Who is Madonna?

Madonna [məˈdɑna] (* August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan, as Madonna Louise Ciccone, since her confirmation in 1967 Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, author, director, producer, and designer.

Madonna rose to megastar status in the 1980s with hits like Like a Virgin (1984), Material Girl (1985), La Isla Bonita (1987), and Like a Prayer (1989). Further global hits like Vogue (1990), Frozen (1998), Music (2000), Hung Up (2005), 4 Minutes (2008), and Give Me All Your Luvin’ (2012), with which she maintained her position at the top of the global charts for decades, sharpened her reputation as a global pop icon. She sold between 300 and 350 million records worldwide. With that, she is the most commercially successful female singer in the world and ranks 4th among the most successful artists of all time. The Guinness Book of Records named her the most successful female musician in the world and the singer with the most records sold of all time multiple times throughout her career. In the history of the American Billboard charts, she is the most successful solo artist of all time and ranks second behind the Beatles. With 50 songs at the top of a singular category of the Billboard charts, she is the first and so far only artist to achieve so many number-one hits in five different decades.

Her Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008) and her MDNA Tour (2012) occupy the first and third places of the most successful world tours by a female singer. The music magazine Rolling Stone called her Blond Ambition Tour (1990) “the greatest concert tour of the 1990s”; the controversial world tour is considered a precursor to modern pop concerts in contemporary music history. While her music video for “Like a Prayer” (1989) was chosen by the music channel MTV as the most groundbreaking music video of all time, her album “Erotica” (1992) is considered the most controversial pop album of the 1990s.

The American television network VH1 named her the Greatest Woman in Music in 2012, and she also ranks first in Billboard’s list of the most successful female artists of all time. Due to her successes and her influence on other artists, Madonna is also considered by musicologists and many media outlets (including the World Music Awards and MTV) to be the most influential female singer of all time. She is also referred to by the media and her fans as the Queen of Pop. In addition, she is considered the first woman in the music business to control every step of her career and always take full responsibility for her public image. Together with Michael Jackson and Prince, Madonna is one of the three most important representatives of modern pop music. Given her significant cultural influence, Madonna is considered by Time Magazine to be one of the 25 most powerful women of the past century.

In addition to seven Grammys (including one in 1998 for Ray of Light), she also received two Golden Globes (in 1997 for her performance in the film adaptation of the musical Evita and in 2012 for her film song Masterpiece from the film W.E., which she also directed). In addition, she wrote several children’s books (The English Roses, 2003) and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. With an estimated net worth of over billion, she is the richest person in the music business.

Family and private life

Madonna was born in 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. Her father, the son of Italian immigrants, was the mechanic Silvio Anthony Ciccone. She was named after her mother, the French-Canadian Madonna Louise Fortin. Her nickname within the family was therefore Little Nonni. Her parents had three daughters and three sons after marrying in July 1955. Her mother died of breast cancer in 1966 at the age of 30, possibly caused by her work as an X-ray technician; Madonna was five years old at the time. In 1966, her father Silvio married the family’s housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, with whom he had two more children. In 1967, Madonna adopted the name Veronica – after Saint Veronica – as her third first name on the occasion of her confirmation.

She was married to the American actor Sean Penn from 1985 to 1989. The marriage remained childless. On October 14, 1996, their daughter was born; she is the result of Madonna’s relationship with her Cuban fitness trainer Carlos Leon. From 2000 to 2008, Madonna was married to the British director Guy Ritchie. From this marriage, a son was born on August 11, 2000. Since the divorce, both parents fought for a long time for custody of their child. From October 2006, she sought to adopt a 15-month-old boy from Malawi, which was legally confirmed in May 2008. In June 2009, she adopted a four-year-old half-orphan girl from Malawi. In February 2017, she announced the adoption of Malawian twin girls.

Career 1958–1983

After Madonna’s birth in Bay City, the family initially lived in Pontiac (Michigan). At the end of the 1960s, they moved to the small town of Rochester (Michigan). Madonna was raised in Catholic schools and, at times, in a convent school. Madonna found self-affirmation in school, at Rochester Adams High School in Oakland County, Metro Detroit, especially in theater performances and cheerleading. Madonna was a very good student. In high school, she was in the top two percent with an IQ of 140. In addition, she took piano lessons and dance classes and decided to become a dancer after school. Madonna’s dance teacher, Christopher Flynn, recognized Madonna’s talents and encouraged her. Together, they visited not only museums and theaters but also gay clubs in Detroit, where she met Stephen Bray – with whom she later produced some of her biggest hits. This time also shaped her musical style, which was oriented toward rock-inspired New Wave before later evolving into dance and disco. Flynn encouraged her to go to New York and pursue a career there.

After high school, Madonna began a dance program at the University of Michigan but dropped out. Instead, she moved to New York City with 30 dollars in her pocket. At first, she made ends meet with odd jobs: she worked as a waitress, sold donuts, and did nude photo shoots (which a few years later appeared in millions of copies in the magazines Playboy and Penthouse). In her spare time, she learned to play the drums and guitar and wrote her first songs with Dan Gilroy and Stephen Bray.

After engagements as a dancer with the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe and Pearl Lang’s Dance Company, Madonna experimented as a singer and drummer in punk and pop bands (Breakfast Club, Emmy). For a short time, she had her first record contract with Gotham Productions, but after some demo recordings and jobs as a background singer (including for Otto von Wernherr), they parted ways. The disko singer Patrick Hernandez (Born to Be Alive) took Madonna under his wing in 1979 and took her to Paris to launch her as a star. However, she only accompanied him as a dancer to his shows and returned to New York after four months. There, she gained fame in the nightclubs by dancing to the demos of her first songs – and in the process, she made contacts with disk jockeys who had connections to the record industry. One of these disk jockeys was Mark Kamins, who later produced Madonna’s first single, Everybody. Kamins introduced Madonna to the head of Sire Records, Seymour Stein. He was enthusiastic about Madonna’s demo tapes (including Everybody, Ain’t No Big Deal, Burning Up), and so in 1982 she got another record deal. The single Everybody became a hit in the discotheques and sold 250,000 copies.

In July 1983, Madonna’s debut album Madonna was released, co-produced by her then-boyfriend and DJ Jellybean Benitez. With the third single “Holiday,” she broke into the top ten of the international charts. In addition to numerous television appearances in the United States, Europe, and Japan, Madonna filmed the movie Vision Quest (int. Crazy for You) directed by Harold Becker. She had only two brief appearances as a nightclub singer, but a year later the film became a hit – mainly due to Madonna’s singles Crazy for You and Gambler.

1984–1989

After the first album sold millions of copies, Madonna sought a new producer: Nile Rodgers, who had already produced Michael Jackson, Duran Duran, and David Bowie. Madonna’s music became more rock-oriented, but retained its catchy melodies. From this collaboration, the album “Like a Virgin” was created.

