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BIO:
Biographical
Personal Information
Awards
Career
MADONNA WORKS:
Film Appearances
Film Work
Television Appearances
Specials
Award Presentations
TV Award Presentations
Stage Appearances
RECORDINGS:
Albums
Videos
WRITINGS:
Film Song
Books
Biographical
Also known as: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, Louise Veronica Ciccone
Occupation: singer, songwriter, recording executive,
actress
The career of pop music superstar Madonna has lasted longer than most of her
detractors ever predicted. She has become a kind of modern-day, multimedia ueber-celebrity
who dabbles in film, theater projects, and the occasional publishing venture in
addition to her recording endeavors. But Madonna's most impressive feat may be
her ability to sell millions of records around the world regardless of what the
music press says about her. Rock critic Robert Christgau summed up Madonna's
magic touch in Vogue, calling the singer-songwriter "a trailblazer in a raceless
dance music with discernible roots in postpunk and Eurodisco, who is also on
flirting terms with such white-bread subgenres as Vegas schlock, show tune, and
housewife ballad." Christgau further described the accomplished performer's
million-selling efforts as rife with "corny cool, postfeminist confidence, [and]
pleasure-centered electronic pulse." Off stage, Madonna demonstrates
considerable business acumen as chief executive of her own company and record
label.
Her skills in guiding her career and the "Madonna" persona have, in the space of
a decade, made her one of the world's wealthiest women. Madonna was born Madonna
Louise Ciccone in Bay City, Michigan, in 1958. The "Veronica" that is commonly
cited as one of her birth names is really her confirmation name, chosen for the
religious ceremony when she was in her early teens. Her family—Madonna is the
third of eight children—was living in Pontiac, Michigan, at the time of her
birth, but they were visiting relatives in Bay City when her then-very-pregnant
mother went into labor.
Tragically, Mrs. Ciccone died of cancer when Madonna and her siblings were quite
young. The children lived for a while with various relatives until her father
settled down in Rochester Hills, a suburb of Detroit, and reunited the family.
Madonna's father, an engineer by profession, eventually married the family's
housekeeper. Being the eldest daughter of a large brood meant that a greater
share of household and emotional responsibilities fell on Madonna's young
shoulders. "Sometimes growing up I felt like the unhired help," she admitted to
Time writer Carl Wayne Arrington. Of her strict, Italian American, Roman
Catholic upbringing, she recalled, "My family life at home was very repressive,
very Catholic, and I was very unhappy. I was considered the sissy of the family
because I relied on feminine wiles to get my way. I wasn't quiet at all. I
remember always being told to shut up." Interested in dance from an early age,
Madonna studied with local instructors as a teenager. In high school, she was an
honor roll student and a cheerleader. She graduated early and attended the
University of Michigan for two years, continuing her dance training, then
dropped out and moved to New York City in the late 1970s.
There she attempted to get her foot in the show business door. While working in
a series of low-wage jobs—including a stint as an artist's model—she took more
dance classes and eventually won a spot in the third company of Alvin Ailey's
American Dance Theater. Next, Madonna hooked up with disco performer Patrick
Hernandez. She moved with him to Paris for a short time but then returned to New
York City and became a part of burgeoning music scene that was combining
post-punk-rock shock with the quick-tempoed beats left over from the disco era.
She played drums and sang for a number of New York-based ensembles, including
Emmy, the Millionaires, and the Breakfast Club. Around 1981 Madonna teamed up
with boyfriend Steve Bray to form her own band, simply called Madonna. It was
also around this time that she first picked up a guitar and started writing
songs herself. Playing in New York City clubs, Madonna soon garnered attention
with her new act.
She found herself a respected manager and began leaning toward a more funky,
rhythm-and-blues-tinged sound, which went over well in the dance clubs she
played. New York club disc jockey Mark Kamins, who had extensive contacts in the
music business, helped win her a recording contract with Warner Bros. in 1982.
