Madonna is an American singer. Biography of Madonna - a woman who made herself from scratch

Celebrity biographies

5831

16.08.14 09:51

Her contribution to world culture it is impossible to overestimate: she is a living legend, evidence that perseverance and hard work can move mountains. Madonna's biography can be published as an excellent guide for those who dream of ascending to the heights of fame.

Biography of Madonna

First loss

Residents of provincial Bay City, nestled on the shores of luxurious Lake Huron, did not suspect that in 1958 (namely on August 16), a girl would be born into the family of a radiographer and design engineer Ciccone, who would glorify her town and be called the queen of pop music.

The mother of the family, Madonna Louise, had French roots– her great-ancestors arrived to conquer America from Europe, her husband Silvio was proud of his Italian ancestors. After two boys, God finally gave them a daughter. And to celebrate, they named her after her mother.

Probably, the profession with its constant danger of radiation was the reason that the mother fell ill with cancer (at that time she was pregnant for the 6th time, so she refused treatment). Time was lost. And six children were orphaned. Madonna Sr. was only 30. The future singer was never able to forgive the heavens for this loss. Just as I couldn’t understand my father - he got married after 2 years of widowhood, it was difficult for him to raise such a crowd alone. The stepmother, Joan, turned out to be a real despot, she gave birth to two more children, and all her love was directed towards them. So Madonna's childhood was not easy. She was bullied by her brothers who were addicted to drugs. Having seen all sorts of horrors, she herself swore to ever succumb to this destructive passion.

Difficulties of growing up

Catholic schools gave way to secular schools for the girl, where she was able to try herself in student plays for the first time (her mother sang well and knew how to play the piano; Madonna, who was similar to her in appearance, also inherited a pleasant voice).

The father did not like the young Madonna's ballet classes; he wanted a profession for her that would bring her a guaranteed piece of bread. With her excellent grades (they say that the schoolgirl’s IQ was 140 - an incredibly high figure!) she could have entered any educational institution, but decided to act in her own way.

After school, the girl studied dancing at the University of Michigan. Then she left for New York. Fate continued to test the future star. Part-time work in choreographic groups brought in pennies, Madonna lived from hand to mouth, huddled in closets, but did not give up.

Talent plus perseverance

In 1982, young Madonna became a member of the Breakfast Club group (she played percussion instruments). Ambition took its toll: she wrote songs, performed them herself, mastered the guitar and showed herself as a leader. In general, “I pulled the blanket over myself.” A contract with a producer was a great happiness for the aspiring soloist, and in 1983 she was able to release her first album.

That disc, “Madonna,” did not become a very bright event in the music world, but after the release of “Like a Virgin” they started talking about her as a new star. The compositions topped the charts, they were played on the radio, they were sung along, and listened to countless times. The album sold 26 million copies. This is how she stepped onto the first step of her fame, and from then on Madonna’s biography resembles an endless, vibrant music video.

The disc “True Blue”, born in 1986, consolidated the unexpected resounding success of the singer. The public was looking forward to new works, eager to attend concerts where the performer gave her all - to the point of exhaustion.

Some argue that at first the star was shocking - she exploited sexual images and “flirted” with religious symbols. But talent, incredible perseverance and a constant desire for self-improvement did their job.

Ups and downs

Were in creative biography Madonna has its ups and downs. The Golden Raspberry anti-award called her the worst actress of the century (the films “Who’s That Girl” and “Body as Evidence” were failures; they spoke unflatteringly about her role in the “Bond” film “Die Another Day”; she was terrible last work on the screen - “Gone”). However, the musical film about the second wife of the Argentine president, who did a lot for the country and sadly died early from cancer - “Evita” - became a real cultural phenomenon. The song for the comic book film “Dick Tracy” performed by Madonna was awarded an Oscar.

Madonna's personal life

First marriage, first daughter

The passionate feelings our heroine felt for Sean Penn were overshadowed by scandals that even led to fights. Madonna's personal life turned out to be an eternal "action". The young husband was not ready for life together, and when two such hot temperaments collided, “pieces of paper literally flew through the back streets.” The singer did not endure the beatings for long. Having married in 1985, 4 years later she divorced the actor.

On the set of Dick Tracy, the director and performer became interested in her leading role, Hollywood legend Warren Beatty, but Madonna limited herself to just an affair and did not marry the artist.

Her daughter's father became her Cuban boyfriend Carlos Leon in 1996 (the diva would break up with him six months later). Madonna's daughter was named Lourdes, she has already celebrated her 19th birthday, and she has a joint business with her mother - her own clothing line.

It was during that period that she became acquainted with Buddhism, yoga, and Kabbalah (since then Madonna has been an adherent of this teaching).

New albums, millions earned, and finally won a Grammy gave strength to the performer.

With and without Richie

In mid-1998, together with her then friend Andy Bird, the singer attended a party with Sting. There she met with director Guy Ritchie, a British man 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. She became fascinated by British life, enjoyed getting to know the traditions of a new country, but did not forget about work - in 2001, a world tour took place, which attracted sold-out audiences.

Alas, the second marriage did not become a union “to the grave” (although in addition to Rocco, an adopted black son, David, appeared in the family): in the fall of 2008, it became known about the couple’s separation. Soon the star adopted a girl from Malawi, Chifundo Mercy, and her British wife was replaced by her Brazilian boyfriend Jesus Luz. In 2010, Madonna began dating dancer Brahim Zeiba. And at the beginning of 2017, the media started talking about how Madonna and Sean Penn were seeing each other more and more often. Maybe they decided to restore a marriage that collapsed many years ago?

Her fortune is estimated at almost $1 billion, and she has her own chain of fitness clubs. Film “We. We Believe in Love,” which the singer staged, was scolded to smithereens, but she still has so many new ideas! The world will be surprised more than once by the phenomenon called Madonna!

Madonna Louise Ciccone(English: Madonna Louise Ciccone) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, writer, actress, film director, screenwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist. She was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City in the Midwestern United States. Moving to New York in 1978 In pursuit of a career in a dance troupe, Madonna first became a member of rock bands and then a successful solo performer and songwriter.

