| Madonna moved from Michigan to New York in 1977. She formed the Breakfast Club, a pop/dance group, with her boyfriend Dan Gilroy. Madonna played drums and sang with the band before forming Emmy in 1980 with drummer and former boyfriend, Steven Bray. Madonna and Bray created club tracks which led to a recording deal with Sire Records. She recorded "Everybody", a US club hit in 1982.
Madonna's self-titled debut album was released in September of 1983; "Holiday" became her first Top 40 hit and "Borderline" her first Top Ten hit in 1984, beginning a strek of 17 consecutive Top Ten hits. Madonna began working on her first starring role in a feature film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan.
Like a Virgin, Madonna's second album, was released at the end of 1984. During 1985, Madonna became an international celebrity with thousands of teenage girls adopting her apearance and fashions. Madonna began collaborating with Patrick Leonard at the beginning of 1986; Leonard would co-write most of her biggest hits in the '80s.. The album True Blue was released the following month, to both more huge commercial success and critical acclaim. It spawned the hits "Papa Don't Preach". "True Blue", "Open Your Heart" and "La Isla Bonita'.
Madonna's next album, Like a Prayer was released 1989. It was another number one hit and included the number-one title track, and "Express Yourself," "Cherish," and "Keep It Together," three more Top Ten hits. The video for "Like A Prayer", with its links between religion and eroticism, was condemned by the Vatican and caused Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal with the Madonna. In 1990, she starred with Warren Beatty in the blockbuster movie Dick Tracy. Her Blond Ambition tour was documented in the movie, Truth Or Dare. Among her hits of the early 90s were "Vogue", devoted to a short-lived dance craze, "Hanky Panky", "Justify My Love" (co-written with Lenny Kravitz), "Rescue Me", and "This Used To Be My Playground".
In 1992 Madonna released Sex, an expensive soft-core pornographic book that featured hundreds of erotic photographs of herself, several models, and other celebrities. Sex received scathing reviews and enormous negative publicity. The accompanying album, Erotica, was her first album since her debut not to generate a number 1 US, although the album did sell over two million copies. Bedtime Stories, released in 1994 contained her biggest hit, "Take a Bow," which spent seven weeks at number one. A compilation of her slower material, Something To Remember was released the following year.
Madonna portrayed Eva Peron in the 1996 film version of Evita. As the filming completed, Madonna announced she was pregnant and her daughter, Lourdes, was born late in 1996. The soundtrack for Evita, contained two hits, a dance remix of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and the newly written "You Must Love Me".
1998's Ray Of Light,was a collaboration with producer William Orbit. The album generated a number of worldwide hits, including "Frozen", "Ray Of Light", "Drowned World (Substitute For Love)", "The Power Of Good-bye", and "Nothing Really Matters". Another Madonna starred movie, The Next Best Thing, co-written and co-produced by Madonna and Orbit, was released. It featured her new single, a reworking of Don McLean's classic "American Pie". She worked with Orbit and French dance producer Mirwais on her next collection, Music, Shortly before the release of the album, Madonna gave birth to her second child, Rocco. On 22 December, she married the UK film director Guy Ritchie in Scotland. www.prex.com/biography/Madonna-discography.html |