Madonna presented the title song “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress at the first MTV Video Music Awards in September 1984. American parents’ associations and conservative media watchdogs were shocked – the young audience was thrilled. From then on, all trends were copied by Madonna’s fans. Crucifixes, crop tops, and leather bracelets were just the beginning. Madonna began to develop a new “look” for each album – often borrowing from classic Hollywood stars. With the following video for “Material Girl,” she copied her idol Marilyn Monroe. While filming the video in Los Angeles, Madonna met and fell in love with the American actor Sean Penn on set. In the spring of 1985, Madonna went on her first sold-out Virgin Tour thru the United States and Canada. The album Like A Virgin has sold around 20 million copies to date and is among the 100 best-selling albums of all time.

Her singles topped the charts around the world, and her first feature film directed by Susan Seidelman, Susan… Desperately Seeking Susan – featuring the hit single Into the Groove – was a hit with critics and audiences alike. She also increased her popularity with a performance at the Live Aid concert. Shortly before, her old nude photos from her New York days before her breakthrough had appeared in relevant men’s magazines. On August 16, 1985, her 27th birthday, Madonna married Sean Penn in Los Angeles.

The 1986 album True Blue announced the “high of being in love” – dedicated to her husband, the “coolest man in the universe.” The album, on which Madonna co-wrote all the songs, was once again a huge success. True Blue reached number one in 28 countries and sold over 25 million copies. The songs “Live to Tell,” “Papa Don’t Preach,” and “Open Your Heart” climbed to number one on the Billboard singles charts, while “La Isla Bonita” became her first number one in the German-speaking world. The cover photo by Herb Ritts made her an icon of the 1980s. Madonna had herself photographed in clothes by Lagerfeld, Lacroix, or Chanel and established herself as a sex symbol.

In June 1987, Madonna launched the Who’s That Girl World Tour. With this world tour, she became the most successful pop singer of the 1980s. The tour began in Japan, went thru the United States and Canada, and from August 1987 thru Europe. Their first performance in Germany was on August 22, 1987, at the Frankfurt Waldstadion in front of 60,000 spectators. The Wembley Stadium in London was sold out three times in a row, and the enthusiasm in France was also great. At their Paris concert on 29 August, 120,000 fans were present. The show in Turin was broadcast live on television via satellite on September 4, 1987.

Madonna’s albums and singles sold millions worldwide, but her film career did not take off: The films Shanghai Surprise (1986) and Who’s That Girl (1987) were flops. Her marriage to Sean Penn was in crisis.

In November 1987, Madonna released a remix album titled You Can Dance. This was her farewell to the music business for a while. In 1988, she made another film, Bloodhounds of Broadway, and from May to September, she was seen on Broadway in the sold-out play Speed the Plow. Afterward, she prepared her new album, Like a Prayer. The album dealt with her failed marriage, her complicated relationship with her family – and not least her divided relationship with the Catholic Church. The title song was chosen by the American and German editorial teams of the music magazine Rolling Stone in 2004 as one of the 500 best songs of all time.

In 1989, her marriage to Sean Penn was divorced. Musically, however, Madonna continued to be successful. The music video for “Like a Prayer” was released in March 1989. Among other things, Madonna addresses racism in it – in the video, a black man is falsely accused of a violent crime; she dances in front of burning crosses – symbols of the Ku Klux Klan – and kisses a statue of Martin de Porres that comes to life, which many took for a “black Jesus.” The beverage company Pepsi then stopped a campaign with her, and the Vatican also expressed its outrage.

Another video caused a worldwide sensation. In Express Yourself, Madonna was inspired by Fritz Lang’s film Metropolis, appearing in suspenders and dancing in a men’s suit, and lying naked in bed with heavy iron chains. The single “Cherish” once again established itself in the US top five, making Madonna the first artist to have 16 consecutive top-five singles in the US, a feat previously only achieved by the Beatles. MTV named Madonna “Artist of the Decade.”

1990–1996

The new world tour, the Blond Ambition World Tour, started on April 13, 1990, in Tokyo, Japan. After that, there were numerous concerts in the United States and Canada, and in the summer, Europe was finally on the tour schedule. On stage, she wore creations by the Parisian fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier. Few performances have shaped Madonna’s image more than her rendition of Like a Virgin. She wore a gold corset with a cone bra, simulating masturbation. In Canada, Madonna even faced the threat of imprisonment, and in Italy, the Vatican called for a boycott of Madonna’s concert in Rome. On August 5, 1990, Madonna’s controversial Blond Ambition Tour ended in Nice. This concert was broadcast exclusively on HBO in the United States and achieved high ratings.

Madonna’s affair with Warren Beatty lasted in 1990 until their joint film Dick Tracy became a success. In this film adventure, she is seen as the protagonist Breathless Mahoney. Madonna also contributed the soundtrack to the film with the album I’m Breathless. Vogue, originally intended as the B-side to the last Like A Prayer single Keep It Together, was hastily released as a standalone single and became one of her biggest hits; David Fincher’s video turned Madonna into a gay icon. Shortly after, she made a statement about gay friends and family members, and media speculation about her being a potential bisexual was fueled when she was seen kissing Sandra Bernhard and Rosie O’Donnell.

Madonna’s first greatest hits album, The Immaculate Collection, has sold over 30 million copies to date, making it the best-selling “Best of” album by a female artist. It also presented the next scandal: The sexually explicit video for Justify My Love, which was filmed with her then-lover, model Tony Ward. It was banned or relegated to the nite program by many television stations. Madonna cleverly took advantage of this video scandal and released “Justify My Love” as a video single.

On the evening of the Oscar ceremony on March 25, 1991, she was accompanied by Michael Jackson and performed the song “Sooner or Later” live from the film Dick Tracy. The song eventually won the Oscar in the Best Original Song category. In May 1991, Madonna released the documentary Truth or Dare, a documentary of the Blond Ambition Tour in 1990. To promote her film, Madonna attended the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France on May 12, 1991, and produced her next scandal: on the red carpet, she opened her silk kimono and revealed herself in underwear. In Europe, the film was released under the title In Bed with Madonna. Madonna also appeared in films such as A League of Their Own (1992) and Shadows and Fog (1992). Both received quite positive reviews and were also a success at the box office.