Madonna became famous for constantly “reinventing” her music and images. She became one of the first female musicians to have a successful career on a major label without losing creative or financial control. The singer's videos are an integral part of MTV, adding new themes of texts or images of video clips to the mainstream. Madonna's songs have generally received positive reviews from music critics, despite frequent media controversy regarding their themes of racism, gender discrimination, religion, politics, sex and violence. Madonna's debut album of the same name was released in 1983 on the Sire label and became the first in a series of successful albums by the author/singer. The artist has a record 20 MTV Video Music Awards and 7 Grammy Awards, including prestigious nominations for the albums Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). The singer has many chart records and hits that reached first place on the main music charts, among which the most successful were the songs “Like a Virgin” (1984), “La Isla Bonita” (1986), “Like a Prayer” (1989), “Vogue” "(1990), "Frozen" (1998), "Music" (2000), "Hung Up" (2005) and "4 Minutes" (2008).

The singer is considered the most commercially successful performer in history according to the Guinness Book of Records with 275 million confirmed licensed sales. Time included the singer in its list of “25 Most Powerful Women of the Last Century,” assessing her influence on modern music. The singer is also the best-selling rock artist of the 20th century according to the Recording Industry Association of America and the second best-selling female artist in the United States with 64.5 million certified album sales. Billboard recognized the singer as the most successful artist in the history of recording among solo singers and singers. According to the NY Post, the singer's condition is 2013 exceeds $1 billion, but according to Forbes magazine, this figure is a little overestimated and does not take into account the fifty percent tax. The singer's 2008-09 concert tour, Sticky & Sweet Tour, ranks first in terms of income among solo artists in history. Madonna’s recognition in music and cinema is known - since the late 80s the media has called her the “queen of pop music”, and in 2000 year The anti-award Golden Raspberry named her the worst actress of the 20th century. The singer has 1 Oscar award for the song “I Always Get My Man” in the film “Dick Tracy”, 2 Golden Globe awards for her role in the musical “Evita” and for the authorship of the song “Masterpiece”. Madonna's films as director and screenwriter “Filth and Wisdom” and “WE. We Believe in Love" were crushed by critics and received limited theatrical release.

born August 16, 1958 in a town on the shores of Lake Huron, Michigan, USA. The singer's mother and namesake, Madonna Louise Ciccone, was French-Canadian and worked as a radiography technician; father, Silvio Ciccone, Italian-American, worked as a design engineer for the Chrysler/General Motors defense design bureau. Madonna is the third child in the family, there were six children in total. The first girl in the family was named Madonna Louise in honor of her mother; this name was never officially changed. The name "Veronica" was chosen by Madonna Louise Ciccone at age 12 for the traditional Catholic sacrament of confirmation and is not official.

Madonna's mother was descended from the Jansenist early French settlers, and her piety bordered on fanaticism. My mother played the piano beautifully and sang, but she never wanted to perform in public. During her sixth pregnancy, Madonna Ciccone (the eldest) was diagnosed with breast cancer. The mother adhered to the ideas of the pre-Vatican period, which still recognized sex as an immoral act, and abortion as murder under any conditions. She refused treatment for the rest of her pregnancy and died a few months after the birth of her sixth child at the age of 30. Madonna (the younger)'s rejection of the fact that God could allow her mother to die became an important aspect of the singer's life and work. Two years later, the widowed father of the family remarried the maid Joan Gustafson - a simple woman and the complete opposite of the first. The couple's first child died, but soon they had two more children. The stepmother cared mainly about her own children, but the father forced all the children to call the woman “mom,” which Madonna never did, considering the father a traitor to the mother’s memory. The family was quite wealthy, but Gustafson brought into the family the Protestant spirit of total economy on clothing and food - the family ate exclusively semi-finished products and the children almost did not wear store-bought clothes. Joan's methods of education were like a sergeant-major, which further strained the atmosphere in the family. Madonna gave her stepmother a feeling of female competition due to her strong external resemblance singers with their late mother. Madonna was subjected to severe bullying by two older brothers who were drug addicts, who fought with her for their father’s attention, which, according to biographers, early laid in her a hostile attitude towards drugs.

The Ciccone family lived in the Detroit suburbs, where Madonna attended St. Frederick and St. Andrew and West Catholic schools and was a cheerleader on the basketball team. The singer graduated from high school at the secular Rochester Adams School, where she participated in theatrical productions and school musicals. Ciccone studied with excellent marks, and the teachers took on the role of a mother in her upbringing. The singer called philosophy and Russian history teacher Marilyn Fallows one of the two most important people in her childhood. Despite her grades, Ciccone was considered by her peers to be a “good girl”; she was disliked for her excellent academic performance and position as a teacher’s favorite, and boys were afraid to ask her out on a date.

At the age of 14, Madonna was influenced as a pop lyricist by her friendship with the future recognized poet Win Cooper, who studied with her in the same school a grade older. According to Cooper, the girl was shy and a little aloof, avoided society, dressed modestly and especially loved the books of Aldous Huxley and the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. The key event of Madonna’s childhood is considered to be West’s performance at the school talent evening at the age of 14. 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" The group Who. The reputation of an exemplary excellent student was hopelessly damaged, the performance was discussed for a long time in the city, and the father put his daughter under house arrest. The “heroine of the day” and the brothers and sisters began to be teased: “Madonna is a whore,” although this had nothing to do with sex. From the age of four, Madonna Ciccone imitated the dances of Shirley Temple, but took up ballet at almost 15 years old, which was acceptable for modern jazz choreography. Choreographer Christopher Flynn was her greatest influence. Flynn took her time and took the student to classical concerts, exhibitions and, to broaden her horizons, to gay clubs. Flynn was gay 30 years older, so the student’s love remained unrequited, but, according to the singer’s recollections, this was the only person who understood her. The excellent student's appearance changed towards a sloppy bohemian look, scaring off others. Biographers Andersen, Taraborrelli and Lucy O'Brien point out that although at the age of 14 Madonna had a reputation as a lecher, it was only at the age of 15 that she had her first sexual experience with 17-year-old Russell Long, which the whole school learned about at the instigation of Ciccone and father. According to Lucy O’Brien, the fight against stereotypical attitudes towards women based on the “virgin/whore” criterion and the desire to tell others about her love experiences became the main themes of the singer’s work.

