Well here's what i got for ya Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan. She was the third of six children born to Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, an Italian-American Chrysler engineer whose parents originated from Pacentro, and Madonna Louise Fortin, who was of French-Canadian descent.

She was raised in a Catholic family in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). Madonna's mother died of breast cancer at age 30 on December 1, 1963. Her father later married the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, and they had two children together.

Madonna convinced her father to allow her to take ballet classes. Her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, exposed Madonna to gay discotheques. She attended Rochester Adams High School, where she was a straight-A student and a member of the cheerleading squad. Madonna received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan.[citation needed]

She left at the end of her sophomore year in 1978 and moved to New York City to pursue a dance career. Madonna has said:

“ "When I came to New York it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done."[7] ”

She had little money and for some time lived in squalor, working low-paying jobs including a stint at Dunkin' Donuts. She also worked as a nude model. She studied with Martha Graham and Pearl Lang, and later performed with several modern dance companies, including Alvin Ailey and the Walter Nicks dancers.

While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club. In it, she sang and played drums and guitar before forming the band Emmy in 1980 with drummer and former boyfriend Stephen Bray. She and Bray wrote and produced dance songs that brought her local attention in New York dance clubs. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was impressed by her demo recordings, so he brought them to the attention of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein.


Her debut album, Madonna, a collection of dance songs, was primarily produced by Reggie Lucas, but in the process both realized they could not work well together. After initial production on the album was completed, Madonna took the record to her then boyfriend, John "Jellybean" Benitez, who remixed and rearranged it. It reached number eight on the U.S. albums chart and contained three successful Hot 100 singles, "Holiday", "Borderline", and "Lucky Star". At the time of its release, Madonna sold three million copies worldwide, one million of those in the U.S. It has since been certified with current sales of thirteen million worldwide.

Madonna's style became popular. Teenage girls were dressing like her.[9]



In 1982, Madonna signed a singles deal with Sire Records (a new wave label belonging to Warner Bros. Records) in the United States that paid her $5,000 per song. Her first release, "Everybody", a self-written song produced by Mark Kamins, became a hit on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Chart but failed to make an impact on the Billboard Hot 100. It also gained airplay on U.S. R&B radio stations, leading many to assume that Madonna was a black artist.[8] The double-sided 12" vinyl single featuring "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction" followed in 1983, and was a success on the U.S. dance charts. These results convinced Sire Records' executives to finance an album.




Her follow up album, Like a Virgin, was an international success, and became her first number one album on the U.S. albums chart. Buoyed by the success of its title track, which reached number one in the U.S. (with a six week stay at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart) as well as hit singles with "Material Girl" (#2 US, kept out of the number one spot due to USA For Africa's "We Are The World" single), "Angel", and "Dress You Up", the album sold twelve million copies at its time of release and currently stands at seventeen million copies worldwide[10] and produced four top-five singles in the U.S. and the UK Her performance of the song at the first MTV Video Music Awards, during which she writhed on the stage (on top of a wedding cake) wearing a combination bustier/wedding gown, lacy stockings, garters, and her then-trademark "Boy Toy" belt, was the first of several public displays that boosted Madonna's fan base as much as they incensed some critics, who felt that her provocative style attempted to disguise an absence of talent.

In 1985, Madonna entered mainstream films, beginning with a brief appearance as a club singer in the film Vision Quest. The soundtrack to the film contained her second number one pop hit, the Grammy-nominated ballad "Crazy for You", as well as the UK hit "Gambler". Later that year she appeared in the commercially and critically successful film Desperately Seeking Susan, with her comedic performance winning her positive reviews. The film introduced the dance song "Into the Groove", which was released as a B-side to her single "Angel", peaking at number five in the US and becoming a major hit internationally, and her first number one in the UK.

Madonna embarked on her first concert tour in the U.S. in 1985 titled The Virgin Tour, with opening act The Beastie Boys.

In July 1985, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of black and white nude photos of Madonna taken in the late 1970s. The publications caused a swell of public discussion of Madonna, who at first tried to block them from being published, but later remained unapologetic and defiant. Speaking to a global audience at the outdoor Live Aid charity concert at the height of the controversy, Madonna made a critical reference to the media and stated she would not take her jacket off, despite the heat, because "they might hold it against me ten years from now".[11]


In early 1989, Madonna signed an endorsement deal with soft drink manufacturer Pepsi, which would debut her new song, “Like a Prayer,” in a Pepsi commercial that Madonna would also appear in. Madonna would make a separate music video which Pepsi would have nothing to do with. Although the commercial itself was not controversial, the video for “Like a Prayer” caused an uproar. The video premiered on MTV and featured many Catholic symbols, such as stigmata, and was condemned by the Vatican for its "blasphemous" mixture of Catholic symbolism and eroticism[citation needed]. The video depicted a black man who comes to the aid of a white woman being murdered by white men and he is falsely arrested for the crime. Madonna, who has witnessed the crime, secures his release. Although the video's intent was to denounce racism, Madonna was criticized for her use of burning crosses and "making out" with Jesus, even though it was St. Mart