During her transformation into an erotic star, Madonna simultaneously worked on her independence. She founded her own production company, Maverick, to gain unrestricted freedom over her work and also to promote new talent. Maverick released, among others, albums by Alanis Morissette, Meshell Ndegeocello, Candlebox and The Prodigy. This was followed by Madonna’s most provocative years in 1992/93. The album Erotica is a concept album on the theme of sexuality with strong BDSM and fetish symbolism. Each of the songs included reflects a different facet of human sexuality, mostly referring to sexual relationships. In its lyrics, the album does not establish the thematic connection between sexually motivated contacts and romantic feelings or love that is widespread in pop culture. As a typical dancefloor album, it is heavily characterized by the hip-hop-heavy beats and soulful melodies that were typical for the two co-producers Shep Pettibone and André Betts at the time. It was the artist’s first album to be released with a parental advisory label in the US. A censored second edition did not include the song Did You Do It? The album reached number two on the US charts and spawned six singles, of which the title track “Erotica” became the most successful. The song was also the title with the second highest debut position in the history of the U.S. Hot 100 Airplay charts. The music video associated with the song was aired in the United States by MTV only three times in its unedited original version due to its sexual content.

The promotional campaign for Erotica also included the erotic photo book SEX, which Madonna published on October 21, 1992, causing worldwide headlines and controversies. Never before had an internationally known pop artist staged themselves in such a way and presented themselves naked in sexual poses to a million-strong audience. SEX was published in an edition of 1.5 million copies, which sold out within a week.

The erotic thriller Body of Evidence tried in vain in 1993 to repeat the success of the blockbuster Basic Instinct. Madonna “won” another Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress with this film. In the spring of 1993, her film and musical career threatened to stagnate due to the erotic offensive. The film Snake Eyes, directed by Abel Ferrara, flopped again at the box office, and the single Bad Girl failed to reach the American top 20 of the Billboard charts for the first time since 1983.

However, the sold-out 1993 world tour The Girlie Show was a great success. On September 25, 1993, Madonna opened her new world tour at London’s Wembley Stadium in front of 72,000 fans. The stage show, inspired by the musical Hair and German film diva Marlene Dietrich, again provoked protests from conservative organizations and politicians – this time over a suggested group sex scene. Madonna appeared in it as a whip-wielding dominatrix surrounded by topless dancers. In Puerto Rico, Madonna caused a scandal when she rubbed the island’s flag between her legs; Orthodox Jews protested against her first performance in Israel. The highlight of the tour was the sold-out open-air concerts in Australia, where she also made her first live appearance. This great success was captured on the DVD Madonna The Girlie Show – Live Down Under.

In March 1994, she caused another scandal during her talk show appearance on David Letterman. Madonna’s perceived inappropriate language and her strange behavior caused outrage in the US media. Madonna had a brief appearance in the film Blue in the Face – Everything Blue by Wayne Wang, as a singing telegram. With her next album, Bedtime Stories (1994), Madonna was able to present herself better again, among other things as a first-class ballad singer. The stylistically diverse album, produced in part by Babyface, Nellee Hooper, Dallas Austin, and Björk, was received quite favorably by most critics, and sales figures slowly began to rise again. The second single, “Take a Bow,” reached number one on the Billboard charts and became one of her most successful singles in the United States.

In 1995, the now 37-year-old Madonna worked as a model for Gianni Versace. The Milanese designer created his fashion collections with her. To prepare her audience for her next important career step, Madonna released her most beautiful ballads on the album Something to Remember in the autumn of 1995; she also appeared in the episodic film Four Rooms and in Spike Lee’s film Girl 6.

In 1996, Madonna’s years of effort to land the role of Eva Perón in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical Evita were rewarded. Alan Parker cast her in the lead role. Madonna thrilled Argentinians when she sang Don’t Cry for Me Argentina on the balcony of the presidential palace in Buenos Aires in front of hundreds of extras. Evita became the most successful musical film of the 1990s. The accompanying album Evita sold very well, and Madonna drew attention more for her music than for scandals. This comeback was “crowned” a year later, when she received the Golden Globe for Best Actress in 1997. However, she was not nominated for the Academy Award (Oscar). Nevertheless, she presented the song “You Must Love Me” there, which won the award for composers/lyricists Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice.

On October 14, 1996, Madonna became a mother when she gave birth to her daughter Lourdes Maria in Los Angeles. The father of the child was Madonna’s then fitness trainer Carlos Leon. A decade that began controversially for Madonna was now rewarded with her first child, her first musical role, and a Golden Globe for best actress. Musically, the 39-year-old Madonna also broke new ground.

1997–2004

After the birth of her daughter, Madonna began working on the new album Ray of Light. To create a new sound, Madonna enlisted British producer William Orbit. With the album released in March 1998, Madonna was able to return to her most successful times: in February 1999, she received four Grammys – including for the best pop album and the best dance album – after being ignored for years in the Grammy nominations. Lyrically, Madonna focused on the themes of motherhood (Little Star) and her affection for Far Eastern religions (Frozen, Shanti/Ashtangi, Sky Fits Heaven). The album Ray of Light has sold 17 million records to date and released five singles. The accompanying videos set new standards in the music video genre. Ray of Light became Madonna’s most successful studio album of the 1990s.

In September 1998, Madonna met and fell in love with the British director Guy Ritchie at a dinner hosted by her musician friend Sting in London. In interviews, Madonna often spoke about her happiness as a mother, gave educational parenting advice, and was a guest on many television shows. In addition, she made no secret of the fact that she is an enthusiastic student of Jewish Kabbalah. The cosmetics company Max Factor (Ellen Betrix) created its global advertising campaign with Madonna in 1999.

In contrast, the film “A Friend to Fall In Love With” was not commercially successful. However, this film is associated with another worldwide hit by Madonna, namely the cover version of Don McLean’s classic “American Pie.” With this song, she reached the top of the German charts for the first time since La Isla Bonita in 1987. The electronic follow-up album Music from 2000 impressed with innovative production and underground sounds from the French DJ Mirwais. At the center of this production was Madonna’s more mature voice, which was underpinned minimally, primarily with guitar and electronic beats. The album and singles became a great success: The singles like videos, for example Music and Don’t Tell Me, sparked the next fashion trend: cowboy hats, low-rise pants, and boots. The album sold 15 million copies. In preparation for her tour the following year, Madonna gave two small concerts in New York and London in the fall of 2000, where she presented songs from “Music.”

After the birth of her son Rocco on August 11, 2000, and her marriage to Guy Ritchie on December 22, 2000, in Dornoch, Scotland, Madonna launched the sold-out Drowned World Tour in June 2001 after years of stage abstinence, which took her to Spain, Italy, Germany, France, and England. In July, Madonna’s US tour began. On September 14, the tour ended in Los Angeles. Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, had shocked the world three days earlier, Madonna interrupted the tour and called on her audience to pray. The second greatest hits album, GHV2, was released in November 2001. It did not offer any new material, and Madonna did not promote it either.

After that, Madonna returned to the theater stage in May 2002 after 14 years. In David Williamson’s play Up For Grabs, directed by Laurence Boswell, Madonna played the role of art dealer Loren. Up For Grabs was staged at the Wyndham’s Theater in London’s West End, and Madonna received the Theatergoers’ Choice Theater Award.