Madonna Ciccone graduated from high school in 1976 a few months before final exams. She continued her dance education on a full-time basis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where Flynn received a professorship. The choice of a “frivolous” profession put a rift in the singer’s relationship with her father, who wanted his daughter to become a doctor or lawyer. The father believed that his daughter could find better use for her excellent certificate, successfully passed the IQ test (according to biographers Christopher Andersen (1991) and Randy Taraborrelli (2000), the singer’s result at the age of 17 showed 140 points) and excellent recommendations from teachers. The right to receive a free higher education in the United States is given to very few people, and Madonna moved into a university dormitory full of hopes for her brilliant future. According to teachers and colleagues, she had rare stamina even for a dancer, which was further developed by ballet training, and subsequently allowed her to become less out of breath while performing songs with simultaneous dancing. According to the memoirs of choreographer Gaia Delang, young Ciccone was “very slender and light, her dance was infectious.” However, in technical terms, the budget Madonna was inferior to many ballerinas, causing their rejection and envy, and the inability to be absolutely the best caused protest and a desire to further stand out, as far as possible in the ballet class - with torn tights or unwashed short hair. In her free time from studying, Madonna visited clubs in Detroit, in one of which she met black drummer Stephen Bray, her future collaborator and co-producer.

Personal life

Madonna's first serious romance with Sean Penn ended in marriage in 1985. The press closely followed the couple's relationship and began to call Penn "Mr. Madonna." Sean did not like this “name” and rivalry began between the spouses. This resulted in a public row. The couple broke up after four years of marriage. After the divorce, Madonna began a relationship with famous actor and womanizer Warren Beatty, which ended in nothing. At one time there was talk that Madonna had tender feelings for actress Sandra Bernhard. However, the singer stated that she does not welcome same-sex love. However, model Jenny Shimizu stated that she had a lesbian relationship with a celebrity.

Madonna gave birth to her daughter Lourdes from her personal sports trainer, however, the singer said that she saw no point in marrying the father of her child. In 2000 Madonna gave birth to a son to her second husband, English director Guy Ritchie. The couple met in 1998. However, after 7 years of married life, the couple separated. After this, Madonna turned her attention to a young 22-year-old model from Brazil, Jesus Luz.

Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone) is the queen of American pop music who loves to shock audiences with her performances.

She is included in the Guinness Book of Records as the most successful singer in the history of show business.

Included in the list of 25 women who had the greatest influence on the development of modern music.

Childhood and youth

The future singer was born on August 16, 1958 in Michigan, USA. She was born the third child in the family, but the first girl, so she was named after her mother - Madonna.

This name was extremely rare, although early years Madonna had no idea about this.

Mom worked in the radiography laboratory from time to time, but was more involved with the large family.

Madonna as a child

Father - Silvio Anthony successfully served at a defense concern as a design engineer.

The baby's musical abilities were passed on from her mother. She played the piano and sang beautifully, but she didn’t want to develop professionally.

Madonna's mother was an extremely pious person. When, during her sixth pregnancy, she was diagnosed with cancer, she took it as God’s punishment and refused treatment.

Soon Madonna was left without a mother, and her father remarried. The family moved often. The children always attended only Catholic schools.

A constantly drunk father, drug-addicted brothers - all this contributed to the fact that Madonna tried to be at home as little as possible.

A closed, modest nerd girl at the age of 14 decides to prove herself. It was the first time she shocked the audience from the stage.

At the talent night, dressed in short shorts, a crop top and face paint, the girl gives a rousing performance of The Who's "Baba O'Riley."

At the age of 15 she begins to seriously study ballet choreography, but is too late to get good plasticity.

At this age, Madonna acquires a reputation as a scandalous and dissolute student with a strange and repulsive appearance.

Guys are afraid of her, and girls think she's crazy. In high school, the future star is interested in theater productions and participates in musicals.

However, Madonna has a high level of intelligence, and, despite all the oddities, she always studied with excellent marks.

She received a certificate as an external student in 1976. Then the stubborn girl enters the dance department at the University of Michigan for free training.

He spends his free time from studying in numerous clubs. After studying for 2 years, she drops out and moves to New York.

Beginning of a musical career: rock band

There she undergoes numerous auditions for musicals and as a backup dancer for musical groups.

In New York, she continues to dance and begins to study playing percussion instruments and electric guitar.

Soon she is accepted as a drummer in Gilroy's band Breakfast Club. In 1980, Madonna and Gary Berke formed the team “Madonna And The Sky”.

The team was not successful, and the group soon broke up. Later, another unsuccessful attempt was made to conquer the musical Olympus as part of the rock group Emmy.

In 1981 There is an acquaintance with K. Barbon, the owner of a recording studio.

This meeting marked the beginning of the career of the great singer.

Becoming a singer and the path to fame

Madonna, at Barbon's insistence, leaves her group and becomes its manager.

In a large establishment in Manhattan, Madonna begins a relationship with Mark Kamins.

Soon she lets him listen to her existing recordings. He was delighted and took the disk to the deputy. Director of Island Records.

However, during a personal meeting, Madonna was refused cooperation due to the smell of sweat. The girl was then in distress and practically lived on the street.

M. Kamins was not satisfied with the refusal, and handed over the tape to Warner Bros. to the general director himself. Here the aspiring singer was lucky.

The first single “Everybody” immediately takes a leading position in the dance club music chart.

He was just a little short of getting into the “hot” hundred hits according to Billboard magazine.

In 1983, the singer's first album, Madonna, was released. It does not gain popularity immediately.

Only by the end of the year the album entered the top 10 of the Billboard chart. The following year, the second disc, “Like a Virgin,” was ready for release.

He was received rather coolly by the public. In 1984, Madonna performed the main song from this album at the MTV Video Music Awards.

On stage she breaks her heel, and to get out of the situation, Madonna beats her. She, in a wedding dress, begins to crawl on her knees and playfully roll around.

The audience is shocked, and the song becomes a wedding hit for subsequent years.

In addition, "Like a Virgin" was included in the list of the 200 most iconic songs in the United States.

In 1992, Madonna became the owner of her own company, Maverick.

The main goal was the production and release of entertaining films, books and music albums.

