- Born Madonna Ciccone in 1958, in Bay City Michigan.
- She moved to New York City at 19 years of age, with $35, to find work as a dancer. In 1979, she formed a rock band named The Breakfast Club – Madonna sang and played the drums. After a couple of years, she formed another band, named Emmy. By 1982, she decided to market herself as a solo act, and through connections, signed a singles deal with Sire Records.
- Her first two singles, Everybody and Burning Up, were immediately popular at dance clubs. This led to her first album – Madonna – which began an amazing run of mega-hit albums and songs. Madonna had worldwide sales of over 10 million records. This was followed by Like A Virgin – 21 million albums sold – and True Blue – 25 million albums sold. She has released 13 studio albums, 5 compilations, 3 soundtrack albums, 4 live albums, and several other records. She has released 83 singles. Adding it all up, she has sold over 300 million records, placing her as the fourth largest selling artist of all time (behind only The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson).
- Madonna became much bigger than her music. Her look and style of dressing became a fashion style of its own in the 80s. As she got older, she continued to push the limits of the status quo, daring to be more provocative in her music and in the media. She also crossed over into movies and theater – she has worked in 26 feature films, 9 short films, 3 plays, 10 TV episodes, and 16 commercials.
- She clearly calls the shots. She has written and produced most of her own songs. While she earned the moniker “Queen of Pop” largely because her music is best defined that way, as she matured, she incorporated different genres into her music, including classical, gospel, and folk.
- Madonna has won over 300 awards for her work, including 7 Grammy Awards – although she has never won a Grammy in the the most prestigious categories. In 2008, she was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. She holds the record for the most #1s on all combined Billboard charts, with 12 #1 songs on the Hot 100 chart, 8 #1 albums on the Hot Album chart, and 46 #1 songs on the Dance Club chart.
- In her 60s now – she’s as big as ever. I’m giving you 2 videos to check out – my favorite video, the stunning Vogue, as well as her hilarious Carpool Karaoke with James Corden.
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