Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone (born 16 August 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress born in Bay City, Michigan. Working primarily in pop and dance music, she became one of the most influential figures in modern popular culture through her chart success, visual presentation, and continual reinvention across multiple decades. She is widely recognised for her impact on the development of contemporary pop performance and music video-era stardom.

After early dance training and work in bands, Madonna moved to New York City in 1978 to pursue a career in performance. She signed a recording contract in the early 1980s and released her self-titled debut album in 1983. A rapid breakthrough followed with Like a Virgin (1984), which established her as a global pop star. During this period she achieved major hit singles and developed an image-driven approach to pop that was closely linked to music videos, touring, and fashion.

Madonna’s peak success spanned the mid-1980s through the 1990s, with albums including True Blue (1986), Like a Prayer (1989), and The Immaculate Collection (1990), alongside hit songs such as ‘Like a Prayer’, ‘Vogue’, and ‘Into the Groove’. She achieved sustained chart dominance internationally and set records for touring attendance and revenue. Her 1998 album Ray of Light marked a significant critical and commercial high point and received major award recognition, including multiple Grammy Awards.

In later decades, Madonna continued releasing studio albums and undertaking major tours, often shifting musical styles and collaborators. Notable later releases include Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005), Hard Candy (2008), MDNA (2012), Rebel Heart (2015), and Madame X (2019). Her live work remained central to her career, including large-scale international touring in the 2000s and 2010s and a retrospective global tour in the 2020s focused on her back catalogue.

Madonna’s total record sales are widely estimated in the hundreds of millions, and she has been recognised by Guinness World Records as the best-selling female recording artist, with many estimates commonly placed between 300 and 400 million records. She has won multiple Grammy Awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. Her long-term influence is evident in subsequent generations of pop performers, particularly in the integration of music, performance, fashion, and visual media as a unified artistic identity.