For musical career Madonna has released about 11 discs and made about 10 music tours, some of which lasted for a year.

In addition, the singer actively acted in films. Her most popular roles are in the films: “Body as Evidence”, “ best friend", musical "Evita".

In 1991, she played herself in the documentary film “In Bed with Madonna.” The celebrity's filmography includes more than 20 films.

In 2007 he acted as a screenwriter and director of the film “Filth and Wisdom.”

Three years later, Madonna, who is a sports fan, opens a network of fitness clubs - Hard Candy.

Personal life

Despite her scandalous behavior and outward promiscuity, Madonna gained sexual experience at the age of 15 with Russell Long (2 years older).

It was a sign of protest against conservatism and strict control from the father and the church.

Subsequently, this theme is often seen in her songs. Madonna's first official husband was actor Sean Penn.

Madonna with Sean Penn

They met on the pavilion while filming a video in 1985. Love broke out immediately, and the young people got married that same year.

Soon family life The life of two outstanding personalities began to become complicated by scandals and quarrels.

Sh. Penn was extremely jealous and prone to aggression, and Madonna loved to behave provocatively and flirted constantly.

Madonna was hospitalized several times with serious injuries after the showdown.

In 1989, after hours of violence in her own home, Madonna filed for divorce against her husband.

The singers' next serious relationship was with sports coach and actor Carlos Leon.

With my daughter

In the fall of 1996, she gives birth to a daughter from him, Lourdes Maria. During pregnancy, Madonna became very interested in bondage and yoga.

I started studying Buddhism. When the baby was six months old, Madonna broke up with Carlos.

In 1998, at Sting's party, she met British film director Guy Ritchie. 2 years later, Madonna gives birth to a son, Rocco.

Madonna is the queen of pop music, writer, director, producer, fashion designer... in a word, a multifaceted and creative personality. Her life story is the embodiment of the American dream; it proves that with amazing hard work, you can achieve a rapid rise from the bottom to the very top. But most importantly, Madonna became a symbol of the sexual revolution of the 20th century.

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

Childhood and family

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. The celebrity's mother, Madonna Louise Fortin, came from a family of French Canadians and worked as an X-ray technician. His father, Italian-American Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, was a design engineer at the Chrysler automobile plant.

Madonna became the third child and first daughter in a family that later had two more sons and a daughter. As the first daughter, in accordance with Italian traditions, she received her mother's name.

When Madonna Jr. turned 5, her mother died of breast cancer. The 30-year-old woman was carrying her sixth child, and chemotherapy meant an inevitable miscarriage. Being a religious woman, she could not do this. The child was born, and a few months later the mother died. The father remarried the family's maid, Joan Gustafson. This is how the girl got a half-brother, Mario, and a sister, Jennifer.

Madonna grew up in a devout Catholic family in the suburbs of Detroit. As the singer admits, she was not everyone’s favorite in childhood; everyone considered her a “hello” girl.

“They treated me cruelly, but I did not allow them to wipe their feet on me and only emphasized my foreignness.

Madonna was an exemplary excellent student, for which her classmates did not like her, but her teachers adored her. She did not shave her armpit hair or wear makeup, and took piano and jazz choreography lessons.

But at the age of 14, her good-girl reputation was ruined: she showed up to a school talent competition in a bikini, and her body was painted with fluorescent paints. After a cheeky dance to “Baba O’Riely” by 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 was. And the concept of “virgin/whore” has been a leitmotif through her work ever since.

The mother of the future celebrity loved to dance. Her daughter followed in her footsteps and convinced her father to sign her up for ballet lessons. Later, in high school, she competed on the cheerleading team. After graduating from school as an external student, Madonna received 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 dozen dollars in her pocket.

She struggled to make 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 on an airplane, the first time I even called a taxi - everything was for the first time. And I arrived with 35 dollars in my pocket. This was my most courageous act in my life.

First steps to success

In 1979, Madonna danced with French disco artist Patrick Heronandez during his world tour and went crazy with musician Dan Gilroy. With the latter, a little later, the pop diva created her first rock band called Breakfast Club. Madonna played drums and guitar, and also sang.

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

Madonna in the movie Specific Victim

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

Madonna's demo recording impressed DJ and producer Mark Kamins, who played at the Danceteria club, where Madonna often visited. Kamins introduced the rising star to 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 video

Before recording and releasing her debut album, Madonna's producers decided to test the waters and understand whether the singer's success was accidental or not. For this purpose the second maxi-single was written. If it becomes a hit, then they will give the go-ahead 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 composition “Physical Attraction” on side B. A video was released for the first song, which was included in MTV rotation.

Madonna's first music video was simply a choreographed 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 the music industry. Before Madonna, no singer had dared to exploit sexual themes so openly in music videos. This is the absolute norm in the pop industry today.

Madonna – Burning Up

Madonna's debut album was called "Madonna" and hit the shelves of music stores in July 1983. It included 8 compositions in the synthetic disco genre. The album started on the Billboard 200 chart at position 190. The record took a year to reach number eight. Reviews from critics were mixed. Many music experts accused Madonna of being overly sexy and deliberately “girlish” and gave her her “minute of fame” for at most six months. But Ciccone just chuckled, declaring that she knows perfectly well what image her work has created, but this does not mean that this is the only thing she has to offer: “I keep everything under control and am waiting for people to understand it and be confused.”

Worldwide success

Madonna's second album, Like a Virgin, dedicated, according to the cover insert, to all the virgins on the planet, was released in 1984. The producer was Knight Rogers, who had previously worked with David Bowie (album “Let’s Dance”), which endeared him to Ciccone.

Madonna performed the lead single “Like a Virgin” at the very first MTV Video Music Awards. The singer appeared on stage in a 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 the time, the performance was shockingly sexy. Many years later, eyewitnesses recalled: “It was this moment that became a powerful impetus for the release feminine 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 her first success in 1985, Madonna starred in two films. She got her first role in the film “Visual Search”, where Madonna, in a cameo role as a singer in a club, performed the track “Crazy For You”. Next, the singer appears in the film “Desperate Search for Susan,” which introduced “Into The Groove” to the world 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 singer’s nudes, which were taken back in 1979. Madonna sued for the rights to ban the publication of the photographs.

