Madonna - Queen of Pop

American singer, songwriter, actress, and entrepreneur whose immense popularity in the 1980s and
'90s allowed her to achieve levels of power and control unprecedented for a woman in the
entertainment industry.
Madonna was the first female artist to fully exploit the potential of the music video. She collaborated
with top designers (Jean-Paul Gaultier), photographers (Steven Meisel and Herb Ritts), and directors
(Mary Lambert and David Fincher), drawing inspiration from underground club culture or the avantgarde to create distinctive sexual and satirical images from the knowing ingenue of "Like a Virgin"
(1984) to the controversial red-dressed "sinner" who kisses a black saint in "Like a Prayer" (1989).
By 1991, she had scored 21 Top Ten hits in the United States and sold some 70 million albums
internationally, generating $1.2 billion in sales. Committed to controlling her image and career
herself, Madonna became the head of Maverick, a subsidiary of Time-Warner created by the
entertainment giant as part of a $60 million deal with the performer. Her success signaled a clear
message of financial control to other women in the industry, but in terms of image she was a more
ambivalent role model.
From 1985-87, Madonna turned out a stream of irresistibly catchy singles. "Crazy For You", her
second US chart-topper, was co-written by ex-Carpenters collaborator John Bettis, while she cowrote 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 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 movie A Certain Sacrifice before she
starred in the acclaimed Desperately Seeking Susan. The following year she appeared with husband
Sean 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
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
mlange of sexuality, song, dance and rebelliousness. The tour was commemorated by the following
year's documentary movie, Truth Or Dare. Among her hits of the early '90s were the super hits,
"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.
In 1992 Madonna took her role as a sexual siren to its full extent when she published 'Sex', a softcore pornographic coffee-table book. She was criticized for being exploitative and over-calculating,
and writer Norman Mailer said she had become "secretary to herself". She scored massive success

in 1996 with the starring role in the musical film Evita. That year she also gave birth to a daughter.
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. 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 Bjork. "Take A Bow" returned the singer to the top of the US
singles chart, while the rest of the album boasted songs that combined pop, RB, and hip-hop. 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'. 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".

In 1998 Madonna released her first album of new material in four years, Ray of Light. A fusion of
techno music and self-conscious lyrics, it was a commercial and critical success, earning the singer
her first musical Grammy Awards (her previous win had been for a video). Her experimentation in
electronica continued with Music (2000). Despite a brief marriage in the 1980s to actor Sean Penn
and her wedding in 2000 to English director Guy Ritchie (with whom she had a son), Madonna has
remained resolutely independent.
Madonna worked with Orbit and French dance producer Mirwais on her next collection, Music, the
title track of which was a 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 December 22 , she married film
director Guy Ritchie in Scotland and managed once again to grab 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, another chart-topper.
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