"I was very impressed with how determined she was," remembered recording
executive Seymour Stein in an interview with Vogue writer David Handelman. "I
don't want to use the word ruthless; at the time, I said, 'She's somebody who
would take a shortcut through a cemetery at night to get somewhere.' You could
tell it in her eyes." The contract with Warner Bros. led to the release of
Madonna's self-titled debut album in 1983; cuts from Madonna slowly became
underground dance club hits. When the first single, "Holiday," got extensive
airplay, many listeners were surprised to find that the voice belonged to a
white woman. Stardom quickly followed when the singles "Borderline" and "Lucky
Star" began climbing the charts.
By early 1985 Madonna had become a household name, but her second album, Like a
Virgin, did even more for her budding career. The record quickly went platinum,
buoyed by the hits "Material Girl," "Into the Groove," and the title track. At
one point, two singles from Like a Virgin were in the Top Five at the same time,
and it seemed Madonna was now turning up everywhere in the media. She launched
her first tour in the spring of 1985, initially in small venues, but as the
shows began selling out in less than an hour, the dates were switched into
larger arenas—with the Beastie Boys opening for her on some nights. That spring
also saw the release of Desperately Seeking Susan, a movie she had made in 1984
when she was still relatively unknown. The low-budget film, directed by Susan
Seidelman, became a commercial hit. The showy "Like a Virgin" tour catapulted
Madonna into a very public eye, and it was also during this period that she
started to become a sort of icon for fans of her pop music. Teenaged—and even
younger—girls began adopting the mid-'80s Madonna look of messy, badly-dyed
hair, neon rubber bracelets, black lace bras, white lace gloves, a "Boy Toy"
belt buckle, and other sartorial signifiers. The cult of Madonna even spawned
the term "wannabe"—as in youngsters who "wanted to be" like the star.
Early in her career, Madonna was already becoming an accomplished
songwriter—Like a Virgin included five cuts that she wrote herself. Her next
effort, the 1986 release True Blue, was another success, best remembered for the
"Papa Don't Preach" dilemma-of-teen-pregnancy track. Shortly thereafter, in
1987, Madonna landed another major film role in Who's That Girl?, a light comedy
that was panned by critics. An uneven soundtrack album accompanied the film,
followed the next year by You Can Dance, a series of remixes of her best-known
hits. By this time, Madonna's personal life was attracting about the same amount
of attention as her music and film performances. Her homes had become bastions
of high-tech security measures designed to keep an increasingly frenzied fan
base and similarly persistent paparazzi out of her hair. In 1985 she had married
actor Sean Penn to much media hoopla, and the ups and downs of their marriage
were well-chronicled by the press. By early 1989 the marriage was on the rocks,
divorce papers had been filed, and her next full-length studio album, Like a
Prayer, was released. Like a Prayer was especially notable for the racy videos
to both the title cut and another track titled "Express Yourself." Prior to its
release, Madonna had inked a $5 million deal with Pepsi for some commercials and
sponsorship of an upcoming tour, but the religious symbolism in the "Like a
Prayer" video made the cola giant wary; the company canceled the deal, although
the increasingly savvy businesswoman kept the money.
During the late 1980s, Madonna took intermittent breaks from her music to work
in film and theater. Her role opposite Warren Beatty in 1990's Dick Tracy
garnered major media attention as much for her performance as for her off-camera
relationship with the film's star. The Trouser Press Record Guide panned I'm
Breathless, the album that was released in conjunction with the movie, calling
its best-known single, "Vogue," "just an empty shell of a song, style sans
substance." Yet the "Vogue" single was another example of Madonna's ability to
capitalize on a still-underground pop culture phenomenon. "Vogueing" had been a
flourishing dance trend on the New York gay discotheque scene for a number of
years, where men—sometimes dressed as women—posed and strutted to a high-energy
beat. Madonna's video carried this trend into living rooms from Iowa to Omaha.
Her next album, The Immaculate Collection, was also released in 1990, but it was
mainly an assemblage of her biggest hits to date, including "Vogue." Late in
1990 Madonna became embroiled in yet another controversy, this time surrounding
the video to "Justify My Love," the only new track on The Immaculate Collection.