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

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 “Goose and Tomtom” along with Sean Penn.

Queen of shocking

In 1986, a video was released for the song “Papa Don’t Preach,” in which Madonna touched on the topic of teenage pregnancy. Her lyrical underage heroine wants to give birth to a child from her loved one. Unexpectedly, the song became a source of conflict between Catholics and pro-lifers (opponents of abortion). Catholics blamed Madonna for promoting extramarital affairs; pro-lifers saw an anti-abortion message in her song. Madonna herself claimed that this song is about a protest against any patriarchal authoritarianism, be it a father, a church or society.

Madonna – Papa Don't Preach

In 1987, Madonna appeared on the set of 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 Madonna was erected.

At the beginning of 1989, the singer signed a 5 million dollar contract with Pepsi, and the new composition “Like A Prayer” was presented just in an advertising campaign for the soda. The video for the song, like the advertisement itself, provoked outrage among religious viewers: crosses were burning in the background. The video shocked the Vatican and called for a boycott of Pepsi, and the holding had no choice but to terminate the sponsorship contract with the pop diva. However, Madonna received her 5 million, and the scandal that broke out fueled public interest for a long time.

Madonna – Like a Prayer

In 1989, an 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 personality development, 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. MTV management banned the broadcast of the video on the channel due to its 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 on the market in the “video single” format.

Madonna – Justify My Love

Next year is another scandal. Truth or Dare is a documentary filmed during the Blond Ambition World Tour, during which Toronto police were intent on arresting Madonna for simulating masturbation on stage.

In 1992, Madonna founded her own company, Maverick, which was engaged in entertainment, in particular, producing films, releasing music CDs and books. First of all, the company released a book by Madonna entitled “Sex” with revelations and sexual fantasies of the singer, who appears in the text under the name Dita. Along with the book, the single "Erotica" was sold, accompanied by a photograph of Madonna holding a whip. Despite the mixed reaction from society, the book became a bestseller. In the first week, more than 500 thousand people purchased a copy of Sex, and a total of 1.5 million books were sold.

The book's release was part of a deliberate campaign to promote the fifth album, Erotica, which was entirely dedicated to sex. However, the PR campaign also had a downside: the disc was a commercial success, but listeners perceived it more as an addition to the book, so “Erotika” did not make it to the top of the charts.

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

In the same year, the album “Bedtime Stories” was released, again taking the concept of Ciccone’s work in a different direction. The track of the same name on the album was written by Björk. The theme echoed the previous record, the degree of sexuality dropped by an order of magnitude, while the lyricism of the lyrics increased. Listeners especially liked the single “Secret”, but overall attention to the album remained at average levels.

Passion for Kabbalah

Around 1997, Madonna began studying Kabbalah and Judaism in general. This led to the emergence of calmer intonations in her work and style. Before that, she studied Buddhism, yoga and the Vedas, but only Kabbalah “turned her life upside down.”

Shortly before this, Madonna played the main role in the musical “Evita,” dedicated to the biography of the Argentine singer and subsequently the wife of dictator Juan Peron, Eva Duarte. Filming took place in South America, and the woman’s partner on the set was Antonio Banderas. During preparation for filming, Madonna took vocal lessons, which, by the way, is clearly visible in the album “Ray of Light” released a year later, recognized as the most successful since “Like a Prayer”.

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

The public favorably accepted the new image, and in 1999 Madonna received three Grammys at once. Before this, there was only one similar figurine in her collection - received in 1991 in the category “best video clip”. Overall, the album was able to compete even with boy bands and young singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera that had flooded the music market.

Pop queen of the world

“Ray of Light” set the bar high, but the album, released in 2000 and designed in an “American” style with the laconic title “Music,” broke the records of its predecessor. The main hits are the songs “Music”, “Don't Tell Me” and “What It Feels Like for a Girl”, the video for which was banned by MTV, but not because of the nudity, but because of the violent scenes.

Madonna – What It Feels Like For A Girl

At the same time, her attempts to realize herself 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, Madonna’s husband at the time, received five Golden Raspberry anti-awards, including the most offensive nominations for “worst actress,” “worst film,” and “worst director.” Since then, Richie has sworn off starring his wife in his films, and the singer only agreed to small roles, for example, in “Die Another Day” with Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry.

But 2003 brought Madonna her first failures in the musical field. The disc “American Life”, in which the singer touched on a number of topical political issues and opened up mental abscesses, no longer wanting to tolerate being treated as a “mercantile wench.” The album was not a failure from a commercial point of view, but was 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 topped all the UK and US charts on its first day. But everything turned out to be not so rosy. Critics called the album very dark, linking this with the singer's painful breakup with Jesus Luz. The video for the second album, single Girl Gone Wild, is subject to a censorship ban due to explicit scenes. The album, devoid of a promotional tour in support, becomes the worst-selling album in the singer's career, breaking the American Life anti-record of 2003.

The singer goes on the MDNA Tour, which starts on May 31 and becomes the most successful tour of 2012. Concerts are causing public outcry in the US over the use of imitation weapons on stage. Billboard names Madonna as the record holder for the music industry's earnings - $34.6 million for the year. In 2013, Madonna received 3 Billboard Music Awards. In August 2013, Forbes magazine named the singer the top celebrity earner of the year with earnings of $125 million.

madonna ft. Nicki Minaj – Bitch, I'm Madonna!

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

Fashion designer and entrepreneur

In 2010, Madonna took part in an advertising campaign for the fashion house Dolce & Gabbana, which dreamed of getting the singer. Together with her daughter Lourdes, the singer created her own line of youth clothing, “Material Girl.” The album of concert recordings of the same name was released in the same year, and a little later a collection appeared best songs"Celebration" In the same year, Madonna became the screenwriter and director of the film “W.E.”, which is scheduled to be shown in the summer of 2011.

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

Madonna's personal life

You can write about Madonna's love affairs separate book, so below we will talk only about the singer’s most sensational and serious relationships.

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

Madonna's first serious romance, which ended in marriage, is associated with the name of actor Sean Penn. At the time they met in 1985, the singer was dating Prince, but easily left the young man for the young (Sean was 2 years younger) cinematic genius with a reputation as a rebel. They met on the set of the “Material Girl” video. Very soon the lovers announced their engagement and got married on August 16, 1985.

