Madonna
Ivonne Polio
August 16
Madonna as Child
Madonna and Tony Ciccone welcome their first daughter, Madonna, nicknamed Nonni to avoid confusion with Mom. When Nonni is 5, her mother, 36, dies of breast cancer. Madonna's father later marries the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. "I didn't accept my stepmother when I was growing up," the singer later tells CNN. "In retrospect I think I was really hard on her."
1978July
Bright Lights, Big City
Madonna, attending the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship, drops out after two years and moves to New York City, where she lives in a series of ramshackle apartments while studying and dancing with the Alvin Ailey and Pearl Lang companies. In 1979, she begins dabbling in New York's downtown music scene, eventually forming the punk-influenced Breakfast Club with boyfriend Dan Gilroy. Then she launches the rock group Emmy with drummer Steve Bray, a boyfriend from Michigan who helps write and produce dance club tracks that lead to her solo contract with Sire Records.
1982October
Rock the House
After four years of struggling to earn money modeling, dancing and singing, Madonna's first single, "Everybody," puts her over the top in the New York club scene. She meets John "Jellybean" Benitez, an in-demand deejay who produces "Holiday." The song leads to an appearance on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" and ignites her career. Madonna and Benitez, who date for two years, "were a great team," a friend tells PEOPLE.
1983June 27
Madonna – The Album
After landing on the dance charts in '82, Madonna releases her self-titled debut album, which includes radio perennials "Lucky Star" and "Holiday." "Borderline" becomes the first in a string of 13 consecutive Top 5 hits, a winning streak bettered only by Elvis and the Beatles. She later tells PEOPLE: "Everything following that was like, 'Oh my God! What's happening to my life?' You get caught up in that."
1984September 14
Like a Virgin
Vamping at the very first MTV Video Music Awards for her soon-to-be released second album, Madonna performs "Like a Virgin" on top of a giant white wedding cake, dressed in a white bustier, her trademark "Boy Toy" belt buckle and crucifix jewelry. Released on Nov. 12, the album becomes No. 1 in the U.S. for three weeks and sells 7 million copies worldwide by May.
1985February 13
Crazy for You
Madonna and Sean Penn are photographed together at New York's Private Eyes video club after meeting on the set of her Material Girl video. Within weeks, Penn travels to Michigan to meet her family, and she meets his at an L.A. performance. In August, the pair weds in Malibu in front of 200 guests.
March 29
Wannabes Everywhere
Madonna makes her big-screen debut inDesperately Seeking Susan opposite Rosanna Arquette, reveling in the role of a wisecracking street urchin not unlike herself, but the singer's fanciful style eclipses her acting performance. Wannabes turn up all over the world, sporting leggings, lace gloves and bellybutton-baring shirts.
August 29
A Taste of Failure
Months after Penn beats Madonna's pal and songwriter David Wolinski (Penn gets a $1,000 fine and a year's probation), Penn and Madonna costar in ShanghaiSurprise. "I look back and think, 'Well, I invited it. I made some really stupid choices,'" says Madonna to PEOPLE. "It taught me to be more scrupulous."
1987September 04
The Controversy Begins
Madonna begins the final leg of her "Who's That Girl?" tour in Turin, Italy, and the Pope urges the faithful to stay away. He further condemns the singer when her statue is erected in Pacentro, the Italian town of her ancestors. More run-ins with the Church will lead to a boycott of her 1990 "Blond Ambition Tour" that includes Madonna's signature mix of Catholicism and sexuality.
1989January 06
Love Don't Live Here Anymore
After nearly four years of splits, spats and fistfights with paparazzi, Madonna files for divorce from Penn for the second time – she withdrew the first petition in 1987 at the urging of friends. "I do believe we all have soulmates," Madonna later tells PEOPLE. "I don't believe that we necessarily end up with them."
March 02
Pepsi Pulls the Plug
Two months after Pepsi signs Madonna to a $5 million multiyear endorsement deal, the company features her in a TV commercial. The following day "Like a Prayer", one of the singer's most controversial videos, debuts with images of her kissing a black saint and dancing in front of a field of burning crosses. Backlash from religious groups forces Pepsi to pull the campaign, but Madonna keeps the cash.
September 30
A Date with JFK Jr.
Madonna brings young district attorney John F. Kennedy Jr. to a party she throws for art-world types at younger brother Christopher Ciccone's downtown New York loft. Onlookers say Madonna spent most of the party cozying up to John, but that he left alone to dine with girlfriend Daryl Hannah.
