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Madonna Biography
A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want. - Madonna
Poor is the man whose pleasures depend on the permission of another. Madonna
Madonna isn't happy with the "boring" movie roles she's lately been offered. Casting, she complains, sees her as the mother of a "truculent teenage daughter." "Mom" (real life mother of two) sees herself as the truculent one. She's that and more - this
always cutting-edge artist is "frighteningly" good at being anything she wants to be.
The dancer: Born-to-perform Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone of Michigan, with little but ambition and ballet training (a dance scholarship had taken her through two years at her state's university), arrived in New York at age 20 and got work with various respected modern dance troupes.
The singer/songwriter: Madonna, as guitarist, pianist, songwriter and risqué performer, was a favourite in New York and Paris dance clubs. She and then-husband record producer John Benitez put those crowd-pleasing tunes into a debut album, Madonna (1983). The next, Like A Virgin (1984), and the eleven that followed (including 2000's Music), topped the charts and broke records for numbers of platinum singles. Sold-out high-tech special-effect tours and People's Choice awards (1987/91) indicated audience approval; American Music awards (1986/90), MTV Music Video awards (1986/87/89/95/98/99), Grammys (1992/98/99), and the Billboard Artist Achievement award (1996) showed that (most) critics were in agreement. Seven documentaries (1984-94) chronicle the glittering road to unprecedented superstardom.
The actor: Madonna's obvious forte, the music video, counts as acting (of a sort), but the first on the official list is the low-budget big-screen flick A Certain Sacrifice (1982). Next came Vision Quest (1985), and the well-received Desperately Seeking Susan (1985). Broadway turns were Goose and Tom-Tom (1986) and Speed the Plow (1989). Unfortunate was the film Shanghai Surprise (1986) with then-husband actor Sean Penn, and Who's That Girl? (1987), but better were Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), Dick Tracy (1990) and Shadows and Fog (1992). A League of Their Own (1992) was a critical success; Dangerous Game (1993), Body of Evidence (1993), Four Rooms (1995), Blue In The Face (1995) and Girl 6 (1996), however, contributed to a Worst Actress of the 20th Century Razzie. Evita (1996) netted its well-cast star redemption and a Golden Globe. Next was The Next Best Thing (2000), and upcoming are The Mole (director: the star's now-husband Guy Ritchie), The Long Hair Depression, and The Pulse Luper Trilogy.
The author: Madonna's erotic bestseller, Sex, was published in 1992. Enough said.
The businesswoman: Denounced for "brazen self-exposure" and "naked ambition", this show business phenomenon has nonetheless been an industry press headliner for an amazing twenty years. It's said that Madonna takes her enormous business empire very seriously. She's less serious about her "strong and frightening" self - after all, if you listen closely (closer than tabloid journalists), you'll find that much of what she writes, including that oft-used moniker Material Girl (1984), is tongue-in-cheek.