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 drinking. By 1988, their marriage was practically over. 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, horrified by the pop idol disfigured by bruises and bruises, had no doubts. However, the case did not go to court - Madonna asked not to open a criminal case against her ex-husband. “He always had problems controlling his anger,” she later said.

Madonna spent the next few months recovering from the psychological trauma. In 1990, the singer began 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 explicit video for “Justify My Love.”

In 1992, she dated rapper Vanilla Ice. After their breakup, the man’s career began to decline, and the press revealed a pattern that every man who met 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 talk about the details of the breakup and rejected all the multimillion-dollar offers from journalists who inquired about the ins and outs of their romance. He did not disappear from the lives of Madonna and Lourdes, and always tried to spend his free time with his daughter.

The singer then had a short relationship with screenwriter Andy Bird, which ended in 1998 after he carelessly told reporters: “Well, we have a passionate relationship, but we need to work on it.” After the breakup, she realized that she was pregnant. The woman immediately refused an abortion. A dilemma arose: to tell Byrd about the pregnancy or not. But fate decided it itself - 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 artist and had just brilliantly presented his debut film Lock, Stock and 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 purpose - to meet 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, having accidentally met Madonna's ex-lover, Bird, in the park, hit him in the face with all his might.
Kevin Sampaio is Madonna's new lover

Madonna now

At the beginning of 2018, Madonna shared with Instagram followers that she was working on her 14th studio album.

There are rumors that she will play the lead role of silent film star Norma Desmond in the musical Sunset Boulevard.

singer Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone. Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. American singer, songwriter, producer, dancer, writer, actress, film director, screenwriter, entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Madonna is considered the most commercially successful performer in history according to the Guinness Book of Records. with 300 million confirmed licensed sales. Time included the singer in its list of “25 Most Powerful Women of the Last Century,” assessing her influence on modern music.

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

Billboard recognized the singer as the most successful artist in the 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 have generally received positive reviews from music critics, despite frequent media controversy regarding their themes of racism, gender discrimination, religion, politics, sex and violence. Madonna's debut album of the same name was released in 1983 on the Sire label and became the first in a series of successful albums by the author/singer.

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

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

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

The singer's 2008-09 concert tour, Sticky & Sweet Tour, ranks as the top-grossing solo artist of all time. Madonna's recognition in music and cinema is well known - since the late 80s the media has called her the “queen of pop”, and in 2000 the Golden Raspberry anti-award named her the worst actress of the 20th century.

Madonna's films as director and screenwriter “Filth and Wisdom” and “WE. We Believe in Love" were crushed by critics and received limited theatrical release.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ciccone studied with excellent marks, and the teachers took on the role of a mother in her upbringing. The singer called philosophy and Russian history teacher Marilyn Fallows one of the two most important people in her childhood. Despite her grades, Ciccone was considered by her peers to be a “good girl”; she was disliked for her excellent academic performance and position as a teacher’s favorite, and boys were afraid to ask her out on a date.

At the age of 14, Madonna was influenced as a pop lyricist by her friendship with the future recognized poet Win Cooper, who studied with her in the same school a grade older. According to Cooper, the girl was shy and a little aloof, avoided society, dressed modestly and especially loved the books of Aldous Huxley and the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.

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

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

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

Madonna Ciccone graduated from school in 1976 a few months before her final exams. She continued her dance education on a full-time basis at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where Flynn received a professorship. The choice of a “frivolous” profession put a rift in the singer’s relationship with her father, who wanted his daughter to become a doctor or lawyer. The father believed that his daughter could find better use for her excellent certificate, which she successfully passed IQ test(according to biographers Christopher Andersen (1991) and Randy Taraborrelli (2000) The singer’s result at the age of 17 showed 140 points) and brilliant recommendations from teachers. The right to receive a free higher education in the United States is given to very few people, and Madonna moved into a university dormitory full of hopes for her brilliant future. According to teachers and colleagues, she had rare stamina even for a dancer, which was further developed by ballet training, and subsequently allowed her to become less out of breath while performing songs with simultaneous dancing.

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

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

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

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

Due to a lack of funds to pay rent, Ciccone began auditioning for Broadway musicals and as a backup dancer. In 1979, during the casting as a backup dancer for the world tour of the French disco singer Patrick Hernandez, Madonna Ciccone's performance was liked by the singer's Belgian producers Van Lieu and Perrelin. Professionals cannot help but pay attention to her plasticity and praise her pleasant voice, which sang the Christmas song “Jingle Bells”. To the complete surprise of Madonna, who had not previously considered herself a singer, she is invited to Paris, where they promise to make her “something like a dancing Edith Piaf.”

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

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

In the spring of 1981, Madonna Ciccone meets the owner of the Gotham recording studio, Camille Barbon. Soon, Barbon offers to become the singer’s personal manager on the condition that she leaves the group, and Ciccone immediately agrees. Barbon decides that Madonna will perform without a guitar in order to allow her to dance freely on stage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In July 1983, their debut album entitled Madonna was released. At first it goes unnoticed, but within a year it reaches number 8 on the Billboard 200 and number 6 in the UK chart. The singles “Borderline” (written by the Lucases), “Lucky Star” (written by Madonna and dedicated to the retired Kamins) and “Holiday” became hits. Madonna considered the disc rather mediocre and was not too happy with working with Lucas, but years later the disc became a post-disco classic.

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

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

After recording the album, on Stein's recommendation, Freddie Demann, who had previously worked for. Despite initial criticism, in 2013 Rolling Stone named the album one of the 100 best debut albums of all time. Currently, sales of the Madonna album amount to 10 million copies, but this was greatly facilitated by the popularity of her next disc.

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

In 1984, Madonna performed the “title track” at the first MTV Video Music Awards and, breaking her heel, came out of the situation as follows - she began to kneel and lie on stage in a wedding dress and a belt with the inscription BOY TOY, which shocked the television audience. The song talks about “metaphysical virginity,” and the video, filmed in Venice (the city of Venus), combines sacred and profane images: Leo, the symbol of the patron saint of the city, Evangelist Mark, and the zodiac sign of Madonna Ciccone, the Bride of Christ and a modern, experienced maiden in crosses and fennel. "Like a Virgin" is included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "200 Iconic Songs of All Time" list..