1990June 14
Breathless for Beatty
Madonna stars as nightclub singer opposite Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy, and they begin a short-lived romance. She soon takes up with rapper Vanilla Ice and her interpretation of Stephen Sondheim's "Sooner or Later" on the Dick Tracy soundtrack wins an Oscar for Best Song. That October, Forbes celebrates Madonna as "America's Smartest Business Woman," estimating that she has earned $125 million between 1985 and 1990.
November 27
Justify This
MTV bans Madonna's five-minute "Justify My Love" video, which features S&M, bondage, lesbian sex and rampant nudity. "I think the video is romantic and loving and has humor in it," Madonna tells the New York Times. "Why is it that people are willing to go to a movie and watch someone get blown to bits for no reason, and nobody wants to see two girls?"
1991March 25
Madonna Steps Out With Michael
Madonna and Michael Jackson walk the red carpet together on Oscar night – he in his gold-tipped cowboy boots and blinding diamond brooch and she, dazzling in a pearl-encrusted Bob Mackie gown and $20 million worth of Harry Winston diamonds. At the post-Oscar party, though, she makes a beeline for Beatty, and Jackson hangs with Diana Ross.
May 10
Playing Truth or Dare
The black-and-white documentary Truth or Darechronicles many intimate moments during her 1990 Blond Ambition tour and receives an R rating.Entertainment Weekly calls Madonna "a natural egomaniac whom stardom completes." Indeed, an exasperated Warren Beatty is captured on film exclaiming, "She doesn't want to live off-camera!"
1992July 01
Play Ball
Departing from her sexy persona, Madonna turns in an endearingly sweet performance in A League of TheirOwn, a box-office grand slam about baseball's first female professional league. Off-screen, she strikes a close friendship with costar Rosie O'Donnell.
October 21
Queen of Rebellion
Madonna celebrates her liberation from prevailing social mores with Sex, a book of erotic pictures of herself by fashion photographer Steven Meisel. It is a commercial success but causes a passing image problem. "My rebellion happened, instead of in my teens, when I was 30," Madonna later tells PEOPLE. "I just wanted to go, 'Don't tell me what to do just 'cause I'm a girl. Don't tell me I can't be sexual and intelligent at the same time.' "
1996New Faith
Madonna, who was raised a strict Catholic, becomes an avid devotee of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. She will later draw future husband Guy Ritchie and Demi Moore into the practice. "He understands there are laws of the universe one has to live their life by," she tells PEOPLE in 2004. "That's the glue that will hold us together."
October 14
Madonna, with Child
Madonna gives birth to Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, her daughter with personal trainer Carlos Leon. "I've never seen her happier," Rosie O'Donnell tells PEOPLE. "Lola has helped her to become more grounded, to leave the star part behind." Her relationship with Lola's father, however, ends within a year of the baby's birth.
Christmas Day
Screen Praise at Last
Madonna stars as Eva Perón in Evita, which earns her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and an Oscar for Best Song "You Must Love Me" from the movie's double disk soundtrack, which includes several other songs by Madonna.
2000August 11
Two Years and Baby No. 2
Madonna meets Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrelsdirector Guy Ritchie (10 years her junior) at a 1998 luncheon hosted by Trudie Styler, Sting's wife. Two years later, the couple have baby boy, Rocco Ritchie, 5 lbs., 9 oz.
December 22
Madonna & Ritchie Wed
In a Stella McCartney gown, Madonna marries Ritchie, who wears a Mackintosh clan kilt at the Great Hall of Scotland's 19th-century Skibo Castle. Lourdes, then 4, acts as flower girl, and a kilt-clad Rocco held by the nanny sits in front. Guests include Gwyneth Paltrow, Donatella Versace and Sting.
2002October 11
Swept Away
Ritchie directs Madonna in Swept Away, a critical and box office flop. "Everybody wants to know, 'God, weren't you really bummed out by the reaction?' Yes, I was," she tells PEOPLE. "But did it affect my relationship with my husband? No. If our relationship couldn't have handled the failure of that movie, what would have been the basis of it?" Besides, she says, they had fun filming it. "Contrary to what people think, I take direction very well."
2003March 24
Wartime Protest
In her album American Life, Madonna expresses her feelings about the war in Iraq. The original version of the video shows the singer tossing a grenade at a George W. Bush lookalike and has to be re-cut. "Children, brothers, wives and sons were over there, and people at home were worrying about them," the singer said to PEOPLE about the decision to change the video. "I'd be putting salt in their wounds."