In the fall of 2002, Madonna caused a stir with her title song for James Bond – Die Another Day, co-written with Mirwais. Die Another Day became the best-selling Bond title song of all time and Madonna had a small cameo role in the film as Verity, the fencing instructor. Madonna also appeared in Guy Ritchie’s film Swept Away, which became one of the biggest flops in film history.

In 2003, the album American Life was released. The follow-up album to Music brought little new to Madonna’s musical world. In addition, in 2003 it fell victim to Madonna’s siding with the American president George W. Bush. Her commitment against the Iraq War triggered a boycott by conservative radio stations, which prevented the subsequent singles from charting on the Billboard charts, even tho “Die Another Day,” “American Life,” and “Hollywood” were in the top ten of the best-selling singles. The singles “Die Another Day” and “Nothing Fails” even reached number one on the sales charts. The album American Life sold 5 million copies, which was far below expectations. The American Life project, especially Madonna’s political “advertising,” had harmed her career in the United States. Shortly thereafter, Madonna released a duet as a single for the first time in her career, namely “Me Against the Music” together with Britney Spears. Madonna had previously recorded songs with other artists – with Prince the love song on the album Like a Prayer and in 1999 with Ricky Martin Be Careful (Cuidado con mi corazon) for his album Ricky Martin – but neither song had been released as a single. The live kiss with Britney Spears (and Christina Aguilera) at the MTV Awards in 2003 brought Madonna back into the limelight – and the quickly produced duet with Britney Spears was a respectable success. Madonna’s remix album Remixed & Revisited failed to give her main album American Life any new momentum.

In September 2003, Madonna’s first children’s book, The English Roses, was published. The New York Times and Barnes & Noble listed the book as number one on the bestseller list – and the following four were so successful that Madonna had sequels and extensive merchandising (clothing, dishes, jewelry, etc.) produced for The English Roses. The author donated all her profits from the project to children’s charities.

A great success was the Re-Invention World Tour 2004. Madonna was back in the United States, Canada and Europe with this sold-out tour. The show featured political statements, exclusive costumes by Karl Lagerfeld, religious motifs and a calculated scandal: Madonna sang a song on an “electric chair.” Unlike her last tours, this time her biggest hits were the focus, including many songs from the 1980s. This tour was Madonna’s only musical project of 2004. Similar to the Blond Ambition World Tour, Madonna had herself, her dancers, and everything that happened around the tour documented. The tour documentary I’m Going to Tell You a Secret premiered in New York in October 2005 and is now available on DVD.

At Christmas 2004, Madonna and Ritchie renewed their wedding vows. The two exchanged rings again at a ceremony.

2005–2007

In 2005, Madonna launched a campaign with the fashion house Versace. The photo series by photographer Mario Testino cost Donatella Versace 10.5 million US dollars. In aid of the tsunami victims of the tsunami that hit parts of Asia in December 2004, she appeared with other big names at Tsunami Aid, singing the John Lennon classic Imagine. Another benefit concert appearance was on July 2, 2005. Madonna performed at the Live 8 concert in London – 20 years after the Live Aid concert. Her set included the classics Like a Prayer, Ray of Light and Music.

On August 16, 2005, her 47th birthday, Madonna fell off a horse and broke her collarbone, hand, and several ribs. Despite these injuries, she filmed the dance video for Hung Up two months later. In November 2005, Madonna’s long-awaited album “Confessions on a Dance Floor” was finally released, reaching number one in 29 countries. This time, Stuart Price was the album’s lead producer. With her dance album, the 47-year-old was back on the dance floors of clubs. The album was accompanied by a song that set the tone in the autumn of 2005: Hung Up. For the biggest hit of her career, Madonna was allowed to use a sample of the ABBA classic Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight). Madonna took a new approach to sales, as Hung Up was first released as a ringtone for download. When the song was commercially released, Hung Up reached number one in 41 countries.

The album Confessions on a Dance Floor was heavily promoted: After the moderate success of the previous album, everything was done to make the new album a bigger success: In addition to “release parties,” advertising campaigns, promotional clips, websites, and appearances on many shows worldwide – including Star Academy (France), Wetten, dass..?, MTV-EMA, Ellen DeGeneres – Madonna also personally presented the album in New York, London, and Tokyo.

Hung Up sold over four million copies in the first three months. In the United States, Madonna tied with Elvis Presley: both placed 36 singles in the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 charts. Sorry, the second single from the album, was released in February 2006 and also achieved great success in the worldwide charts. On February 15, 2006, Madonna received the BRIT Award for Best International Artist and on March 12, 2006, two Echo Music Awards: for Best International Rock/Pop Artist and for Hung Up as the “Hit of the Year.”

On May 21, 2006, Madonna launched her Confessions Tour in Los Angeles. On July 30, 2006, she opened the European leg of her concert tour in Cardiff (Wales). In London, eight sold-out concerts took place at the Wembley Arena. As part of the Confessions Tour, Madonna came to Germany in August for two sold-out concerts (August 20, 2006, Düsseldorf, LTU Arena and August 22, 2006, Hannover AWD-Arena). In Paris, Madonna performed four times and in September twice in the Amsterdam Arena. Prague and Moscow were also included in Madonna’s world tour for the first time. The tour ended after a total of 60 sold-out shows on September 21, 2006, in Tokyo.

Madonna presented herself in a much more provocative manner than in her previous performances in recent years. Thus, BDSM allusions, ponyplay, and a crucifixion scene, where Madonna sings the ballad “Live To Tell” on the cross, are once again featured in the stage program. Particularly the singing Madonna with a crown of thorns on the cross was perceived as blasphemous by many Christians worldwide. The Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office examined her show for violations of § 166 of the German Criminal Code (insulting religious beliefs, religious societies, and ideological associations). Countless lawsuits were filed against Madonna in courts around the world, but these did not lead to the requested ban on the superstar’s performance. Madonna’s concert in Hanover was even supposed to be boycotted. The then Hanoverian regional bishop Margot Käßmann called for a boycott, but without success. Madonna responded to the church’s criticism by inviting the Pope to her show in Rome, which led to further controversy. Disko is also a big theme of the show. Madonna wears costumes inspired by ABBA and John Travolta from Saturday Nite Fever. The Confessions Tour became the most successful tour by a female artist to date.

Shortly after the successful but controversial tour, Madonna once again dominated the headlines, this time due to the controversial adoption of little David Banda from Malawi in October 2006. Madonna became a target for the media, which conducted predominantly negative reporting. She was accused, for example, of having “bought a souvenir from Africa” and of not having complied with Malawi’s adoption laws, thus receiving a star bonus. At the end of October 2006, Madonna publicly addressed these allegations on the Oprah Winfrey Show.

After the hits Sorry and Get Together, Jump was released as the last single from the hit album Confessions on a Dance Floor. The video was filmed in Tokyo, where Madonna showcased her new platinum blonde bob hairstyle. The song reached the top ten in many countries, became a major airplay hit worldwide, and dominated clubs and discotheques around the world in late 2006. The album has sold 12 million copies to date.