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

In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published black and white photographs of the singer nude, taken in 1979 and subsequently sold by photographer Martin Schreiber. This causes the first scandal in Madonna Ciccone's just-begun big career, which threatened her career, which she handles with her own hands. In the midst of criticism at the Live Aid charity concert, while dressed in several layers of outdated 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, since in a few years it could be used against her.

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

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

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

Madonna - La Isla Bonita

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

Because of aggressive behavior“Mr. Madonna” in relation to journalists and his wife, the press begins to call them “evil Penns” and S&M (Sean & Madonna) - a hint of sadomasochistic relationships in the celebrity family. In the same year, the singer starred in the film “Who’s That Girl?”, which failed miserably. However, the success of the film's soundtrack is great - the title track of the same name becomes a No. 1 hit in the US and UK. The New York Times magazine calls the film the worst film of the year. In the same year, he goes on the Who’s That Girl World Tour, which completely compensates for the negative effect of the failed film. Critics praise the performances for their theatricality and "transforming a rock concert into a multimedia spectacle."

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

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

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

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

The fourth album Like a Prayer was released at the end of 1989 and becomes a turning point in Madonna's career. Like a Prayer was written and produced in collaboration with Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray. The singer is producing her second album in a row and it is obvious that she wants to prove that True Blue's success was not an accident. Rolling Stone magazine describes the album as "... as close to art as pop music can get" and included it in its "500" list. best albums of all times." Leonard calls him a “divorcee” because of the singer’s depression due to her painful breakup with Sean Penn. 'Express Yourself' Becomes a Feminist 'Call to Arms' with a “preach of self-respect”, representing the transition from reflection to action. The themes of other songs, as expected, are domestic violence (“Till Death Do Us Parts”), nostalgia for lost relationships with brothers and sisters (“Keep It Together”), dreams of a child (“Dear Jessie”). All songs on the album Like a Prayer were written by Madonna, which makes the album the most personal, since the previous discs contained one or two songs by third-party authors.

Madonna - Like A Prayer

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

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

Madonna tries to justify herself on the spot by giving a great speech at Leonardo Da Vinci Airport: “My show is a theatrical play that invites the audience on an emotional journey... I do not impose my idea of ​​how to live on anyone, I simply describe to the audience my understanding of life, and let them evaluate everything themselves.” The singer avoids excommunication, but the concert is canceled due to low ticket sales. For the concert video of the tour, the singer receives her first Grammy, but she herself does not consider the award 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 prohibited from being shown on television due to the presence of erotic scenes. "Justify My Love" is the source of several scandals, the first of which is related to plagiarism. Madonna uses the text of a letter she came across from Ingrid Chavez, the then-girlfriend of the song's co-producer Lenny Kravitz, not wanting listeners to attribute it to the fantasies of another woman. The Chicago Sun-Times disgraces the singer with words about the “unprecedented meanness” of stealing the song.

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

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

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

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

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

“Sex” and the violent reaction to it in society has become the topic of many scientific research and is considered the most powerful inoculation against an exhibitionist celebrity/musician in a voyeuristic society. The book has been the most wanted book out of print for several years. After the release of “Sex,” boyfriend Vanilla Ice broke off an 8-month relationship with the singer, allegedly not expecting his photographs to be published in the book.

In 1992, the fifth studio album Erotica was released. Erotica took second place in the American charts, and the lead single reached third place on the Billboard Hot 100. In the year of release, Erotica was coolly received by critics and listeners due to the “shadow of the book,” but subsequently began 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) did not have the same chart success as the singer's previous works.

In 1993, without a theatrical release, the film " Dangerous game"directed by Ferrara and starring Madonna. The New York Times calls the film "angry and painful, where the pain seems real."

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

The 1993 tour of “The Girlie Show” in Europe and South America (instead of the USA and Canada) contains more burlesque, irony and clowning than eroticism, which softens the negativity after the release of the book “Sex”, the album Erotica and film roles. A concert in Puerto Rico causes pickets: a singer dressed in military uniform, in response to the audience whistling when a huge American flag appears, holds a Puerto Rican flag in the crotch area. The episode was interpreted ambiguously due to the singer's numerous romantic interests with Puerto Ricans, and was later subjected to scrupulous analysis as an example of the mutual influence of Latin American culture and the United States.

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

The singer changes her style towards R'n'B and hip-hop, and for the first time since Like A Virgin began working with major producers - Dallas Austin, David Foster, Dave Hall (who worked with Mariah Carey) and Marius De Vries and Nellie Hooper ( worked with Björk). "Bedtime Story", the lyrics of which were written by the already recognized Björk, becomes an important milestone. Madonna perfectly masters the “Bjorkian architecture of the text” and lays the foundation for her next albums in it. The relationship with rapper Tupac Shakur ends for a racist reason - his friends “couldn’t believe he was hanging out with a white girl.”

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

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

In October 1996, Madonna gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone-Leon. The girl's father is the singer's then-boyfriend, Cuban fitness trainer and aspiring actor Carlos Leon. Seven months after the birth of their daughter, they separate, and Madonna incurs the wrath of public organizations “for a complete family” and accusations of “pregnancy for the purpose of promoting a film.” The singer baptizes the girl in Catholicism and named her after the city of Lourdes in France, which her extremely religious mother dreamed of visiting. During pregnancy, the singer delves into yoga, the study of Buddhism and Kabbalah, which she describes as “a physics lesson, a bridge between science and spirituality,” rather than a religious teaching.

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

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

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

Madonna - Frozen

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

The singer’s image was influenced by her passion for the book “Memoirs of a Geisha.” Also in 1999, she released the single “Beautuful Stranger” (Russian: beautiful foreigner), written for the soundtrack to the film “Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me.” The song became a big hit outside the US and earned Madonna another Grammy for "Best Song Written for a Feature Film". The singer's relationship with Andy Bird, described in this song as a “beautiful foreigner,” lasted about a year. In the summer of 1998, accompanied by him, she attended a party for Sting and his wife Trudie Styler, where she met Guy Ritchie, her future husband and father of her second child. Ritchie was single, dating model Tanya Strecker, and a romantic relationship with the singer began a year later, which included a public bar brawl between Ritchie and Bird. This story later became the basis for Robbie Williams' song “She's Madonna” (2006).

