's record for the number of singles that hit the top ten (Elvis had 36), and "4 Minutes" became 37th. Elvis' record stood for 40 years. On August 23, 2008, Madonna's eighth world tour "Sticky and Sweet Tour" started in support of the album "Hard Candy". 85 concerts were scheduled. Madonna was accompanied on her world tour by 16 dancers, 12 musicians, several costume designers. The Sticky and Sweet Tour grossed $408,000,000, the second most in the history of music (the first was the Rolling Stones 2005-2007 tour, which raised $558,000,000). On August 2, 2009, Madonna's concert took place 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);

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 songs were "Like a Virgin" (1984), "La Isla Bonita" (1986), "Like a Prayer" (1989), "Vogue "(1990), "Frozen" (1998), "Music" (2000), "Hung Up" (2005) and "4 Minutes" (2008).

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

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

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

Madonna was born on August 16, 1958 in a town on the shores of Lake Huron, Michigan, USA. The singer's mother and namesake, Madonna Louise Ciccone, was French-Canadian and worked as an X-ray technician. Father, Silvio Ciccone, 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 after her mother Madonna Louise, this name has never been officially changed. The name "Veronica" was chosen by Madonna Louise Ciccone at the age of 12 for the traditional Catholic sacrament of chrismation and is not official.

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

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

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

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

The Ciccone family lived in suburban Detroit, where Madonna attended St. Frederick and St. Andrew Catholic Schools, and West was a cheerleader for the basketball team. The singer graduated from high school in secular school Rochester Adams, where she participated in theatrical performances 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 two the most important people of his 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, 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" 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 her to classical concerts, exhibitions and, to broaden her horizons, to gay clubs. Flynn was gay 30 years older, so the student's love remained unrequited, but, according to the singer's recollections, this was the only person who understood her. The appearance of an excellent student has changed towards a sloppy bohemian look that scares others.

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

Madonna Ciccone graduated from high school in 1976 a few months before her final exams. She continued her dance education on a budget basis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where Flynn received a professorship. The choice of a "frivolous" profession paved a crack in the singer's relationship with her father, who wanted to see her daughter as a doctor or lawyer. The father believed that the daughter could find a better use for her excellent certificate, successfully passed IQ test(according to biographers Christopher Andersen (1991) and Randy Taraborelli (2000) the result of the singer at the age of 17 showed 140 points) and brilliant recommendations from teachers. The right to receive a free higher education in the United States is given to a few, and Madonna moved to a university dormitory full of hopes 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 the French disco singer Patrick Hernandez, the performance of Madonna Ciccone is liked by the Belgian producers of the singer Van Lie and Perrelin. Professionals cannot but pay attention to her plasticity and praise her pleasant voice, which sang the Christmas carol "Jingle Bells". To the complete surprise of Madonna, who had not previously considered herself a singer, she was invited to Paris, where they promised to make her "something like a dancing Edith Piaf."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All rights to Madonna's songs prior to this demo belong to Gotham Studios and Barbon, and the question arises of what to release as a trial single. All the songs on the cassette are co-written, but the friends trade the rights - Bray's 100% credit on "Ain't No Big Deal" in exchange for Madonna's full rights to "Everybody". Madonna likes "Everybody", but Stein wants to release Bray's "Ain't No Big Deal", and on reverse side assumes "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. At zero budget for promotion, the singers decide not to put the photo on the cover, so as not to scare away 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. On this moment Madonna's album sales are 10 million copies, but this was largely due to the popularity of her next disc.

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

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

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

In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published nude black-and-white photographs of the singer, taken in 1979 and subsequently sold by photographer Martin Schreiber. This causes the first scandal in Madonna Ciccone's just-beginning big career, threatening her career, which she handles with her own hands. In the midst of criticism at 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.

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

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

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

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

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

In 1993, without a release in cinemas, the film "A Dangerous Game" directed by Ferrara with Madonna was immediately released on video. leading role. 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. Concert in Puerto Rico causes pickets: dressed in military uniform the singer, in response to the whistle of the public at the appearance of a huge American flag, holds a 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 songs from 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 wrath public organizations"for a full 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 from working on the film " big jackpot» Guy Ritchie 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. DVD with the film and the eponymous live album 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 a sample Abba bands. Madonna Ciccone wrote and produced the record with her longtime engineer and keyboardist, Stuart Price. Due to the lack of rotation of Madonna's new songs in the United States since the American Life scandal, the singer's homeland became one of the few countries where the single "Hung Up" did not become No. 1, but only took 7th place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Madonna

On February 5, 2012, Madonna performed during the break of the 46th Super Bowl, which was broadcast on NBC. She sang a medley of "Vogue", "Music", "Open Your Heart", "Express Yourself", "Like a Prayer" and the new song "Give Me All Your Luvin'" with Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and the LMFAO group. Madonna's game and performance became the most watched TV show in US history. Patriotic critics noted that the singer inappropriately ironic about the "sanctity" of the Super Bowl for Americans, using the images of the goddess Isis / Cleopatra performed by Elizabeth Taylor. IN THE USA new single set the record for top ten hits for a solo artist, breaking the achievement. 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, while The Telegraph called it " latest success due to Madonna's lack of progress as a songwriter. The video for the second single Girl Gone Wild was censored due to explicit scenes. The record, without a promotional tour in support, became the worst in terms of sales in the singer's career.

The MDNA Tour began on May 31 and was the most successful tour of 2012. The concerts caused public outcry in the US due to the use of mock weapons on stage. Billboard once again named Madonna the record-breaking music industry with $34.6 million for the year. Madonna won 3 Billboard Music Awards in 2013. 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 occurred on the Internet. The artist was furious at what had happened, leaving later several formidable messages against the pirates. A few days after the leak, on December 20, Madonna officially announced the thirteenth longplay, called Rebel Heart. In connection with the pre-order of the album, six new songs out of 19 were made available, including the lead single "Living for Love". The album was released on March 10, 2015.

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

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

Since September 2017, Madonna has moved to permanent 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 together with her mother - her own clothing line.

Madonna and Carlos Leon

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

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

Madonna and Guy Ritchie

Discography of Madonna:

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

Filmography of Madonna:

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

Madonna's books:

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