July 2003
H.E.A.R. Honors Madonna
Courtesy of Warner Brothers
b. Madonna Louise Ciccone, 16 August 1958, Bay City, Michigan,
USA. An icon for female pop stars thanks to her proven ability
to reinvent herself while retaining complete control of her
career, Madonna is also one of the most commercially successful
artists in the history of popular music. Without doubt an
artist with "star quality", no other female singer in the
pop arena has been as prominent or as successful over such
a long period. The young Madonna Louise Ciccone excelled at
dance and drama at high school and during brief periods at
colleges in Michigan and North Carolina.
In 1977, she went to New York, studying with noted choreographer
Alvin Ailey and taking modelling jobs. Two years later, Madonna
moved to France to join a show featuring disco singer Patrick
Hernandez. There she met Dan Gilroy and, back in New York,
the pair formed club band the Breakfast Club. Madonna played
drums and sang with the band before setting up Emmy in 1980
with Detroit-born drummer and former boyfriend, Steve Bray.
Together, Madonna and Bray created club tracks which led to
a recording deal with Sire Records. With leading New York
disc jockey Mark Kamins producing, she recorded "Everybody",
a US club hit in 1982.
Madonna broke out from the disco scene into mainstream pop
with "Holiday", written and produced by Jellybean. It reached
the US Top 20 in late 1983 and was a Top 10 hit across Europe
the following year. By now, her tough, raunchy persona was
coming across to international audiences and the attitude
was underlined by the choice of Tom Kelly and Billy Steinberg's
catchy "Like A Virgin" as a 1984 single. The track provided
the singer with the first of her subsequent 11 US number 1s.
The follow-up, "Material Girl", included a promotional video
which introduced one of Madonna's most characteristic visual
styles, the mimicking of Marilyn Monroe's "blonde bombshell'
image. By the time of her appearance at 1985"s Live Aid concert
and her high-profile wedding to actor Sean Penn on 16 August
the same year, Madonna had become an internationally recognized
superstar, known to millions of tabloid newspaper readers
without any interest in her music. Among the fans of her work
were a growing number of "wannabees", teenage girls who aped
her independent and don't-care stance.
From 1985-87, Madonna turned out a stream of irresistibly
catchy transatlantic Top 5 singles. "Crazy For You", her second
US chart-topper, was co-written by ex-Carpenters collaborator
John Bettis, while she co-wrote her first UK number 1, "Into
The Groove", with Steve Bray. These were followed by "Dress
You Up", "Live To Tell", and the transatlantic chart-topper,
"Papa Don't Preach". "True Blue", "Open Your Heart" and "La
Isla Bonita' were further successes taken from 1986"s True
Blue.
Like an increasing number of her songs, "Who's That Girl"
(her second transatlantic number 1) and "Causing A Commotion"
were tied-in to a movie - in this instance, a poorly received
comedy in which she starred with Sir John Mills. Madonna's
film career had begun with a minor role in the b-movie A Certain
Sacrifice before she starred in the acclaimed Desperately
Seeking Susan. The following year she appeared with husband
Penn in her first real failure, Shanghai Surprise. She separated
from Penn in 1988, the same year she appeared on Broadway
in David Mamet's play Speed The Plow.
Back on the music scene, the singer continued to attract
controversy when, in 1989, the video for "Like A Prayer" (her
third transatlantic chart-topper), with its links between
religion and eroticism, was condemned by the Vatican and caused
Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal with the star. The
resulting publicity helped the album of the same title - co-produced
with new collaborator Patrick Leonard - to become a global
bestseller.
In 1990, her career reached a new peak of publicity and
commercial success. She starred with Warren Beatty in the
blockbuster movie Dick Tracy, while the extravagant costumes
and choreography of the Blond Ambition world tour were the
apotheosis of Madonna's uninhibited melange of sexuality,
song, dance and religiosity. The tour was commemorated by
the following year's documentary movie, Truth Or Dare. Among
her hits of the early 90s were the transatlantic number 1
"Vogue", devoted to a short-lived dance craze, "Hanky Panky",
"Justify My Love" (co-written with Lenny Kravitz), "Rescue
Me", and "This Used To Be My Playground" (from the soundtrack
of A League Of Their Own).
Madonna's reputation as a strong businesswoman, in control
of each aspect of her career, was confirmed in 1992 when she
signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Time-Warner conglomerate,
parent company of Sire. This guaranteed the release of albums,
films and books created by her own Maverick production company.
The publication of her graphic and erotic book Sex put her
back on top of the charts, though this time it was in the
bestselling book lists. The book was an unprecedented success,
selling out within hours and needing an immediate reprint.
The attendant Erotica marked a slight creative downturn, and
was her first album since her debut not to generate a US number
1 single.
She returned to form on Bedtime Stories, on which she teamed
up with Soul II Soul producer Nellee Hooper, who wrote the
title track in conjunction with Bjšrk. "Take A Bow" returned
the singer to the top of the US singles chart, while the rest
of the album boasted songs that combined, by her own description,
pop, R&B, hip-hop and Madonna. The 1995 compilation of her
slower material, Something To Remember, featured the excellent
new song, "You'll See". In 1996, Madonna's need to shock had
mellowed considerably with a credible movie portrayal of Eva
Peron in Alan Parker's Evita.
Later that year she became "with child' on 14 October with
the birth of Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon. She returned to music
with March 1998"s Ray Of Light, one of her finest recordings
to date. Collaborating with producer William Orbit, Madonna
positively reveled in a new found musical freedom. Her voice
had also matured into a rich and expressive instrument. The
album generated several transatlantic hit singles, including
"Frozen" (a UK chart-topper), "Ray Of Light", "Drowned World
(Substitute For Love)", "The Power Of Good-bye", and "Nothing
Really Matters". "Beautiful Stranger', taken from the soundtrack
to the Mike Myers" movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged
Me, reached number 2 in the UK charts in June 1999. Another
soundtrack, for the movie The Next Best Thing, co-written
and co-produced by Madonna and Orbit, was released on the
singer's Maverick label. It featured her new single, a reworking
of Don McLean's classic "American Pie".
Madonna worked with Orbit and French dance producer Mirwais
on her next collection, Music, the title track of which was
a transatlantic chart-topper in September 2000. Shortly before
the release of the album, on 11 August, the singer gave birth
to her second child, Rocco.
On 22 December, she married the UK film director Guy Ritchie
in Scotland and managed once again to grab most of the newspaper
headlines. She went on to collaborate with Ritchie on the
controversial video for "What It Feels Like For A Girl", and
in 2002 starred in the director's ill-fated remake of Swept
Away. The same year Madonna performed the theme song to the
new James Bond movie, Die Another Day. The following year
she released her new studio album, American Life, a transatlantic
chart-topper.
Madonna devotes her time and money to many Aids charities.
www.madonna.com
Discography: American Life (2003) Music (2000) Ray of Light
(1998) Something to Remember (1995) Bedtime Stories (1994)
Erotica (1992) The Immaculate Collection (1990) Like A Prayer
(1989) You Can Dance (1987) True Blue (1986) Like A Virgin
(1984) Madonna (1983)
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