On January 26, 2007, Madonna released The Confessions Tour as a live album and DVD. The album immediately reached number two on the German charts. It thus became Madonna’s seventeenth top-ten album in Germany.

As early as the summer of 2006, the fashion chain H&M provided an extensive collection of clothing for the tour team. In March 2007, the international sale of a complete fashion collection designed by Madonna followed. The promotional video shows Madonna as a dominant lifestyle icon, imparting fashion wisdom such as “Don’t think it – you need to know it” to a poorly dressed student with the crack of her whip, only to then completely re-style her.

In April 2007, Madonna traveled to Malawi again amidst great media attention, where she visited charitable institutions. When it became known that Madonna’s husband, Guy Ritchie, did not accompany her to Malawi, divorce rumors once again surfaced in the global media. On her return, she turned her attention to producing new songs for her upcoming album, Hard Candy, and began directing the short film, Filth and Wisdom, which premiered at the Berlinale, Germany’s largest film festival, in 2008.

Two new songs from the album sessions for Hard Candy, “The Beat Goes On” and “Candy Shop,” were illegally recorded and appeared on the internet. But Warner Music immediately filed suit against all the platforms that had offered the song on their servers, so it quickly disappeared. These two songs strongly signaled Madonna’s shift toward hip-hop. Both songs were produced by Pharrell Williams and Madonna.

On May 17, 2007, Madonna released her new single “Hey You” (produced by Pharrell Williams) as a download. She performed the song at the Live Earth concert on July 7 at London’s Wembley Stadium. For every one of the first million downloads – free in the first week – MSN promised to donate 25 cents to the Alliance for Climate Protection. A video was also released to accompany Hey You, showing the effects of climate change and how the world could look without it. Madonna does not appear in the video. Fans have received the new song Hey You very well. Madonna’s Live Earth performance included four songs: Hey You, Ray of Light, La Isla Bonita and Hung Up.

The American Forbes magazine ranked Madonna as the 3rd most influential person in the world in June 2007. This ranking refers to the year 2006, which became one of the most successful years for Madonna in terms of her artistic career. With earnings of 72 million dollars (about 48.6 million euros at the time) between June 2006 and June 2007, Madonna was also, according to Forbes magazine, the most successful female artist of the year in terms of finances. The money came mainly from the Confessions Tour, which won a Grammy on February 10, 2008, from record sales and advertising contracts.

On September 12, 2007, Madonna began a multi-day trip to Israel for the Jewish New Year, along with her husband Guy Ritchie and their three children. Madonna and Guy were seen entering the home of Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres on the evening of September 15, 2007, after the Jewish New Year celebrations. Peres presented Madonna with a copy of the Old Testament, the original Jewish part of the Bible, during the meeting, which she is said to have requested. The meeting itself was closed to the press.

Madonna left her longtime record label Warner Music Group and signed a new contract with Live Nation, which was officially confirmed on October 16, 2007. Even before, it had been reported from Madonna’s environment that the value of the deal was 120 million US dollars (then about 85 million euros). Madonna justified the switch in a joint statement with Live Nation by saying that the music business had changed in recent years and that she had to keep up with the times.

According to reports, Madonna is set to receive an 8 million bonus and an advance of 7 million for each of the three albums. In the next 10 years, Madonna is expected to produce 3 studio albums and 4 tours according to the contract.

Madonna was also one of 23 female artists who contributed to the song “Sing” by former Eurythmics singer Annie Lennox. The title is included on Lennox’s album Songs of Mass Destruction. On 1 December 2007, the song was released as a download single. The proceeds from this release went to various AIDS projects.

2008–2009

On February 13, 2008, Madonna officially presented her film Filth and Wisdom at the 58th Berlinale as her directorial debut. She appeared in Berlin with her film crew, which received significant media attention. Originally, the film was planned as a short film. It did not take part in the competition, but served as a world premiere. It is not yet known whether Madonna’s film will be shown in cinemas worldwide. It has been released on DVD in some countries. Filth and Wisdom is about a Russian immigrant named A. K. (Eugene Hütz) who is trying to make his dream of becoming a great musician with his band Gogol Bordello come true, and therefore tries to make ends meet with countless jobs in London. He lives with two young women who have similar goals and have to go thru the filth to get to the wisdom. Critics praised Madonna’s courage and the film’s characters, and the film was generally well received, with a few exceptions. On October 14, 2008, Madonna also officially presented her film in New York City.

On March 10, 2008, Madonna was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The ceremony took place at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City.

On May 21, 2008, Madonna presented her documentary film about Malawi titled I Am Because We Are at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival. She served as executive producer and will narrate the film, which was directed by Nathan Rissman. The documentary was already presented by Madonna on April 24, 2008, at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. Additionally, Madonna also attended the film’s premiere in Traverse City, Michigan, in August 2008, a now-famous film festival founded by Michael Moore.

Madonna’s subsequent album Hard Candy was released on April 25, 2008, in Germany. In other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, it was released on April 28 and in the United States on April 29, 2008. On March 15, 2008, the long-awaited artwork for the album cover was released, which for the first time would not have the word “Madonna” printed on it. Timbaland had already presented Madonna’s first single from the album, 4 Minutes, a song for peace, featuring Justin Timberlake, at a concert in December 2007 in Philadelphia. The video was filmed in London at the end of January 2008 with Timbaland and Justin Timberlake. The single had its official radio debut internationally on March 17, was released as a download on March 25, and as a maxi-CD on April 11. 4 Minutes and Hard Candy immediately reached number one on the German charts. Hard Candy became Madonna’s tenth number-one album in Germany. In June 2008, the second single “Give It 2 Me” from the album “Hard Candy” was released.

In July 2008, Madonna’s brother Christopher Ciccone published the biography “Life With My Sister Madonna” in the United States. He had worked with Madonna for many years until Madonna severely limited contact with him after his cocaine addiction became known. The book caused a stir internationally and was finally published in Germany on October 24, 2008.

On August 23, 2008, Madonna launched her worldwide Sticky & Sweet Tour in Cardiff/Wales to promote the album Hard Candy. Berlin, Düsseldorf and Frankfurt am Main were among the stops on the tour, and for the first time Madonna also performed in Vienna and Switzerland, at the military airfield Dübendorf near Zurich. After the European phase of the world tour, numerous concerts followed in the United States and also, for the first time in 15 years, concerts in South America. In April and May 2008, three small concerts of the Hard Candy Promo Tour had already taken place, with stops in New York, Paris, and Maidstone/Kent.

The third single, “Miles Away,” from the album “Hard Candy,” was released in Germany on November 21. The song quickly became a hit on German radio stations and reached number one on the airplay charts there after five weeks. Due to the global financial crisis, Madonna canceled all dates of her Sticky & Sweet world tour in Australia in early December 2008.

