THE TALENT AND TRAGEDY
MADONNA 1958-2011
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April 8, 2011
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Vol. 91
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No. 4
52 COVER
The life and death of Madonna
PEOPLE April 8, 2011
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A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That’s why they don’t get what they want,” Madonna (in ‘91 ) said.
THE QUEEN OF POP 1958-2011
Photograph by MARIA FERNANDEZ
1958-2011
“I began performing since I was young, and ever since I haven’t stopped,” said Madonna
Madonna (ca.1987) was never afraid of speaking with the truth. ”I became an overachiever to get approval from the world.”
“I have the same goal I’ve had ever since I was a girl. I want to rule the world,” said Madonna (with family ca. 1969).
April 8, 2011 PEOPLE
Madonna
1958-2011
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I think you can be defiant and rebellious and still be strong and positive”
Photograph by TODD GRAY April 8, 2011 PEOPLE
April 8, PEOPLE
MADONNA MANIA
Madonna in one of her las concerts of the tour “Sticky and Sweet.”
1958-2011
Britney Spears, Madonna and Christina Aguilera during the MTV Video Music Awars in 2003.
A
fully liberated woman. Fascinating – a controversial figure since erupting on the scene with her debut single Everybody in 1982. August 16, 1958, Madonna and Tony Ciccone welcome their first daughter, Madonna, nicknamed Nonni to avoid confusion with the mom. This little girl was 5 when her mother, 36, died of breast cancer. Her father later marries the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. “In retrospect I think I was really hard on her,” Madonna said. From Madonna’s early days, music and dance ruled her life. She attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship, but drops out to move to New York City in 1978. Then she meets boyfriend Dan Gilroy and forms the Breakfast Club. “She had a knowingness about her,” said Gilroy, “that was incredible.” And irresistible. In 1982 Madonna signed with Sire Records after famously auditioning for label head in his hospital room. “She was singing with all her heart, and that’s what came across,”Stein called. “I wanted to sign her immediately.” In short order, Madonna exploded onto dance floors, airwaves and television, where she grabbed the attention of the first generation of MTV viewers. She also deliberately pushed the envelope, openly offering sexuality as part of the package. By the mid-1980s, the Nile Rodgers-proApril 8, PEOPLE
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I think of myself as a performance artist. I hate being called a pop star. I hate that.”
duced Like a Virgin (Number One, 1984), with its chart-topping title song, shot to the Top 10 upon its release; it eventually sold more than 10 million copies. She later tells PEOPLE: “Everything following that was like, ‘Oh my God! What’s happening to my life?’ You get caught up in that,” told PEOPLE back in that time. The controversy begins. And that’s when Madonna started a signature mix of
Catyholicism and sexuality, and the Pope urged the faithful to stay away. By this time, after nearly four years of splits, spats and fights with paparazzi, Madonna files for divorce from Sean Penn, his costar in Shanghai Surprise. “I look back and think, ‘Well, I invited it. I made some really stupid choices,’” said Madonna to PEOPLE. “It taught me to be more scrupulous.”
“If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.”
After that the media-savvy American pop signed with Pepsi to a $5 million multiyear deal, the company featured her in a TV commercial. Continuing with controversy the following day Like a Prayer debuted with images of her kissing a black saint and dancing in front of burning crosses. Pepsi cancelled the singer’s lucrative endorsement deal. Hollywood Madonna. Madonna hit her megastar stride in 1990, when she appeared as Breathless Mahoney with then-boyfriend Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy. In 1991 she scored hits with Rescue Me (Number Nine) and Justify My Love (Number One); the video for the latter fanned the flames of controversy yet again with its explicit depiction of various forms of sexual expression. Madonna told later 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?” The Queen of Rebellion. Madonna celebrated her liberation from prevailing social mores with Sex, an erotic book of herself shot by fashion photographer Steven Meisel. “My rebellion happened, instead of in my teens, when I was 30,” Madonna later tells PEOPLE. “Don’t tell me I can’t be sexual and intelligent at the same time.” But her life was just starting to become more about the real Madonna. In 1996 Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon was born as a result of the love relationship with personal trainer Carlos Leon. . “I’ve never seen her happier,” Rosie O’Donnell told PEOPLE. However, Madonna
The new millennium, a new start. In 1998 Madonna met director Guy Ritchie and two years later the couple have baby boy, Rocco Ritchie. Now it was all about the family. When everything seemed to follow the right path of life, Madonna expressed her feelings about the war in Iraq in her album American Life. “I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams,” told PEOPLE. During the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera joine Madonna onstage for a much talked about performance that ended with Madonna locking lips with Aguilera and then Spears. “It was a lovely, soft kiss,” Aguilera told PEOPLE. The Queen is Back to the Dance Floor! After spending her 47th birthday in the hospital for injuries sustained from falling off a horse, Madonna released her comeback as a Queen, Confessions on a Dance Floor. She won her sixth Grammy for Best Electronic/ Dance Album in 2007. An International Family. The superstar was at a point where she had it all – her successful career, husband, kids, her Kabbalah – but she needed more. The super mother attempted to adopt a child from Malawi. Despite following all legal procedures, the superstar faced scrutiny from human rights groups and the media when she began the process to adopt David Banda, a 13-month-old from Malawi. In a statement to PEOPLE, Madonna said she was shocked by the reaction: “I expect to be given a hard time about many of the things I do. ” Madonna’s Candy life. A woman, an artist and a collaborator. After getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame by Justin Timberlake, Madonna, 49, ed her single, 4 Minutes, which she worked on with Timberlake. 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. “She was a very good friend. I supported her in all the ways that I can,” told Gwyneth Paltrow to PEOPLE. “I was just there for her. I spoke to her a lot.” However, the superstar didn’t wait too long to find love again and this time with a young model named Jesus Luz. There is always a calm after the storm. Mercy for Madonna - She returnd to Malawi in the hopes of adopting 3-yearold Mercy James. “Many people say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister,” she later told the country’s Nation newspaper. Although her request was initially rejected, the country’s Supreme Court eventually ed Madonna the right to adopt the orphan girl. Looking back to her childhood, she wasn’t an overly charismatic personality. You’d never have guessed she’d become a world famous pop star. Achievement and approval were important to her, but she also cultivated a rich inner life. Madonna, the stage persona, was an invention, a powerful projection fed by a childhood diet of Hollywood films, Broadway musicals and offbeat poetry. Her distinctive style and professional eye took her tot he top. And yet, what a thing it was when it all came together so magically: the woman, the music, the moves.
