Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan to a lower-middle class
Italian-Catholic household, Madonna Louise Ciccone was the third eldest daughter
born. Her father Chrysler engineer Sylvio (Tony) Ciccone and French-Canadienne
Madonna Fortin, for whom the future superstar was named “Veronica” was added
to her name for confirmation. While at a young age of five, Madonna’s world
fell apart as her mother struggled to a long process of breast cancer on
December 1, 1963. Gathering strength from the tragedious loss of her mother,
Madonna took a role of the head female of the house. She constantly competed
with her other siblings for attention and eventually became her father’s loved
one. Madonna turned her perfect self into a bitter one when Sylvio married Joan
Gustafson, the family’s housekeeper, three years after his wife’s death. The
child resented her father’s betrayal and wouldn’t accept her step-mother
authority. While going through tough times, Ms Ciccone developed a passion for
the arts. Madonna acted in high school productions, but ultimately dance became
her interest in her childhood life. In addition to being a cheerleader, Madonna
took up ballet classes while attending Rochester Adams High School. She found a
mentor in dance instructor Christopher Flynn, who introduced her to the world of
spunkiness and sophistication at Detroit gay clubs. Madonna’s wild sexuality
made her fly sky high! She went on dates with guys, had her first rape encounter
at 14 and toyed with the idea of lesbianism and practiced mutual things with her
female classmate. Having excellent academic performance in addition to her
dancing skills, Madonna graduated early in 1976 with a dance scholarship to the
University of Michigan, where she studied poetry and dance. There, she had her
first acquaintance with Steven Bray. Bray was a black drummer in an R&b band
, and she began to attend his gigs. Finally, after spending just five semesters
at U of M and the encouragement of Flynn, the nineteen-year-old set off to
realize her dream. Despite her fathers dreams, Madonna began her world wide
adventure, looking for roles where she could not only dance but sing also. Later
on back in Queens, the Gilroys started The Breakfast Club in the fall of 1979
with Madonna on drums. That failed when the lead guitarist stopped the band.
Madonna went to write and record dance/disco-oriented tracks with Bray and
performed them at downtown clubs. She was quickly spotted by DJ Mark Kamins at
the latter club. Madonna presented a four-track demo to him, he immediately made
a deal and signed contracts. Madonna’s self titled debut album was a mixture
of sexy attitude, and streetwise sass. Her bare midriff, weird costume jewelry,
and her I-don’t-care attitude helped to make her unique personality that the
world would get to know her as. Her first version of Everybody, released as
Madonna’s first single at the end of 1982. Her second single camde from the
debut album, Physical Attraction also proved to be a club favorite. In June
1983, Madonna had her 3rd club hit with the outstanding, Holiday, which was
produced by her new boyfriend, dance pop mix-master John Benitez. The following
month, Holiday became her first billboard Top 40 hit. After that happened,
Madonna had been certified quadruple-platinum with sales 4.4 million units in
the US and 3.3 million units internationally. By the end of 1884, Madonnas
second studio album, Like A Virgin was ready to be released. This album featured
her songs Material Girl and Dress You Up. The album scored her first #1 hit and
gold single in Dec of “84". To date, Like A Virgin has achieved 10
platinum certifications for sales exceeding 10 million units in the US. Late in
1984, Madonna began working on her first starring role in a film, Susan
Seidelman’s Desperately Seeking Susan, where she played a naive housewife. It
was success in 1985 and brought out her musical talent to the world. In February
of of 1985, Madonna made a brief appearance in Vision Quest as a nightclub
singer, which scored her the second #1 hit and gold single for her career for
the song Crazy For You, which also topped the charts in May. One of Madonna’s
highlights was meeting Sean Penn in 1985 shooting the video for Material Girl.
After the song hit #2, Madonna kicked off the Virgin Tour in Seattle. It was her
first set of 35 US concert dates, with Patrick Leonard as musical director and
the Beastie Boys as openers. Not only did Madonna have a wonderful voice and
performance but she didn’t stop her trademark of, rubber bracelets crucifixes,
and colorful lacy lingerie. On August 16,1985, Sean Penn gave what Madonna
thought was her best birthday present ever-his mind, body and soul. Seven Months
after there first date, He proposed to her. Almost right after the marriage,
both Playboy, and Penthouse published the nude pictures she posed for in 1977
and sent them to Sean to brake there marriage. Nevertheless, Madonna’s
popularity continued with countless teenage girls adopting her sexy appearance,
being nicknamed “The Madonna wannabes”. She created the third record True
Blue. The album was released in June of 1986 it was #1 in both the UK and US.
She now wanted to start excelling in the acting limelight. In early 1987, she
got a part in Who’s That Girl. She starred as Nikki Finn (a main character).
Soon after her singles in the movie ran up to spots #1 & #2. At the end of
1987, Madonna shot Bloodhounds of Broadway, a low-budget gangster comedy. She
played a sexy, black haired, chorus girl Hortense Hathaway. The film crashed and
it was doomed. It now seemed that Madonna’s film career was in trouble at the
time, she did not want to perform on stage for a while. She decided now to focus
on her marriage. Madonna’s marriage with Sean was turning into a very bumpy
ride. In the winter of 1987, Madonna filed for divorce from Sean saying it was
all about differences, later the papers were taken back. Thirteen months later
she put in a complaint of assault against her husband after a violent dispute.
After trying to save there marriage after 3 years it failed.. Like a Prayer, had
a lot to do with her life. The death of her mother (Promise to Try), Her
experience with Sean (Till Death Do Us Part), (Oh Father), the mystery of
Catholicism, all of these titles had to do with her life experiences. Express
Yourself and Oh father hit the charts in 1990. She decided to go back to acting
so in 1990 , Madonna began shooting Dick Tracy, a US $$23 million Walt Disney
production released on June 15th, 1990. The movie was based on a newspaper comic
strip, starred her diva self singing Mahoney. Dick Tracey turned out to be
another box-office bomb. Madonna made out good because her album was produced
through Dick Tracy, and later became #1. To end up the decade Madonna released
The Immaculate Collection on November 13, 1990. The album was dedicated to the
Pope, it was a 17-song collection of her greatest hits from Holiday to Vogue and
including the first time release for Crazy For You. Over 2 million copies were
sold. It was her eight top #1 single she had produced. In the beginning of 1992
she signed a multimillion-dollar deal with Time Warner, guaranteeing release of
all albums, films, and books under her Maverick production corporation. The
album Erotica which was #2, and produced the five Top Hits in “92".
Madonna continued her success throughout her years being a diva till this day.
She had many appearances on Late shows and on talk show host Oprah. She’s
became a Multi Millionaire and is formally Best Friends with talk show host
Roise O’Donnell. From “93", and on she’s been in various movies such
as Evita and created some of her many Top hit’s listed below, She also gave
birth on October 14th 1996 in Los Angeles to a baby girl Lourdes Maria Ciccone.
Top Hits “Deeper and Deeper” “Bad Girl” “Rain” “I’ll remember”
“Bedtime Stories” “Secret” “Take a Bow” “ A New Argentina”
Madonna has become important in our decade, cause she showed spunk and a new
type a style to many generations. She’s opened up and showed even the unique
and spunky can fly high like her. Madonna has become a role model for many
different age groups around the world. Her amazing voice and sense of style has
shocked the world, and changed music in the 80's- till now.