August 28
A Pop-Star Threesome
During the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spearsand Christina Aguilera join Madonna onstage for a much talked about performance that ends with Madonnalocking lips with Aguilera and then Spears. "It was a lovely, soft kiss," Aguilera tells PEOPLE.
September 15
Madonna's Roses
Madonna's children's book The English Roses goes on sale. "I want to be able to help girls and in the process help myself," says the singer, who follows the success ofRoses with Lotsa de Casha in June 2005.
2005November 15
Back to the Dance Floor!
After spending her 47th birthday in the hospital for injuries sustained from falling off a horse, Madonna releases Confessions on a Dance Floor. After embarking on a worldwide tour, she wins her sixth Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2007.
2006October
An International Family
Despite following all legal procedures, the superstar faces scrutiny from human rights groups and the media when she begins the process to adopt David Banda, a 13-month-old from Malawi. In a statement to PEOPLE, Madonna says she was shocked by the reaction: "I expect to be given a hard time about many of the things I do. I know they are provocative and I prepare myself, but I did not expect the media, the government or any human rights organizations to take a stand against me trying to save a child's life."
2007October 16
Madonna's New Deal
Madonna leaves Warner Music Group for a deal with concert promoter Live Nation. The agreement, which will give the company a stake in her albums, tours, merchandising, films and other music-related projects, is worth about $120 million over 10 years, according to the AP. "The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift," Madonna says in a statement.
Spring
Madonna's Candy
After getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Justin Timberlake, Madonna, 49, debuts her single, "4 Minutes," which she worked on with Timberlake. The song is off her new album, Hard Candy, which takes the top spot on Billboard's 200 albums chart.
May 28
David's Adoption is Official
After premiering her documentary on the children of Malawi,I Am Because We Are, Madonna's adoption of 2-year-old David Banda is finalized. Justice Andrew Nyirenda says he is satisfied that Madonna and Ritchie "are perfect parents" for the toddler. Although Madonna says the controversy surrounding the adoption has been painful, "It made me stronger, so I guess I can't complain."
October
Madonna & Guy Divorce
After being plagued with reports of having an affair with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, Madonna and Ritchie announced the end of their marriage. In January, their divorce becomes final, and Madonna moves on with model Jesus Luz.
2009March 29
Malawi Gives Madonna Mercy
Madonna returns to Malawi in the hopes of adopting 3-year-old Mercy James. "Many people say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister," she tells the country's Nation newspaper. Although her request isinitially rejected, the country's Supreme Court eventuallygrants Madonna the right to adopt the orphan girl.
2010August 03
Material Girls
Madonna ventures into the world of fashion with thelaunch of Material Girl – a juniors clothing line she designed for Macy’s with her budding fashionista daughter Lourdes. "As we are working, I see her more as a creative person, as an artist,” the singer says of her 13-year-old daughter. "Then every once in a while, I remembered that she is my daughter."
2011Summer
On the Prowl
For her 53rd birthday, Madonna cozies up to – and kisses! – new beau, French break-dancer Brahim Zaibat, 24, in the Hamptons. The pair, who began dating last year after Zaibat performed at the launch of her Macy's clothing line, first stepped out together in Paris in June.
2012February 05
Fantasy Football
Madonna gives a show-stopping 12-minute halftime show performance at Super Bowl XLVI between the victorious New York Giants and the New England Patriots. "This is a Midwesterner girl's dream," the 53-year-old singer says of the gig. "Over the 25 years of performing that I've done, I have never worked so hard or been so scrupulous or detail-oriented or freaked out as much maintaining my sanity."
March 26
Still Topping the Charts
Madonna scores her eighth No.1 album with MDNA, which sells 359,000 records in its first week, making it her fifth consecutive No. 1 album. Rolling Stone saysMDNA is "Madonna's most explicit work," calling it "our lady's divorce album" with "7 out of 16 songs addressing her split [with ex-husband Guy Ritchie] directly."
Madonna . (2013, May 17). Retrieved June 10, 2013, from People.com website: http://www.people.com/people/madonna/0,,,00.html
Questions
- What would happen if Madonna didn't go to New York?
- How can you describe Madonna?
- Why do you think she left to New York?
- How would you explain Madonna?
- What would you suggest to someone who is starting out in New York?
- What choice would you make of going to New York?
Answers
Understanding
- I think if Madonna didn't go to New York ___________
- Madonna is_________
- I think she left to New York because
- Madonna is like a ___________
- I would tell them to__________
- I would go to New York for the chance of ____________