Featured Article Summary #221

Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress, often called the “Queen of Pop.” She is famous for constantly changing her style and for covering social, political, sexual, and religious themes in her music, which has brought both controversy and praise. Raised in Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue dance, then gained fame with her debut album Madonna in 1983. Over her career she released many of the best-selling records of all time, scored numerous major hits, and became a leading figure in popular music. She also worked in film, won a Golden Globe for her role in Evita, built major business ventures, and supported charities and human-rights causes. Madonna is widely recognized as one of the most influential musicians, with many major awards and records, and she has inspired extensive academic study known as “Madonna studies.” Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan, in 1958 and grew up in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township with her brothers and sisters. When she was five, her mother died of breast cancer, and her father later remarried; she attended Catholic schools and was known for both strong grades and unusual, playful behavior. She studied piano briefly but convinced her father to let her take ballet, excelled in high school, and earned a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, before leaving college in 1978 to pursue dance in New York with very little money. In New York, she trained and performed with several dance groups and later suffered sexual assault at knifepoint, events she remembered as showing her vulnerability. In 1979 Madonna began a relationship with musician Dan Gilroy, worked as a backup singer and dancer in France with Patrick Hernandez’s disco troupe, and later lived in an abandoned synagogue in Queens while starting her band Breakfast Club. She then made her acting debut in the low-budget film A Certain Sacrifice, formed the band Emmy with Stephen Bray, and gained a record deal with Gotham Records in 1981. In 1982–83, DJs and Sire Records helped launch her singles and debut album Madonna, which produced major hits like “Borderline” and “Lucky Star,” and led to her landing an acting role as a club singer in Vision Quest. In 1984, Madonna expanded her TV exposure and released her second album, Like a Virgin, which became her first number-one album in many countries, including the US. The lead single “Like a Virgin” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for six straight weeks but sparked major controversy over its sexual themes and music video, and her dramatic MTV debut performance became iconic. In 1985 she married actor Sean Penn and starred in Desperately Seeking Susan, while her “Virgin Tour” made her “wannabe” fashion style hugely popular. Her third album, True Blue, was released in 1986 and became a global chart-topper, with all five singles reaching the top five of the Billboard Hot 100. During this period she also acted in films like Desperately Seeking Susan and Goose and Tom-Tom, and in 1987 starred in Who’s That Girl and launched a world tour that set major attendance records. She later released You Can Dance, and although she filed for divorce from Penn in late 1987, she eventually withdrew the petition. In 1988, Madonna made her Broadway debut in Speed-the-Plow. In 1989, she released Like a Prayer, inspired by her turbulent divorce from Penn, and the album and its lead single became major chart and sales successes; however, the Pepsi ad for the title song was pulled after the music video’s Catholic imagery and Vatican backlash, and her sponsorship ended. She then launched the Blond Ambition World Tour, later starring in Dick Tracy and releasing the I'm Breathless soundtrack (including the hit “Vogue”). By 1990–91, her greatest-hits album The Immaculate Collection added new songs, but the explicit video for “Justify My Love” was banned by MTV—fueling controversy that helped the song reach number one.