The steamy images of slightly sado-masochistic situations and multiple
partnerships, shot with Madonna's then-boyfriend Tony Ward, provoked MTV to
initially ban it from airplay. The furor only boosted sales and prompted Time
reporter Jay Cocks to point out that the flap made "MTV look an organization of
aging church elders, and [Madonna] a champion of feminism and free expression in
the process." Madonna blended her interest in film and music in the concert
documentary Truth or Dare. Shot during her 1990 "Blond Ambition" tour by video
director Alex Keshishian, the work had a cinema-verite, "you-are-there" feel to
it as it chronicled pre-show backstage prayer sessions with her dancers and
followed the performer around both her L.A. abode and Manhattan apartment.
Time reviewer Richard Corliss called it "raw, raunchy and epically entertaining
... pure, unadulterated Madonna." In another issue of Time, Carl Wayne Arrington
described it as "a panoramic, emetic, beauty-marks-and-all" work that "draws its
substance from the dark well of Madonna's life." That dark well of
Madonna—especially the out-there sexuality that seemed to unnerve most of her
critics—was further explored in her first book, a hefty volume titled Sex. The
1992 tome contains racy images shot by fashion photographer Steven Meisel, along
with intermittent text of Madonna's musings on sex and love written under the
name of her alter ego, Dita Parlo. The $50 book was released to much fanfare,
especially when some of the photographs appeared in the media prior to
publication—leaked or perhaps sold by insiders. The metal-jacketed Sex came
tightly wrapped in Mylar to guard against bookstore peekers and was roundly
condemned by more conservative elements in the media. The photographs—among
them, one of Madonna hitchhiking nude and several others involving other people
and bondage gear—seemed to be calculatingly titillating.
Once again, Madonna was at the forefront of a new trend, opined Newsweek writer
John Leland, who wrote: "Call it the new voyeurism: the middlebrow embrace, in
the age of AIDS, of explicit erotic material for its own sake." The book was a
sell-out across the country. Madonna reportedly received an advance of $5.5
million for the Sex book from media giant Time-Warner, and the conglomerate also
engineered an almost-unheard-of contract with the singer in 1991. (A year
earlier, Madonna had appeared on the cover of the staid financial magazine
Forbes under the banner "America's Smartest Business Woman?") The seven-year
multimedia contract with Time-Warner, reportedly worth $60 million, gave her
almost complete artistic control over her music—including her own label,
Maverick- -and supposedly included $5 million advances for each forthcoming
album. Included in the package were deals for cable-TV specials and any film
projects she wished to develop. The Sex book coincided with the release of
Madonna's 1992 album Erotica. Again, a steamy video accompanied the title track,
but this time the video easily made it onto MTV playlists—albeit in the wee
hours of the night. Much of the material, as in the Like a Prayer effort, was
written by Madonna with the help of producers Shep Pettibone and Andre Betts.
First, they developed the rhythm section for each song, which Madonna would
listen to while paging through a journal she keeps for songwriting purposes. The
early vocal takes she recorded usually wound up on the final mix, a quirk
explained by Pettibone in the Vogue interview: "As soon as she comes up with a
melodic idea, we record it, because it has that feeling, which usually gets
watered down the more you sing it." In addition to Erotica's bestselling title
song, the record also contains "In This Life," a track about people close to the
singer who have died of AIDS, as well as "Goodbye to Innocence," a wistful look
at the nature of celebrity. The Erotica album was followed by another film
release, a mediocre murder mystery titled Body of Evidence, in which Madonna
starred opposite Willem Dafoe. She also embarked on yet another world tour, this
one entitled "The Girlie Show." It featured topless women and more racy
vignettes set to her music—and helped earn her condemnation from the Roman
Catholic church authority in Rome. After a short hiatus, Madonna made a splash
in the spring of 1994 when she appeared on Late Night with David Letterman. The
show was memorable for the antagonism between the host and guest and the
audience's apparent willingness to see Letterman skewer her mercilessly. It was
a battle of wits, with Madonna using a certain banned word 13 different times—a
stunt that drew her severe media criticism the next day.