“No one knew how to work this business like she does,” singer Cher says of Madonna. April 8, PEOPLE
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SPECIAL TRIBUTE
I’d like to think I am taking people on a journey; I am not just entertaining people, but giving them something to think about when they leave.
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1958-2011
MADONNA
SHOCKING
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The Queen of Pop’s death just when she was at her best - raises questions about her health-and her children’s future
T
he death of Madonna jolted her friends and family, a blow to the entertainment world after the loss of another pop icon. On April 7, after following her daily diet of whole foods, organic brown rice, whole grains and vegetables, the 52-year-old hit to her personal gym based in London to follow the daily workout along with Tracy Anderson, her personal trainer. “Madonna
April 8, PEOPLE
didn’t have the body of a 20-year-old. She had the body of a 50-year-old who was well-exercised and half starved,” told Anderson to PEOPLE. Madonna’s routine started as everyday and nothing seemed to be different this day. “If there was something wrong with her, you’d never know,” adds a witness. A day before she had an intense session of Ashtanga yoga to burn off some toxins .
“It takes a really big man to fill my shoes”
THE QUEEN OF POP
“I won’t be happy till I’m as famous as God,” said Madonna in one of her interviews.
People think they will wake up one day and I’ll be gone. But I’m never going away April 8, PEOPLE
Lourdes devastated after visiting her mom in the hospital.
1958-2011
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Madonna’s dad, Silvio Anthony Ciccone, on his way to the hospital. April 8.
I am very proud of my daughter. I am absolutely devastated at this tragic event.”
-SILVIO “TONY” CICCONE Friends and family had worried about MAdonna’s addiction to exercise for decades. She began as a dancer, then jogging, pilates, spinning, horse riding and Ashtanga yoga. “When I heard the news I thought it was a nightmare,” told her manager, Guy Oseary, to PEOPLE. Madonna’s shocking death leaves some things unresolved. Not only her movie about Britain’s King Edward VIII’s relationship with American Wallis Simpson, but also her future plans of a possible new concert tour. Lourdes, Madonna’s 14-year-old daughter, is still trying to figure it out all. “She seems more mature than she looks, she is taking it slow,” a witness told PEOPLE. Lourde’s dad, Carlos Leon, will have to take her to live and study in New York. Any potential custody battle will be almost impossible since they both have a good relationship and Madonna trusted him. “She was the best mother, very disciplinary, I’m listening,” told Carlos to PEOPLE. “We were on the same track with it.” Tony Ciccone, Madonna’s dad, didn’t have a good relationship with her. Despite this, they both still had communication and Madonna helped him to start a winery. Now he worries about Madonna’s children future and legal custody fights. “The main concern for Guy is the children – the security of the children in all senses of the word and the wellbeing of them,” rep Liz Rosenberg tells PEOPLE. April 8, PEOPLE
CHILDREN
UNCERTAIN FUTURE With a life between London and New York, the pop star had to take care of her children and even sometimes she traveled with them and their nanny. While the singer likely named a guardian in her will, Madonna faced lengthy opposition when trying to adopt Mercy. She originally met the little girl in 2006, around the same time she adopted David. “She was one of their stronges nurturing influences,” a singer’s friend told PEOPLE. Now the father of David wants him back and not only him but
also his sister Mercy. “My family and I agreed that this was a very good opportunity for David to go back with his real family in Malawi”, Yohane, the dad, said to PEOPLE.
David and Mercy will face an uncertain future.
Madonna
1958-2011
THE ESSENCIAL MADONNA
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Want to know why she was the Queen of Pop? Listen, watch,and strike a pose
MUST-HAVE ALBUMS “LIKE A VIRGIN” (1984) It became Madonna’s first number one album on the Billboard 200. “LIKE A PRAYER” (1989) Madonna worked with Prince and she described it as a confessional record.
“HUNG UP” (2005) Madonna said this video was a tribute to John Travolta.
THE 5 BEST VIDEOS
“MATERIAL GIRL” (1985) Inspired by one Madonna’s admiration of Marilyn Monroe.
“LIKE A PRAYER”(1989) The Vatican condemned the video and banned from Pepsi.
“VOGUE” (1990) Directed by David Fincher and recalls The Golden Age of Hollywood.
“EROTICA” (1992) Directed by Fabien Baron. Known as the Sex Book Video.
“RAY OF LIGHT” (1998) This album received a total of four Grammy Award. Frozen is the lead single. “MUSIC” (2000) Listed as one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone. “CONFESSIONS ON A DANCE FLOOR” (2005)
Critics called it a return to form for Madonna.
THE MAKING OF MATERIAL GIRL
The music video was a mimicry of Marilyn Monroe’s performance son “Diamons Are a Girl’s Best Friend” fromt he 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Years later (2010) Madonna teamed up with her daughter Lourdes to launch a clothing collection named after this music video.