In January 2009, the fashion house Louis Vuitton launched a large-scale advertising campaign for luxury bags, featuring Madonna as the model. Marc Jacobs, the creative director of Louis Vuitton, explained it this way: “The new campaign should be very sensual, daring and atmospheric. To bring all that together in one person, we needed the ultimate performer – and for me, that’s Madonna.”

Madonna made headlines again due to an affair with the 28-year-younger Brazilian model Jesus Luz, which preceded a “W” photo campaign created in December 2008. This campaign appeared in March 2009 under the title Blame It On Rio and led to a public debate due to the revealing photos and the sexual allusions they contained. Madonna also attracted further attention when she traveled to Malawi at the end of March 2009 to carry out another adoption, this time of a four-year-old girl. The adoption was initially unsuccessful, as a Malawian court ruled against Madonna’s application in April 2009. On June 12, 2009, the Malawi Supreme Court ruled that Madonna could adopt the child. The reason for the original rejection, that adoptive parents must have lived in Malawi for at least 18 months before adopting a Malawian child, was “a narrow interpretation of the law based on old laws,” according to Judge Lovemore Munlo. In this global village, a person can have more than one place of residence.” He also stated that Madonna’s long-standing relationship with Malawi and her commitment to disadvantaged children should have been taken into account. The decision in favor of Madonna’s adoption once again divided public opinion.

On July 4, 2009, Madonna continued her successful Sticky & Sweet Tour from 2008 in London, marking the first time in Madonna’s career that she continued a world tour. An accident on July 16, 2009, during the stage construction for Madonna’s show in Marseille resulted in two fatalities and several injuries, leading the mayor of Marseille to cancel the concert. The concert tour ended on September 2, 2009, in Tel Aviv. It was the most successful tour by a solo artist worldwide up to that point.

Madonna’s third greatest hits album, Celebration, was released on September 18, 2009, and was the last album in collaboration with Warner Bros. Records. The eponymous first single, “Celebration,” was released in Germany on September 4, 2009, and reached the top five of the German charts, while the album itself managed to secure the number one spot for two weeks. The second single, “Revolver,” from the best-of album is a collaboration with Lil Wayne.

2010s

At the beginning of 2010, Madonna was once again the face of a new international fashion campaign, this time for Dolce & Gabbana, for which she received very positive reviews. On January 22, 2010, Madonna performed in New York at Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief and sang her hit Like a Prayer. The proceeds from this broadcast benefited the victims of the Haiti earthquake. In March 2010, Madonna’s third live album, Sticky & Sweet Tour, was released as a CD/DVD combination. In addition, she appeared in another Dolce & Gabbana campaign in the summer of 2010.

In July 2010, she directed the historical drama W.E., for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film deals with the controversial affair between British King Edward VIII and the commoner Wallis Simpson. W.E. had its official premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September 2011. The film and Madonna’s direction were mostly well received. The song “Masterpiece” used in the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Song in 2012.

In March 2012, her twelfth studio album MDNA was released. This achieved the number one spot on the iTunes charts in 50 countries before its release due to high pre-orders, setting a new record. The first single from the album, “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” had already been released in February 2012 and was part of Madonna’s performance during the Super Bowl 2012 in Indianapolis. With Girl Gone Wild, the second single from the album was released before MDNA. The revealing video is not allowed to be shown on YouTube and other video platforms for youth protection reasons.

MDNA debuted at number one on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom, and the album reached number three in Germany. At the end of May 2012, the 88-concert MDNA Tour started in Tel Aviv, which, in addition to an extensive European leg, also took Madonna to North and South America. The reviews of the opening concert were mostly positive, but the sometimes excessive portrayal of violence in the first act of the show was criticized by some media. With revenues of 305.2 million US dollars (from 2,212,505 tickets sold), it was the most successful tour of 2012.

In May 2013, she was awarded three prizes at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas in the categories “Dance Artist of the Year,” “Dance Album of the Year” for MDNA, and for the MDNA Tour as the “Top Tour of 2012.” In September 2013, a live recording of the tour was released under the title MDNA World Tour in the form of a double album, a DVD, and Blu-Ray. At the end of September, Madonna introduced her project Art for Freedom, which includes a controversial short film called secretprojectrevolution, in which Madonna advocates for tolerance and equality. The film was made available for free download worldwide and premiered on giant billboards in various metropolises around the world. Forbes magazine listed her as the highest-paid artist in show business with an income of around 125 million US dollars in the period 2012/13.

In January 2014, Madonna performed at the 56th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles alongside Mary Lambert and Queen Latifah. They were part of Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’ “Same Love” performance. Madonna also sang her classic Open Your Heart. The performance advocated for the acceptance of homosexual couples. At the beginning of December 2014, revealing pictures of the 56-year-old Madonna in Interview magazine caused a stir. Two weeks later, 13 songs that were supposed to be on her next album appeared on the Internet. She described the leak as “artistic rape” and stated that the songs were unfinished demos and would not be included on an album in that form. In response, she released six of the leaked songs in finished form on iTunes and several streaming platforms on December 20. At the same time, her upcoming album was made available for pre-order. In April 2015, Madonna made headlines again when she kissed rapper Drake at the Coachella Festival.

Madonna’s thirteenth studio album, Rebel Heart, was released in March 2015. The album received positive reviews internationally, reached number 1 in Germany, but sold fewer units worldwide than its predecessor. The released singles Living For Love, Ghosttown, and Bitch I’m Madonna were commercially successful only in a few countries. Living For Love and Ghosttown missed the American Billboard Hot 100. In contrast, Living For Love achieved a number-one hit on the US Dance Club Play charts – Madonna’s forty-fourth overall.

In September 2015, Madonna launched her Rebel Heart Tour in Montreal. There were 82 concerts worldwide. The singer performed in Australia for the first time in 23 years and also gave her first concerts in New Zealand, China, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Philippines. The tour ended in March 2016 in Sydney and grossed 169.8 million US dollars, with more than 1 million tickets sold. In the Billboard ranking, Madonna, with 1.31 billion US dollars in revenue, ranks first among the most successful female touring acts of all time.

At the Billboard Music Awards in May 2016, Madonna sang his hit “Nothing Compares 2 U” in homage to her longtime friend, the late singer Prince, and then performed the song “Purple Rain,” also written by Prince, together with Stevie Wonder. In December 2016, Madonna was named “Woman of the Year” at the Billboard Women in Music Awards and gave a ten-minute speech addressing topics such as sexism, feminism, and hostility toward women in the music business. As part of the Women’s March on January 21, 2017, following Donald Trump’s inauguration, she gave a speech against sexism and the new U.S. government, and in favor of women’s rights. The sometimes very offensive statements, such as, “I have thot an awful lot about blowing up the White House,” sparked discussions. Donald Trump called them “disgusting.”