Entertainment Weekly writer Ken Tucker saw it as an attention-getting ploy, "a
way to keep her name in the papers in lieu of actually producing some sort of
creative work," and noted that by 1994, "as a feminist culture hero," she was
fading from the spotlight. But Madonna showed another side of her complex
persona with the late 1994 release of Bedtime Stories. The record featured
quieter, more soul-tinged numbers, and reaction was favorable, although sales
were not as brisk as for her previous records. "The eroticism she hints at on
Bedtime Stories is actually sexier than that of her more wanton songs and
videos," observed Time reviewer Christopher John Farley. The critic added that
as "one of the pop-music giants of the 1980s ... she has risked becoming an
artifact of that era," but pointed out that her collaborative efforts with some
groundbreaking performers of the 1990s—songs either written or performed with
the likes of Me'Shell Ndege-Ocello, Bjork, and producer Kenneth "Babyface"
Nelson—were quite impressive. In addition to her work with Nelson, Madonna
teamed with a trio of other producers specializing in the contemporary black
sounds of R&B. When Rolling Stone writer Zehme asked Madonna if she ever felt
black, she replied "Oh, yes, all the time.... When I was a little girl, I wished
I was black. All my girlfriends were black.
I was living in Pontiac, Michigan, and I was definitely the minority in the
neighborhood.... I used to make cornrows and everything.... If being black is
synonymous with having soul, then, yes, I feel that I am." By the mid-1990s,
Madonna had become an active chief executive of the Maverick label. Maverick's
roster includes Me'Shell NdegeOcello—who performed on Bedtime Stories—heavy
grunge rockers Candlebox, and Bad Brains. There is also a separate film
production company, not attached to Time-Warner, that allows Madonna to develop
film projects, among them Farewell My Concubine and Dangerous Game. With a
contract with Time-Warner that stretches into the very end of the twentieth
century, Madonna's musical career—and celebrity status—shows no signs of
abating. Yet the unwanted attention brought on by her fame may be the most
difficult part of her life. Newsweek reporter David Ansen once queried, "Do you
ever get sick of being Madonna?," and she replied, "Yes, I do. I do. Sometimes,
I just want to go to a movie and not have someone pull on my shirt, you know
what I mean? I mean, I can't go grocery shopping, and a lot of times, my
secretaries don't get me what I want.
And I think, 'God, if I could just go myself, I'd get the right kind of
cereal.'" In a 1995 interview with ABC news correspondent Forest Sawyer for
PrimeTime, Madonna showed a softer side, ruminating over the loss of her mother,
its impact on her life, and her desire to settle down and start a family. Still,
she exhibits a philosophical and balanced attitude about her image, her career,
and her future. "I see what has happened to me as a blessing because I am able
to express myself in many ways that I never would have if I hadn't had this kind
of career," she told Arrington in the Time interview. "I am lucky to be in the
position of power that I am in and to be intelligent. Most people in my position
say, 'Listen, you don't have to do any of that. Just kick back, man. Just enjoy
your riches. Go get a house in Tahiti. Why do you keep getting yourself into
trouble?' It's not my nature to just kick back. I am not going to be anybody's
patsy. I am not going to be anybody's good girl. I will always be this way."
Most recently, Madonna and her family embarked on the 48-stop Drowned World
Tour, playing to sellout audiences throughout much of 2001, and grossing an
estimated $2 million per performance. She also starred in Up for Grabs, a stage
play which opened at London's Wyndam Theatre on May 23, 2002, and made a cameo
appearance in the James Bond film Die Another Day, which was released in the
fall of 2002.
Personal Information
Born Madonna Louise Ciccone (pronounced "Chick-one"), August 16, 1958, in Bay
City, MI; daughter of Silvio (an engineer) and Madonna (Fortin) Ciccone; married
Sean Penn (an actor), August 16, 1985 (divorced, January 1989); married Guy
Ritchie (a film director), December 22, 2000 ;children: (with Carlos Leon)
Lourdes Maria; Rocco (August 11, 2000). Addresses: Office: c/o Sire Records, 75
Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10019.; Agent: Bryan Lourd, ICM, 8942 Wilshire
Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211-1934.
