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As the first woman to dominate the male world of pop, Madonna, who now turns 65, already has a powerful cultural legacy to celebrate.
With more than 300 million records sold and a fortune estimated at $850 million (€775 million), Madonna is one of the most successful women in the music industry. She has topped Forbes magazine’s yearly ranking of highest-paid women in music 11 times. She’s earned 28 Grammy nominations and won the award seven times.
Beyond her work as a music star, she is also an entrepreneur, writer, director, producer and designer. And while her acting career may have struggled to take off, she still won a Golden Globe for her role as “Evita” in the 1996 movie version of the musical.
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan. She had her big break in the early 80s, causing a sensation with her rebelliousness and bold sexuality.
She became synonymous with pushing boundaries and breaking taboos, fearless of creating controversy with songs like “Papa Don’t Preach,” about teenage pregnancy, or provocative music videos such as “Like a Prayer,” which featured burning crosses and a Black Jesus.
Over the years, Madonna managed to inspire and surprise with her versatility and ability to reinvent herself in terms of music, style and identity.
The world has known her as a provocative rebel in torn fishnets and fingerless gloves, or as a sex bomb in Jean Paul Gaultier corsets; she then took an unexpected spiritual turn, exploring Kabbalah Jewish mysticism and adopting the Hebrew name of Esther in 2004.
She then embarked on her parenting journey and is now a mother of six — Lourdes, 26; Rocco, 22; David, 17; Mercy, 17; and twins Stella and Estere, 10. She formed headline-making power couples through her two marriages, first with US actor Sean Penn (1985-1989), and then British director Guy Ritchie (2000-2008).
The entertainer who loves to provoke is the author of books as varied as Sex, a 1992 coffee table book featuring softcore pornography and depictions of sadomasochism, and The English Roses, a tale for children with a moralistic tone. It became the fastest-selling children’s picture book of all time upon its publication in 2003, and she donated all proceeds to a children’s charity. Her philanthropic endeavours are also varied and well-known and include her own charitable organizations, the Ray of Light Foundation and Raising Malawi.
But recently, it seems that most of the attention Madonna has been receiving surrounds her relationship with plastic surgery.
The pinnacle of the obsession came earlier this year at the 2023 Grammy Awards ceremony. Madonna introduced Sam Smith and German singer Kim Petras’ performance with a speech about the power of rebellion. It was a historic event, as Petras is the first publicly transgender singer to win a Grammy. However, Madonna’s unrecognizable cyborgian face stole the limelight and sparked a huge debate in the days that followed.
The media attempted to find out what the star had done to her face. According to Chicago plastic surgeon Michael Horn, beyond plastic surgery and a nose job, “she has seemingly used excessive filler over time, giving her face a full appearance and taking away from the natural and pleasing bone structure she once had,” he told British tabloid Daily Mail. “What is most noticeable and striking is the drastic change in Madonna’s facial shape into a more V-shaped structure.”
Shortly afterward, the Queen of Pop laughed it off by tweeting a selfie with the caption, “Look how cute I am now that swelling from surgery has gone down. Lol.”
Until then, she had never publicly addressed the issue, apart from being quoted in 2012 in the UK’s Mirror as having said: “I am certainly not against plastic surgery; however, I am absolutely against having to discuss it.” — dw.com
Online Reporter