Celebrity Name : Madonna

Celebrity Real Name : Madonna Louisse Ciccone

Date of Birth : August 16 1958

Birth Location : Bay City, Michigan.

Biography of Madonna Louisse Ciccone :
Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16 1958), better known worldwide by only her first name, is an iconic American pop singer, songwriter, musician, record and film producer, dancer, actress, author, and peace advocate whose level of fame and success has earned her superstar status for over two decades. She is usually noted for her innovative music videos, elaborately mounted stage performances, and use of political, sexual, and religious themes and imagery in her body of work. She’s commonly referred to as the ‘Queen of pop’.
In 2000, The Guinness Book of Records credited Madonna as the most successful female recording artist of all time, with estimated worldwide sales of 120 million albums. Her record label, Warner Bros. Records, reported in 2005 that she had achieved international sales in excess of 200 million albums. Madonna is the highest earning female singer of all time, according to the 2007 Guinness Book of Records. Madonna has sold over 100 million singles to date. According to Billboard Magazine, Madonna’s 2006 Confessions Tour was the most successful concert tour of a female artist in history.

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Ritchie was born in Bay City, Michigan. The third of six children born to Silvio “Tony” P. Ciccone, a Chrysler engineer of Italian-American extraction, whose parents originated from Pacentro, in the region of Abruzzo, Italy, and Madonna Louise Fortin, a French Canadian. She was raised in a Catholic family in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). Madonna’s mother died of breast cancer at age thirty on December 1, 1963, and Madonna has frequently discussed the impact her mother’s death had on her life and career, calling it “one of the hardest things I’ve faced in my life.” Her father later married the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, and they had two children together. Thus, Madonna has two big brothers, Anthony and Martin, a little brother, Christopher, two little sisters, Paula and Melanie and two half-siblings, Jennifer and Mario.
Tony Ciccone required his children to take music lessons; however, after a few months of piano lessons, Madonna convinced him to allow her to take ballet classes instead. Madonna’s ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, mentored her in dance and provided Madonna with her first exposure to gay discotheques (especially Menjo’s and The Escape/Backstreet, both in Detroit), a scene that would later have an impact on her music and style. She attended Rochester Adams High School, where she was a straight-A student, excelled at sports, and was a member of the cheerleading squad. After graduating high school in 1975, she received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. In 1977, with Flynn’s encouragement, Madonna left college at the end of her second year and moved to New York City in November 1980 to pursue a dance career. Looking back at her arrival in New York, Madonna has said: “When I came to New York it was the first time I’d ever taken a plane, the first time I’d ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 dollars in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I’d ever done.”
Madonna experienced financial difficulties,she moved to New York with 35 dollars in her pocket, and for some time lived in squalor and worked a series of low-paying jobs, including a stint at Dunkin’ Donuts. She also worked as a nude model on occasion. She studied with Martha Graham and Pearl Lang, and later performed with several modern dance companies, including Alvin Ailey and the Walter Nicks dancers. While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist, Patrick Hernandez, on his 1979 world tour, Madonna met and became romantically involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club, in New York. In addition to providing vocals, she played drums and guitar before forming the band Emmy in 1980 with drummer and former boyfriend Stephen Bray. She and Bray wrote and produced a number of solo disco and dance songs that brought her local attention in New York dance clubs. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was sufficiently impressed by her demo recordings to bring them to the attention of Sire Records’ founder Seymour Stein.

Documentaries Film :
In 1991, Madonna released her first documentary, Truth or Dare (known as In Bed with Madonna outside the U.S.). The film, directed by Alek Keshishian, followed Madonna on her Blond Ambition world tour in support of her successful 1989 album Like a Prayer. The film featured black and white backstage scenes and live performances filmed in color. Truth or Dare was released in theatres worldwide, and became a box office hit, grossing more than $15 million in the U.S. alone.
Her second documentary, I’m Going to Tell You a Secret (2005), followed Madonna and her family on the Re-Invention World Tour in 2004. Directed by long-time collaborator Jonas Åkerlund, it premiered commercial free on MTV in the U.S. on October 21, 2005. Like her previous effort, the film includes behind the scenes footage as well as live performances, and was released on DVD June 20, 2006 with a bonus audio CD

Books of Madonna :
Madonna has authored and co-authored a number of books, beginning in 1992 with Sex (ISBN 0446517321), which contained sexually explicit photographs of Madonna taken by noted photographer Steven Meisel. More recently, she has published several children’s books, including Mr. Peabody’s Apples (ISBN 0670058831), The English Roses (ISBN 0670036781), Lotsa de Casha (ISBN 0670058882)and The English Roses Too Good To Be True (ISBN 0670061476).

Film Stars :
During her childhood, Madonna became fascinated by films and film stars, later saying, “I loved Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe. They were all incredibly funny…and I saw myself in them…my girlishness, my knowingness and my innocence”. Her “Material Girl” music video recreated Monroe’s “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” number from the film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and she later studied the screwball comedies of the 1930s, particularly those of Lombard, in preparation for the Who’s That Girl? film. The video for “Express Yourself” placed a femme fatale character alongside an androgynous figure in male attire, which was compared to Marlene Dietrich. The video for “Vogue” recreated the style of Hollywood glamour photographers, in particular Horst P. Horst, and imitated the poses of Marlene Dietrich, Carole Lombard and Rita Hayworth, while the lyrics referenced many of the stars who had inspired her. Among those mentioned was Bette Davis, described by Madonna in a Rolling Stone interview as an idol, along with Louise Brooks and Dita Parlo. [wikipedia]