Awards
Grammy Award nomination, best female pop performance, 1986, for "Crazy for You";
Grammy Award nomination, best female pop vocal, 1986, for "Papa Don't Preach";
Grammy Award nomination, best song written specifically for a motion picture or
television, 1987, for "Who's That Girl?"; Pop/Rock Video Award, favorite female
video artist, American Music Awards, 1987; Critics Pick Awards, best video,
Rolling Stone Magazine Music Awards, 1989, for Like a Prayer; Critics Pick
Awards, best video, Rolling Stone Magazine Music Awards, 1990, for Justify My
Love; Grammy Award, best music video (long form), 1991, for Blond Ambition World
Tour Life; Golden Globe Award nominations, best original song, 1992, for "This
Used to Be My Playground" from A League of Their Own(with others); Golden Globe
Award nominations, best original song, 1995, for "I'll Remember," from With
Honors; Golden Globe Award, best actress in a comedy/musical, 1997, MTV Movie
Award nomination, best female performer, and MTV Movie Award nomination, best
movie song ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina"), 1997, all for Evita.
Career
Singer, songwriter, record company executive, and actress. Backup singer and
drummer for the Breakfast Club (a dance band), 1980; backup singer for disco
star Patrick Hernandez, 1980-81; singer in a number of New York-based dance
bands, including the Millionaires, Modern Dance, and Emmy, 1981-83; solo
performer, 1983—; signed with Sire Records (a division of Warner Bros.), 1983;
released first album, Madonna, 1983; had first Top Ten hit, "Borderline," 1984;
signed with Time-Warner, 1991; head of own record label (Maverick), 1992—.
Actress in feature films, including Desperately Seeking Susan, 1985, Shanghai
Surprise, 1986, Who's That Girl?, 1987, Dick Tracy, 1990, A League of Their Own,
1992, Shadows and Fog, 1992, Body of Evidence, 1993, Dangerous Game, 1993, Blue
in the Face, 1995,Four Rooms,1996, Girl 6, 1996; Evita, slated for release in
1996; also the subject of a documentary titled Truth or Dare, 1991. Has made
several world tours in conjunction with album releases.
MADONNA WORKS
Film Appearances
Bruna, A Certain Sacrifice, Commtron, 1980
Nightclub performer, Vision Quest(also known as Crazy For You), Warner Bros.,
1985
Title role, Desperately Seeking Susan, Orion, 1985
Gloria Tatlock, Shanghai Surprise, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1986
Nikki Finn, Who's That Girl, Warner Bros., 1987
Hortense Hathaway, Bloodhounds of Broadway, Columbia, 1989
Breathless Mahoney, Dick Tracy, Buena Vista, 1990
Truth or Dare(documentary; also known as Madonna: Truth or Dare and In Bed with
Madonna), Miramax, 1991
Mae Mordabito, A League of Their Own, Columbia, 1992
Marie, Shadows and Fog, Orion, 1992
Rebecca Carlson, Body of Evidence, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1993
Sarah Jennings, Dangerous Game(also known as Snake Eyes), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer,
1993
Singing telegram girl, Blue in the Face, Miramax, 1995
Elspeth, "Strange Brew," Four Rooms, Miramax, 1995
Boss Number 3, Girl 6, Fox Searchlight Pictures, 1996
Eva (Duarte) Peron, Evita, Buena Vista/Hollywood Pictures, 1996
Abbie, The Next Best Thing, Lakeshore Entertainment/Paramount Pictures, 2000
Amber Leighton, Swept Away, 2002
Film Work
Executive producer, Truth or Dare(documentary; also known as Madonna: Truth or
Dare and In Bed With Madonna), Miramax, 1991
Producer and song performer, A League of Their Own, Columbia, 1992
Producer and song performer, With Honors,1994
Song performer, Gummo, Fine Line Features, 1997
