Madonna

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American pop singer, dancer, songwriter, producer, actress, and author. She currently lives in the United Kingdom. more...

Frequently referred to as the "Queen of Pop", Madonna has gained fame and notoriety for her innovative music videos, stage performances, and often controversial use of sexual and religious themes and imagery in her work. She has garnered numerous awards throughout her career and is the holder of many records within the music world.

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., reported in 2005 that she had achieved international sales in excess of 200 million albums.

Biography

Early life

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan. She is the third of six children born to Silvio "Tony" P. Ciccone, a Chrysler engineer of Italian American extraction, and Madonna Louise Fortin, of French Canadian descent. She was raised in a Catholic family in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Rochester Hills. Madonna's mother died of breast cancer at the age of thirty on December 1, 1963 when Madonna was five years old. 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 had two children with her.

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