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

In September 2000, the eighth studio album Music was released. The disc received rave reviews from critics and went to No. 1 in both the UK and the US, repeating the success of Like a Prayer (1989). Under the influence of the disc's co-author and co-producer, Mirve completely changed her sound and began using a vocoder for the first time. Three singles were released from Music: Music, "Don't Tell Me" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl". The video for "What It Feels Like for a Girl" was banned from MTV and VH1 due to scenes of violence. For the album, the singer chose a grotesque image of a cowgirl, expressing an ironic attitude towards America as a London resident.

On December 22, 2000 she married Richie, the former stepson of a baronet, which automatically ranked the singer among the English aristocracy. The wedding in a Scottish castle took place according to the Presbyterian rite. Soon Madonna became a British subject. The Michigan native's fake British accent became a source of irritation for Americans and irony for the British. This has taken root in the colloquial language with the expressions “Madonna syndrome” and “Madge complex.” Life on his own estate, Ashcombe, a Wiltshire village, influenced the mood of subsequent works and attitudes towards the United States.

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

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

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

In France it was a great success due to the pacifist mood, since this country did not participate in the operation against the Taliban. The video for the title song featured a parody of American President George Bush and his kiss with Saddam Hussein. After accusations of lack of patriotism, there was a ban on playing Madonna's new songs on American radio stations. A week before the release, she said that “there is no better time for a pacifist video than during war.” IN last moment withdrew the clip, stating that it “did not want to embarrass people whose relatives are fighting in Afghanistan,” which did not affect the ban.

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

Madonna and Britney Spears - kiss

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

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

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

During the subsequent tour, another scandal took place, according to Lucy O'Brien, caused by the experience of near death due to a fall from a horse. This was the performance of the classic ballad “Live To Tell” a la Jesus Christ with a crown of thorns on a mirror cross, accompanied by video of children suffering in Africa and quotes from Matthew 25:40. At the end of the issue, addresses of sites for collecting donations for sick African children were shown. This speech caused questions and anger among activists of social movements, which quickly faded due to the spread of the video. the Internet, the singer’s statements and the meaning of the song itself.

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

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

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

The album's first single was a duet with Timberlake, 4 Minutes. The song 4 Minutes only partially met expectations, becoming a radio hit and Madonna’s most successful single in the States since “Don’t Tell Me” (2001), but never became No. 1 in the United States due to low rotation on radio, despite record-breaking sales, the song became her record 13th No. 1 single in the UK. A hit in Europe was the song "Give It 2 ​​Me", performed with Pharell Williams.

The tour in support of the album was called the Sticky and Sweet Tour and did not contain provocative material. Sticky and Sweet Tour broke the tour success record for solo artist, previously established by Madonna herself with the previous Confessions Tour. The book by the singer's gay brother Christopher Ciccone, Life with My Sister Madonna, published against her will in early 2008, showed Guy Ritchie as an obvious homophobe and a slippery guy manipulating his sister. During the tour in October 2008, the singer announced her divorce from her husband. On June 12, 2009, the singer adopted a Malawian girl, Mercy James, whose desire to adopt is considered the main reason for Madonna’s divorce from her husband, who had three children. For the first time in her career, the singer decided to extend the tour until the summer of 2009.

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

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

In December 2011, the film “WE. We believe in love", where Madonna Ciccone directed and wrote the screenplay. The film received scathing criticism, but Andrea Riseborough's performance as Wallis Simpson and the film's soundtrack drew rave reviews. The continuation of the “Russian” theme in Madonna’s second film was noted: the main character’s name is Eugene and he is depicted as an intelligent, positive character.

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

Madonna - Masterpiece

On February 5, 2012, Madonna performed at halftime of the 46th Super Bowl, which aired on NBC. She sang a medley of “Vogue”, “Music”, “Open Your Heart”, “Express Yourself”, “Like a Prayer” and a new song “Give Me All Your Luvin’” with Nicki Minaj, M.I.A. and the LMFAO group. Madonna's game and performance became the most watched television program in US history. Patriotic critics noted that the singer inappropriately mocked the “sacredness” of the Super Bowl for Americans by using images of the goddess Isis/Cleopatra performed by Elizabeth Taylor. In the US, the new single set a record for top ten hits for a solo artist, breaking the achievement. The single was a flop in the UK.

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

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

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

In December 2014, an unexpected leak of 13 demo versions of songs that were recorded while working on Madonna's thirteenth studio album occurred on the Internet. The artist was furious at what happened, later leaving several threatening messages addressed to the pirates. A few days after the leak, on December 20, Madonna officially announced her thirteenth long play, called Rebel Heart. In connection with the pre-order of the album, six new songs out of a possible 19 have become available, including the lead single "Living for Love". The album was released on March 10, 2015.

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

On January 21, 2017, during a speech at the mass protest “Women's March,” Madonna twice used obscene language towards opponents of the action. In a performance that followed the speech with songs like “Express Yourself” and “Human Nature,” she changed the latter line to an expletive directed at the 45th president, with whom she had been in open feud since the early 1990s. The singer was criticized for swearing and speaking out loud “anti-patriotic” thoughts about the explosion of the White House. There was no prosecution due to the general context of the speech, in which she also quoted the Anglo-American poet Auden.

Since September 2017, Madonna moved permanently to Lisbon, where her adopted son David Banda successfully qualified for the Benfica FC football academy.

Madonna's height: 163 centimeters

Madonna's personal life:

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

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

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

Madonna and Carlos Leon

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

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

Madonna and Guy Ritchie

Madonna discography:

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

Filmography of Madonna:

1985 - Susan's Search in Vain
1987 - Who is this girl?
1987 - Dick Tracy
1991 - In bed with Madonna
1992 - A League of Their Own
1993 - Dangerous Games
1996 - Evita
2000 - Best Friend
2002 - Gone
2005 - Madonna. I want to tell you my secrets
2002 - I am because we are
2008 - Dirt and wisdom
2011 - WE. We believe in love
2017 - (Her-Story)

Madonna's books:

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