Song performer, The Real Blonde, Paramount, 1997
Video clip, Red Corner, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/United Artists, 1997
Song performer, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, New Line Cinema, 1999
Song performer, Karaoke Verite,1999
Song performer, Never Been Kissed, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1999
Television Appearances
Episodic
Behind the Music, VH1, 1997
Specials
American Bandstand's 33 1/3 Celebration,1985
Disney's D-TV Valentine,1986
MTV Rewind, MTV, 1989
Madonna—Live! Blond Ambition World Tour, HBO, 1990
Sex in the '90s, CBS, 1990
Rock the Vote, Fox, 1992
HBO's 20th Anniversary—We Hardly Believe It Ourselves, HBO, 1992
Madonna—Live Down Under: "The Girlie Show," HBO, 1993
Madonna: Exposed, syndicated, 1993
"Madonna," Biography, Arts and Entertainment, 1993
Song performer, Fox on Ice, Fox, 1994
Happy Birthday Elizabeth: A Celebration of Life,1997
Madonna Rising,1998
Narrator, "The Camel Dances," Rosie O'Donnell's Kids Are Punny,1998
Tony Bennett: An All-Star Tribute—Live by Request,1998
Madonna,1999
Paris Fashion Collections,1999
Awards Presentations
The 13th Annual American Music Awards, ABC, 1986
MTV's 1989 Video Music Awards, MTV, 1989
MTV's 1990 Video Music Awards, MTV, 1990
The 63rd Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1991
The 1993 MTV Music Video Awards, MTV, 1993
The 66th Annual Academy Awards Presentation, ABC, 1994
Presenter, The 1995 MTV Music Video Awards, MTV, 1995
The 69th Annual Academy Awards,1997
The 1998 MTV Video Music Awards,1998
Presenter, The 55th Golden Globe Awards,1998
Presenter, GQ Men of the Year Award,1998
Presenter, The 11th Annual Kids' Choice Awards,1998
Performer, The 1998 VH1 Fashion Awards,1998
The 5th Annual MTV Europe Music Video Awards,1998
Presenter, The 70th Annual Academy Awards,1998
Presenter, The 1999 MTV Music Video Awards,1999
The 41st Annual Grammy Awards,1999
TV
Awards Presentations
The 1995 BRIT Awards, ABC, 1995
The American Music Awards, ABC, 1995
The 68th Annual Academy Awards, ABC, 1997
The 69th Annual Academy Awards,1997
The 1998 MTV Video Music Awards,1998
The 5th Annual MTV Europe Music Video Awards,1998
The 41st Annual Grammy Awards,1999
Stage Appearances
(Broadway debut) Karen, Speed-the-Plow, Royale Theatre, New York City, 1988
RECORDINGS
Albums
Madonna, Sire, 1983
Like a Virgin, Sire, 1984
True Blue, Sire, 1986
Who's That Girl?, Sire, 1987
You Can Dance, Sire, 1987
Like a Prayer, Sire, 1989
Vogue, Warner Bros., 1990
I'm Breathless: Music from and Inspired by the Film "Dick Tracy," Sire, 1990
The Immaculate Collection,1990
Erotica, Maverick, 1992
In the Beginning, Import, 1994
Bedtime Stories, Maverick, 1994
Early Years, Receiver, 1995
Evita, Warner Bros., 1996
Something to Remember, Maverick, 1995.
Evita (soundtrack), Warner Bros., 1996
Ray of Light, Warner Bros., 1998
Music, Warner Bros., 2000
Author or co-author of numerous songs, including "This Used to Be My Playground"
and "I'll Remember."
Videos
Madonna, WEA, 1984
Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour, WEA, 1985
Madonna Ciao Italia: Live from Italy, WEA, 1988
Like a Prayer,1989
Blond Ambition World Tour(also known as Blond Ambition), 1990
Justify My Love,1990
Also appeared in numerous shorter videos.
WRITINGS
Film Songs
Desperately Seeking Susan, Orion, 1985
Vision Quest, Warner Bros., 1985
Gummo, Fine Line Features, 1997
The Real Blonde, Paramount, 1997
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, New Line Cinema, 1999
Books
Sex, Warner Books, 1992
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