Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan, to Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, an optics and military engineer and physicist who worked for Chrysler Defense and later General Dynamics Land Systems, and Madonna Louise Ciccone née Fortin, a technician. Tony's parents were Italian emigrants from Pacentro, and her mother was of French-Canadian descent. Because she shared her name with her mother, family members called her "Little Nonnie." She grew up in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township, alongside siblings Anthony, Martin, Paula, Christopher, and Melanie. Her mother died of breast cancer on December 1, 1963, when Ciccone was five years old. In 1966, she took the confirmation name Veronica, and that same year her father married the family's housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, with whom he had three additional children: Joey, who died shortly after his 1967 birth from a heart defect, Jennifer, and Mario.

Ciccone attended St. Frederick's and St. Andrew's Catholic elementary schools and West Middle School, earning high grades and a reputation for unconventional behavior. Her father initially enrolled her in classical piano lessons, but she persuaded him to allow her to study ballet instead. Her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, encouraged her to pursue dance professionally. At Rochester Adams High School she was a straight-A student and a member of the cheerleading squad. After graduating in January 1976, she received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan and spent a summer studying at the American Dance Festival in Durham, North Carolina.

In 1978, Ciccone left college and moved to New York City, settling in the Alphabet City area of the East Village. To support herself she worked as a hatcheck girl at the Russian Tea Room, an elevator operator at Terrace on the Park, and a member of modern dance troupes. She took classes at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performed with the Pearl Lang Dance Theater, and studied under choreographer Martha Graham. In 1979, she auditioned successfully to perform in Paris as a backup singer and dancer for French disco artist Patrick Hernandez, traveling with his troupe to Tunisia and several European countries before returning to New York. Back in the city, she joined the band Breakfast Club, for which she sang and played drums and guitar, rehearsing and recording in an abandoned synagogue in Corona, Queens. After leaving Breakfast Club, she reunited with drummer Stephen Bray and formed the band Emmy. By 1982, the two were living and rehearsing at the Music Building in Manhattan, writing songs and recording demo material together.

Her solo recording career began to take shape in 1982 when she persuaded DJs at New York nightclubs to play her demo recordings, drawing the attention of Mark Kamins at Danceteria, who arranged a meeting with Sire Records. Her self-titled debut studio album was released in 1983, launching a solo career that would produce eighteen multi-platinum albums. Among them were Like a Virgin (1984), True Blue (1986), The Immaculate Collection (1990), and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Like a Prayer (1989), Ray of Light (1998), and Music (2000) were each ranked among Rolling Stone's greatest albums of all time. Her top-charting singles include "Like a Virgin," "Material Girl," "La Isla Bonita," "Like a Prayer," "Vogue," "Take a Bow," "Frozen," "Music," "Hung Up," and "4 Minutes." She became the best-selling female music artist of all time, the most successful solo artist on the US Billboard Hot 100, and accumulated 44 number-one singles across major global music markets. She was also the first female performer to accumulate one billion US dollars from concert revenue and was the world's highest-paid female musician for eleven years across four decades spanning the 1980s through the 2010s.

Her film work includes Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), Dick Tracy (1990), A League of Their Own (1992), and Evita (1996), the last of which earned her a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. She also made her acting debut in the low-budget independent film A Certain Sacrifice, shot in two parts in 1979 and 1981 and released in 1985. She unsuccessfully attempted to block that film's release through legal action against director Stephen Jon Lewicki.

In 1988, Ciccone appeared on Broadway in David Mamet's Speed-the-Plow, marking her credited stage work in New York theater. Her business ventures have included the entertainment company Maverick, which she co-founded in 1992 and operated until 2009, encompassing Maverick Records, described as one of the most successful artist-run labels. She has also pursued fashion brands, written works, health clubs, and filmmaking. In 1998 she founded the Ray of Light Foundation, and in 2006 she co-founded Raising Malawi. She has been an advocate for gender equality and LGBT rights.

Her accolades include seven Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, twenty MTV Video Music Awards, and induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility. Her cultural influence has generated scholarly, literary, and artistic works, as well as an academic sub-discipline referred to as Madonna studies.