In February 2017, Madonna adopted twins from Malawi. In September 2017, the live release of the Rebel Heart Tour was released as a double CD, Blu-ray, and DVD. The live album reached number 8 on the charts in Germany. In April 2019, Madonna’s fourteenth studio album, Madame X, was announced. On April 17, 2019, she released the first single from the album, Medellín, a duet with Maluma. Her performance at the 64th ESC 2019 on May 18, 2019, where she performed Like a Prayer and premiered her new song Future (together with Quavo), was received by the media in a nuanced but predominantly negative manner. After Madame X was released on June 14, 2019, the album reached number 1 on the Billboard charts in the USA. On September 12, Madonna’s eleventh concert tour, the Madame X Tour, will kick off in New York City.

Phenomenon Madonna

Like hardly any other artist, Madonna shaped the pop culture of the 20th century. For over 30 years, she has been one of the most photographed and most discussed women in the world.

Religion

Madonna’s parents were practicing Catholics, and Catholicism was predominant in their household. Madonna spoke in numerous interviews about her childhood and her early experiences with the Roman Catholic Church. Especially her mother remains in her memory as a devout Catholic. Madonna Louise Ciccone celebrated her First Communion in 1965 and was confirmed two years later. At her confirmation, she took the name Veronica as her confirmation name. As a teenager, however, Madonna broke away from her original religion and has since had a kind of love-hate relationship with it.

In her creative career as a singer, Madonna has often relied on religious and specifically Catholic symbols. Whether in song lyrics, music videos, or stage shows, the viewer discovers religious symbols everyplace in Madonna’s work. Madonna dedicated the album Like A Prayer to her mother, “who taught her to pray.” Early in her life, Madonna experienced death and pain when her mother died. Madonna processed these experiences and her difficult relationship in the music video “Oh Father.”

Madonna also liked to combine religion and eroticism, sometimes so offensively that there was strong protest from the church. Several times, cardinals spoke out in favor of Madonna’s excommunication.

When Madonna was pregnant with her daughter Lourdes Maria, a friend introduced her to Kabbalah and the Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles. Since 1996, Madonna has been a student of Kabbalah and often speaks about it in interviews. She also creatively processed these influences in her albums, such as in Ray Of Light and American Life. Her children’s books, which were published between 2003 and 2005, also contain well-known Kabbalistic messages. Madonna donates the proceeds from the books to the children’s organization Spirituality for Kids, which is associated with the Kabbalah Center. Madonna has been to Israel several times for Kabbalah meetings, has supported the Kabbalah Center financially and has recruited new members under her chosen name “Esther”.

Musical development

Madonna plays guitar in addition to keyboard and drums, which she incorporated as a permanent part of her stage shows during her recent tours. Her “perfectly produced pop songs,” which she mostly writes in collaboration with renowned producers (Nile Rodgers, Stephen Bray, Patrick Leonard, William Orbit, Lenny Kravitz, Shep Pettibone, Mirwais, among others), reflect the spirit of the times and also document her personal development. Their focus lies in her spirituality and her – albeit difficult – love for her parental family, which is reflected in the very personal lyrics.

The early years and her first album Madonna were influenced by black funk and the related disko music. Then came the years of catchy and commercial pop, as seen on the albums Like a Virgin and True Blue. In 1989, Madonna surprised everyone with her most artistically valuable album to date, “Like a Prayer.” On I’m Breathless, the soundtrack to the film Dick Tracy, she ventured into the realm of jazz for the first time and sang rather difficult ballads by Stephen Sondheim. At the same time, she returned to her dance roots with songs clearly influenced by the house sound of the time, such as “Express Yourself” and “Vogue.” In the first half of the 1990s, Madonna primarily produced Black/Soul music with typical hip-hop and R’n’B beats on the albums Erotica and Bedtime Stories. Influences of the trip-hop genre, which was very popular in the club scene at that time, were also frequently heard.

In the fall of 1995, Madonna took three months of professional vocal training in London to be able to sing the musical songs from Evita perfectly. Andrew Lloyd Webber insisted that the soundtrack to his musical film be recorded live with orchestral accompaniment. The effort paid off, as the ballad You Must Love Me, performed by Madonna, won the Oscar for Best Original Song in 1997.

Madonna’s desire to be respected as a musician by critics culminated in 1998 with the album Ray of Light. It was produced by William Orbit and is heavily influenced by spirituality and the “addiction to self-discovery,” as she assured in interviews. Musically, the album was a clear departure from the R’n’B sound of previous years and stylistically moved within the realms of trance, ambient, and modern house. At the Grammy Awards, the album was celebrated – and commercially, Madonna had made a comeback: The singles “Frozen,” “Ray of Light,” and “The Power of Good-Bye” topped the charts around the globe.

The albums Music and American Life were mostly co-produced by the French underground musician Mirwais and were based on progressive electronica – electronic beats and sounds from 1980s synthesizers, combined with guitar and dominant vocals. Madonna’s attempts to position herself politically against the U.S. president backfired in the United States. Stigmatized as “un-American,” Madonna was boycotted by the Republican-dominated radio stations. The singles sold well in the United States, but this was not reflected in the charts there, as they were largely based on radio play. Due to the radio boycott, her Billboard rankings fell. Also in the rest of the world, the album and the singles released from it fell far short of expectations, although many critics (Rolling Stone, Music Maker) emphasized Madonna’s talents as a composer. The biggest successes of this time were the remixes of the singles, which gave Madonna five number-one hits in the Billboard Dance Charts – including the remix of Hollywood by Stuart Price. After Madonna’s attempts to establish herself as a serious artist were not crowned with the hoped-for commercial success, she returned to her roots and produced an electronic dance album in the United States – against all trends –: Confessions on a Dance Floor. After the great success of the first single Hung Up, which topped the charts in over 40 countries, the album was able to repeat that success. Bolstered by elaborate promotion, it became one of her biggest successes.

Madonna usually writes her songs herself, in collaboration with the most esteemed producers in the music scene. In doing so, she has very specific ideas about how a song or the entire album should sound. In most of her songs, Madonna is responsible for the lyrics. Thus, the death of her mother, her family, her self-reflection, her joy in dance, party, and music, as well as sexuality were themes in her songs.

For the first time since 1994, Madonna worked with American producers like Timbaland and Justin Timberlake for the recordings of her album Hard Candy. The music on the album is more in tune with the current zeitgeist than ever, and contains catchy pop with a strong R&B and hip-hop influence. It is obvious that Madonna is trying to cater more to the American market again, as album sales there have suffered significantly since 2003.

All of Madonna’s albums from the 1980s and 1990s were produced in the United States; since the year 2000, Madonna’s albums have been recorded in London, as the British capital became her main residence.

