Luckily, baby David escaped injury. The singer was returning to the UK from New York, after making the promotional rounds for her new book and television special.
She had also been talking to news stations about David’s adoption in Malawi, and the controversy which surrounded it.
Madonna blames media for adoption row - Nov 6 2006
Madonna says the media fanned the controversy over her attempts to adopt a 13-month-old boy from Malawi - claiming the average person does not care about it.
"But when you throw in things like I’m a celebrity and I somehow got special treatment, or make the implication of kidnapping, it gets mixed into a stew, and it sells lots of papers," the singer told Time magazine.
"What they should care about is that there are over a million orphans in Malawi," she said.
Madonna added that there was an element of nationalism and racism in the news media.
"There’s a lot of Brits - reporters on the street - who’ve said, ’Why don’t you adopt a kid from Britain?’ Or ’Why did you adopt a black child?"’ Madonna said.
She said she has not worked harder for anything in her life than in trying to adopt the boy, David Banda.
She and her husband, filmmaker Guy Ritchie, were granted an interim adoption order by Malawi’s High Court last month.
The boy has joined her two children - daughter Lourdes, nine, and son Rocco, six - in England.
Madonna snubbed at MTV Awards - Nov 3 2006
Madonna was lampooned on stage at the MTV Europe Music Awards (see photos) as she failed to take a single prize - despite being nominated for three titles.
The 48-year-old star, who has been the subject of controversy over her decision to adopt a one-year-old Malawian boy, was up for best Pop Act, best Female and Album, for Confessions on a Dancefloor at the awards last night.
But Best Pop was won by Justin Timberlake, Female by Christina Aguilera and Album by The Red Hot Chili Peppers for Stadium Arcadium.
The superstar, who has enjoyed phenomenal success this year with a multi-million selling album and a world tour, was even ridiculed at the awards in Copenhagen, Denmark.
TV comic Avid Merrion dressed up as the Material Girl in her leotard-wearing incarnation (see photos) and gave a comic rendition of her performance at MTV’s events last year.
He then told the audience: "I’m getting too old for this s***. I’ve been getting a lot of hoo-ha from the press recently just because I bought a baby.
"But I’m Madonna. If I want to buy a baby I buy a flipping baby."
His act was accompanied by a troupe of dancing "babies" gyrating in outsized babygrows.
Madonna offered David’s father help - Nov 1 2006
Madonna offered to financially help the father of the baby boy she is trying to adopt so he could keep his son in Malawi, she will reveal tonight.
In her first British interview about the adoption of baby David Banda on BBC Two’s Newsnight, Madonna will tell presenter Kirsty Wark how her offer was refused by Yohane Banda.
"I offered that option to the father and he declined," the singer said in a seconds-long clip of the interview which was shown at the end of last night’s programme.
Last week, the 48-year-old appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to defend her decision to adopt 13-month-old David from an orphanage in Malawi.
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The following year Madonna broke away from Kamins and recorded Holiday which went straight in to the American top 20 and was a hit across Europe. She cemented her raunchy image with Like A Virgin, her first US number one, and Material Girl with it’s iconic video. By this time Madonna was becoming one of the most emulated and best loved artists in the world and she became even more popular thanks to her part in Live Aid and a high profile marriage to Sean Penn.
The pop diva followed up her success with several singles from the True Blue album and turned her hand to acting for the first time in the poorly received A Certain Sacrifice and of course, Desperately Seeking Susan. Her first real flop was alongside her husband in the laughable Shanghai Surprise. Her failure’s in the film department didn’t stop David Mamet from casting her in a Broadway production of Speed the Plow - by this time talent or no, Madonna’s was name that guaranteed attention.
1989 saw the singer court controversy with the video for Like A Prayer, featuring a black Jesus, which outraged and shocked the Catholic church and caused Pepsi to cancel a sponsorship deal. But far from ruining her career, this stunt saw her become the icon that we know today. The 1990s were the pinnacle of Madonna’s success, her divorce from Sean Penn pushing her further in to the lime light, beginning with a part in Dick Tracy opposite Warren Beatty and a fantastic soundtrack album alongside featuring hit song Vogue. Documentary film Truth or Dare and her Blonde Ambition tour (with that pointy bra) followed with further controversy.
In 1992 she signed a multi million pound deal with Time Warner guaranteeing the release of music, films and books through her own record label, Maverick. She made the most of the deal with picture book Sex, which caused another controversy but rocketed up the bestsellers charts nonetheless. Erotica was her first album for years though not to generate a US number one. People thought that perhaps Madonna had gone too far with her need to shock, and perhaps she had realised it too as her next album was far mellower and a part in Evita in 1996 made her bankable again.
Later that year she fell pregnant with Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, daughter of her personal trainer. But far from slowing her work, having a child only seemed to spur Madonna on, she released the runaway success, Ray of Light which produced hit after hit and recorded Beautiful Stranger for the second Austin Powers movie. she also starred alongside Rupert Everett in romantic comedy The Next Best Thing.
It was around this time that Madonna met British director Guy Ritchie - the man who would change her life. They had son Rocco in 2000 and they married in 2002 after Madonna moved permanently to England, took to wearing flat caps and drinking tea. The title track of her album Music gave her a transatlantic number one hit. Collaborations with Ritchie, especially their film Swept Away, have generally been unsuccessful but Madonna’s music career continues to go from strength to strength, her latest album American Life has been a worldwide hit and she has even found time to pen a children’s book, The English Roses. Now, an honorary Brit and devout follower of Kaballah, Madonna lives with her family in Marylebone and Wiltshire. She also owns a ?4 million Spanish-style villa in Beverly Hills, a house in Miami and a duplex overlooking Central Park in New York.
(Updated April 04)
December 2007