Madonna | biography

Madonna

Profession: Singer
Place/Date of Birth: Michigan USA
Associated with: Guy Ritchie

"With the designer collections we picked big city stores but with this, because it is so wearable, we put it everywhere," she said.

"Because this has gone to all the stores, the quantities are much higher. I am sure not every single store will sell out today, which has been known with the designers. "

Madonna in vogue with clothes launch - Mar 22 2007
Madonna’s new fashion collection will go on sale across the country for the first time today at high street chain H&M.

The Material Girl’s range of clothes and accessories, priced from £7.99 to £149.99, will be launched at H&M’s Oxford Street branch in central London.

Called M by Madonna, the collection has seen the icon team up with H&M design chief Margareta van den Bosch.

The 48-year-old star is also modelling the collection for the retailer’s advertising campaign.

She said: "Working with H&M was an exciting and new creative challenge. I’m happy with the results and look forward to wearing M by Madonna along with the rest of the world."

The range includes jackets, blazers, kimono dresses, handbags, sunglasses and trenchcoats.

Ms van den Bosch said: "Madonna has an impressive feel for fashion and trends. She was extraordinarily style conscious, passionate and involved in even the smallest details."

Previous collections for H&M by the designers Stella McCartney and Victor & Rolf sparked a rush of buyers to the chain.

Madonna to reunite David with father? - Mar 21 2007
The father of David Banda, Madonna’s adopted child, is hoping that the star will reunite him with his son during a planned trip to Malawi.

According to Closer magazine, Madge is due to visit the country soon to see the orphanage near the Malawian capital Lilongwe that she donated £1.5 million to build.

"I’ve been told Madonna’s orphanage is near completion and she will come to open it with David and her other children," Yohane Banda said.

"I can’t wait to hold him in my arms again. I want to see if he recognises me - and if he still looks like me despite all the British food he’s eating!"

The 33-year-old potato farmer put baby David, who is now 18 months old, into an orphanage when his wife died. He says he is very keen that David grows up remembering his African roots.

"Madonna promised to bring David home so that he does not forget his ancestors," he said.

An official from Madonna’s Raising Malawi charity has confirmed that the singer plans to travel to Africa shortly: "Madonna, Guy and their children have kept certain dates in March and April free for an encore visit to Malawi."

The pop superstar adopted David in a storm of controversy when it was claimed that she received special treatment from the Malawian authorities. The accusations apparently left the 48-year-old "shaken and hurt".

Madonna to reveal all? - Mar 12 2007
Madonna is set to have a raunchy encounter with a sexy doctor for her part in Nip/Tuck, according to the Sun.

Apparently, the 48-year-old will bare all in the hit US show about sex-mad plastic surgeons.

"Everybody ends up taking their clothes off and usually having sex with Julian McMahon’s character Dr Christian Troy," a source told the paper. "She knew that when she agreed to do the show in the first place."

Stripping off should hardly worry the singer though. "Madonna has the body of a woman half her age," the source pointed out.

Apparently Nip/Tuck’s creator Ryan Murphy is keen to reunited Madge with her A League Of Their Own co-star Rosie O’Donnell.

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Biography

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Michigan USA in 1958., the third of eight children. During her school years she was a cheerleader, excelled in dance and drama classes which gave her the love of performing that she is famous for. Moving to New York in 1977 to pursue her dream, (with a rumoured $35 dollars to her name) Madonna worked as a model and studied dance under notorious choreographer Alvin Ailey. Two years later she formed a band, The Breakfast Club and met boyfriend Steve Bray who recognised her talents immediately and helped her to create the solo dance tracks which saw her signed by Sire Records, releasing her first single, Everybody, with DJ Mark Kamins, in 1982.

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