Madonna and Feminism

While around 1990, conservatives in the United States rejected the very direct portrayal of sexuality as irresponsible, Madonna was celebrated as an avant-garde figure by sex-positive feminists of the third wave of feminism, such as Camille Paglia. The reasons for her positive critique are identified by Paglia in the appearance of androgynous people, transsexuals, and drag queens in Madonna’s videos, the depiction of sadomasochistic sex, and in Madonna’s stage persona, which is equally self-determined, strong, and sexy. Madonna stood for a new image of women: She has control over her life, her sexuality, her artistic output, and is economically successful – “a complex modern woman.” Paglia saw Madonna as the “future of feminism.” Madonna’s contribution to this is still the healing of women from the split between the roles of saint and whore – thru her role-playing as a dominatrix and prostitute. Role models for Madonna’s equally strong and sexy stage persona are Deborah Harry, the singer and songwriter of the band Blondie, as well as Chrissie Hynde, the guitarist and singer of the Pretenders. In 2014, at the age of 56, Madonna posed for erotic images in her underwear for Interview magazine. In her speech upon being named Woman of the Year 2016, she referred to herself as a bad feminist.

Acting

Madonna preferred the cameras early on. Since her school days, she has completed several acting courses. Some of these projects were filmed, which have no more than the character of simple amateur recordings. The Egg Movie, for example, consists of Madonna’s bare belly, on which a fried egg is cooked. In Artificial Light, it is more of a theater improvisation, where all the actors wrote their own lines. A Certain Sacrifice is the best-known of the series, having been released as a scandal video in 1984 at the height of Madonna’s career. However, the cheap amateur production turned out to be a long-winded art film with the charm of a failed school play.

At the same time as her breakthrough as a pop star, Madonna achieved her first success as an actress in the comedy “Susan… Desperately Seeking,” which primarily earned her critical acclaim. The following films were unable to repeat this success. According to critics, Madonna’s public image prevented her performances in more ambitious films such as Snake Eyes or Swept Away from being taken seriously. More notable was Madonna’s knack for choosing roles that were doomed to fail from the start due to poor scripts and production (e.g. Shanghai Surprise, Body of Evidence, or A Friend to Die For). Madonna received the Golden Raspberry for Worst Actress several times for this and was also “awarded” Worst Actress of the Century.

What worked very well in Madonna’s music videos, slipping into different roles for four minutes, could only moderately convince the audience in a feature-length film. Only film roles that the audience associated with Madonna (Dick Tracy or Evita) made the cash registers ring. A circumstance that reinforced critics’ opinion that Madonna only plays herself.

The tour documentary I’m Going to Tell You a Secret was not released in cinemas in 2005: the film’s religious message seemed too intrusive to the film distributor. After the success of the 2005 album Confessions on a Dance Floor – and the cinematic failures of the past years – Madonna distanced herself from further film projects.

Musical Successes and Records

Throughout her career, Madonna repeatedly set a series of new world records that went far beyond her musical successes. For example, her children’s book The English Roses from 2003 is the fastest-selling picture book for children of all time, and her photo book SEX is the best-selling coffee table book of all time.

However, Madonna achieved her greatest successes in music. The following is an overview of her most important musical successes:

Record sales

• With over 300 million records sold, Madonna is the most commercially successful female singer in the world and, after Elvis Presley, the Beatles, and Michael Jackson, the fourth most successful artist of all time. For this, she has received multiple entries in the Guinness Book of Records. Most recently in 2014. Currently, it is estimated that Madonna has sold over 335 million records.
• According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and Warner Bros., the number of her albums sold worldwide amounts to over 200 million, of which she has sold over 64.5 million in the USA alone. Thus, alongside the Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley, and the Beatles, she is one of only six artists worldwide who can boast album sales of over 200 million.
• Her albums The Immaculate Collection (1990), True Blue (1986), Like a Virgin (1984), and Ray of Light (1998) are among the best-selling albums of all time.
• Her album The Immaculate Collection is the best-selling greatest hits album by a solo artist worldwide, with 30 million units sold.
  In the USA, Like a Virgin (1984) became the first album by a female singer to sell over five million copies. In 1985, the album was awarded five times platinum. To this day, over 21 million copies of the album have been sold worldwide.
• Her two albums The Immaculate Collection (1990) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) are among the 50 fastest-selling albums of all time in the UK.
• Until the release of Adele’s 21, The Immaculate Collection (1990) was the best-selling album by a female artist in the UK, with over 3.7 million copies sold.
• True Blue (1986) is the best-selling studio album by a female artist of the 1980s, with nearly 25 million copies sold worldwide. It reached the top position on the charts in 28 countries and brought Madonna her first entry into the Guinness Book of Records. It is also the best-selling album by a foreign artist in Italy, with over 1.5 million copies sold.
• With over 17.8 million singles sold, Madonna has sold more singles in the UK than any other female artist.
• Justify My Love (1990) is the world’s best-selling single released on VHS.
• Her 2012 album MDNA received sevenfold platinum in Russia. It was the first time a non-Russian artist received this award.

Touring

• Madonna’s Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008) and MDNA Tour (2012) occupy the 1st and 2nd places in the list of the most successful tours by a female singer worldwide. With her Rebel Heart Tour (2015), she finally achieved the breakthrough to become the most successful solo touring act of all time. In total, Madonna earned over 1.3 billion US dollars thru her world tours.
• Already for her Confessions Tour (2006), Madonna received an entry in the Guinness Book of Records: With revenues of 193.7 million US dollars and 1.2 million tickets sold, it was the most successful world tour by a female singer to date. Madonna broke this record two years later once again, when she grossed over 408 million US dollars with her own Sticky & Sweet Tour.
• Her performance in Helsinki, Finland, as part of the Sticky & Sweet Tour on August 6, 2009, with 85,000 tickets sold, is the largest concert ever held by an artist in Scandinavia.
• On August 29, 1987, Madonna performed in Paris as part of her Who’s That Girl World Tour in front of over 131,000 people. A record that remains unbroken in France to this day. In addition, on November 6, 1993, she performed in Rio de Janeiro during her The Girlie Show World Tour in front of around 120,000 people. With this, she is the only solo artist in music history to have performed in front of over 100,000 people at her concerts twice.

Other records

• With 125 million US dollars between 2012 and 2013, Madonna holds the record for the highest annual earnings of a musician of all time.
• With a net worth of around billion, Madonna is the richest person in the music business.
• With Evita (1996), Madonna holds the record for the most costume changes (85) in a film.
• Between 2000 and 2009, Madonna was the most played artist on British radio.
• Her Super Bowl Halftime Show (2012) was, with over 114 million viewers, the most-watched TV event in the USA to date.
• To this day, her London concert as part of the Don’t Tell Me promo tour, with 11 million viewers on the internet, is the most-watched concert on the internet.
• With a total of 19 entries, Madonna holds the record for the most entries by a female singer in the Guinness Book of Records.