Madonna Essays - Madonna, Pop Ballads, Like A Prayer, Oh Father

Madonna Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan to a lower-middle class Italian-Catholic household, Madonna Louise Ciccone was the third eldest daughter born. Her father Chrysler engineer Sylvio (Tony) Ciccone and French-Canadienne Madonna Fortin, for whom the future superstar was named "Veronica" was added to her name for confirmation. While at a young age of five, Madonna's world fell apart as her mother struggled to a long process of breast cancer on December 1, 1963. Gathering strength from the tragedious loss of her mother, Madonna took a role of the head female of the house. She constantly competed with her other siblings for attention and eventually became her father's loved one. Madonna turned her perfect self into a bitter one when Sylvio married Joan Gustafson, the family's housekeeper, three years after his wife's death. The child resented her father's betrayal and wouldn't accept her step-mother authority. While going through tough times, Ms Ciccone developed a passion for the arts. Madonna acted in high school productions, but ultimately dance became her interest in her childhood life. In addition to being a cheerleader, Madonna took up ballet classes while attending Rochester Adams High School. She found a mentor in dance instructor Christopher Flynn, who introduced her to the world of spunkiness and sophistication at Detroit gay clubs. Madonna's wild sexuality made her fly sky high! She went on dates with guys, had her first rape encounter at 14 and toyed with the idea of lesbianism and practiced mutual things with her female classmate. Having excellent academic performance in addition to her dancing skills, Madonna graduated early in 1976 with a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, where she studied poetry and dance. There, she had her first acquaintance with Steven Bray. Bray was a black drummer in an R&b band , and she began to attend his gigs. Finally, after spending just five semesters at U of M and the encouragement of Flynn, the nineteen-year-old set off to realize her dream. Despite her fathers dreams, Madonna began her world wide adventure, looking for roles where she could not only dance but sing also. Later on back in Queens, the Gilroys started The Breakfast Club in the fall of 1979 with Madonna on drums. That failed when the lead guitarist stopped the band. Madonna went to write and record dance/disco-oriented tracks with Bray and performed them at downtown clubs. She was quickly spotted by DJ Mark Kamins at the latter club. Madonna presented a four-track demo to him, he immediately made a deal and signed contracts. Madonna's self titled debut album was a mixture of sexy attitude, and streetwise sass. Her bare midriff, weird costume jewelry, and her I-don't-care attitude helped to make her unique personality that the world would get to know her as. Her first version of Everybody, released as Madonna's first single at the end of 1982. Her second single camde from the debut album, Physical Attraction also proved to be a club favorite. In June 1983, Madonna had her 3rd club hit with the outstanding, Holiday, which was produced by her new boyfriend, dance pop mix-master John Benitez. The following month, Holiday became her first billboard Top 40 hit. After that happened, Madonna had been certified quadruple-platinum with sales 4.4 million units in the US and 3.3 million units internationally. By the end of 1884, Madonnas second studio album, Like A Virgin was ready to be released. This album featured her songs Material Girl and Dress You Up. The album scored her first #1 hit and gold single in Dec of "84". To date, Like A Virgin has achieved 10 platinum certifications for sales exceeding 10 million units in the US. Late in 1984, Madonna began working on her first starring role in a film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan, where she played a naive housewife. It was success in 1985 and brought out her musical talent to the world. In February of of 1985, Madonna made a brief appearance in Vision Quest as a nightclub singer, which scored her the second #1 hit and gold single for her career for the song Crazy For You, which also topped the charts in May. One of Madonna's highlights was meeting Sean Penn in 1985 shooting the video for Material Girl. After the song hit #2, Madonna kicked off the Virgin Tour in Seattle. It was her first set of 35 US concert dates, with Patrick Leonard as musical director and the Beastie Boys as openers. Not only did Madonna have a wonderful voice and performance but she didn't