Madonna (entertainer) : biography
Madonna’s look and manner of dressing, her performances, and her music videos influenced young girls and women and her style became one of the female fashion trends of the 1980s. It was created by stylist and jewelry designer Maripol and the look consisted of lace tops, skirts over capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the crucifix, bracelets, and bleached hair. Madonna achieved global recognition after the release of her second studio album: Like a Virgin in 1984. It topped the charts in several countries and became her first number one album on the Billboard 200. The title track, "Like a Virgin", topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for six consecutive weeks. It attracted the attention of organizations who complained that the song and its accompanying video promoted premarital sex and undermined family values, and moralists sought to have the song and video banned. Madonna came under further fire when she performed the song at the first MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) where she appeared on stage atop a giant wedding cake, wearing a wedding dress and white gloves. The performance is noted by MTV as an iconic moment in VMA history. In later years, Madonna commented that she was actually terrified of the performance. Like a Virgin was certified diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America and sold more than 21 million copies worldwide.
Madonna entered mainstream films in 1985, beginning with a brief appearance as a club singer in Vision Quest, a romantic drama film. Its soundtrack contained her U.S. number-one single, "Crazy for You". She also appeared in the comedy Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), a film which introduced the song "Into the Groove", her first number one single in the United Kingdom. Although not the lead actress for the film, her profile was such that the movie widely became seen (and marketed) as a Madonna vehicle. The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby named it one of the ten best films of 1985. While filming the music video for the second single from Like a Virgin — "Material Girl" — Madonna started dating actor Sean Penn and married him on her birthday in 1985. Beginning in April 1985, Madonna embarked on her first concert tour in North America, The Virgin Tour, with the Beastie Boys as her opening act. where she progressed from playing CBGB and the Mudd Club to playing sporting arenas. In July, Penthouse and Playboy magazines published a number of nude photos of Madonna, taken in New York in 1978. She had posed for the photographs as she needed money at the time, and was paid as little as $25 a session. The publication of the photos caused a media uproar, but Madonna remained defiant and unapologetic." The photographs were ultimately sold for up to $100,000. She referred to the whole experience at the 1985 outdoor Live Aid charity concert saying that she would not take her jacket off because "[the media] might hold it against me ten years from now."
1986–91: True Blue, Like a Prayer, Dick Tracy and The Immaculate Collection
In June 1986, Madonna released her third studio album, True Blue, which was inspired by and dedicated to Sean Penn. Rolling Stone magazine was generally impressed with the effort, writing that the album "sound[s] as if it comes from the heart". It spawned three number-one singles on the Billboard Hot 100: "Live to Tell", "Papa Don’t Preach" and "Open Your Heart", and two more top-five singles: "True Blue" and "La Isla Bonita". The album topped the charts in over 28 countries worldwide, an unprecedented achievement at the time. She also starred in the critically panned film Shanghai Surprise for which she was awarded the Golden Raspberry Award for "worst actress". She made her theatrical debut in a production of David Rabe’s Goose and Tom-Tom, both co-starring Penn. The next year, Madonna’s second feature film, Who’s That Girl, was released. She contributed four songs to its soundtrack, including the title track and "Causing a Commotion". In July 1987, she embarked on the Who’s That Girl World Tour which continued until September. The tour was inspired by Madonna’s belief that, with the help of people, she could turn herself into something else. It broke several attendance records, including over 130,000 audience in a concert in Paris, which remains her biggest concert attendance ever. Later that year, she released a remix album of past hits, titled You Can Dance, which reached 14 on the Billboard 200. After an annulment in December 1987, Madonna filed for divorce from Penn in January 1989 citing irreconcilable differences.
