But New York could be scary. Not long after arriving, she was sexually assaulted in a back alley. The incident frightened and at the same time galvanised the young dancer. She would not be beaten—by anyone. Madonna didn’t know how to play victim.
She did know how to play though. Madonna always found a way to stand out. And where to find the party. In between her exhausting dance classes and odd jobs, she managed to frequent cool underground clubs and bars around the city where men, and women, would buy her drinks. With her striking figure, dark hair (the blonde came later) and revealing outfits, Madonna tantalised with promises of wild, uninhibited passionate nights ahead. She has said condoms saved her life. It was at the end of what was a promiscuous era, just before knowledge of AIDS, and nothing was going to rain on her sexual parade.
she moved seamlessly from her safe middle-class suburban home to the seedy streets of the East Village
Her partying life was frenetic. But her dance career had stalled. In 1979 she tried out as a back-up dancer for Patrick Hernandez, who had a mega-hit in the dance clubs with ‘Born to be Alive’. At the audition Madonna met the first of her financial benefactors.
Her exuberant singing and dancing sparked the interest of Hernandez’s French producers. They flew her to Paris, put her up in an apartment and allowed her to run amok in clubs while they tried to figure out how to harness her obvious talents. There was a loose idea that she could be a singer, but Madonna consistently rejected the disco material suggested. Finally, she grew bored and three months later returned to New York.
Madonna picked up with an ex-boyfriend from Detroit, musician Steve Bray, moving into the run-down Music Building used by small entertainment businesses, musicians and squatters. It was almost derelict. Madonna was all bones and muscles, her thin body given definition by her rigorous dancing. She and Bray turned orange crates into furniture, slept on a rug and used public washrooms.
Going back to living in virtual poverty didn’t dampen Madonna’s spirit. She was still determined to make it to the top, but now she wanted to be a singer. Her flirtation with the life of a rock star—the limousines, shopping, endless partying—had appealled. She was destined for stardom. It was only a question of when.
Madonna was calculated in everything she did—the clubs she danced at, the people she attached herself to. She was always looking for the next leg up.
Camille Barbone became Madonna’s next stepping stone. A partner in Gotham Productions, an entertainment agency in the Music Building, Barbone would see the waif in the hallways and the elevator. They began to talk and Madonna revealed her ambitions.
Barbone has said she had an almost maternal love for Madonna and treated her like a wayward child. Over the next two years Barbone introduced Madonna to important contacts in the music industry, believing she was leading the ingénue along a path that had room for them both. She was sorely mistaken.
Barbone invested heavily in her new charge. Madonna was moved into clean accommodation with a real bed and bathroom and given an allowance of $100 a week, a princely sum to the girl who could get by on air alone. Barbone planned to mould Madonna into another Pat Benatar. Madonna refused. used. She wasn’t going to be another anyone. She was going to be herself.
The high priestess was fast growing weary of her minions.
The only tangible result from the partnership was as a four-track demo tape that Barbone funded, sharing copyright with Madonna and the studio where it was recorded. Madonna took the tape and moved on, looking for the next opportunity. The tape—the only way Barbone would see a cent from her investment—has never been released. Madonna has refused to give permission. Despite being her first manager, Barbone’s brush with the gifted one left the coffers at Gotham Productions empty.
It was on to the next scene in which hot New York DJ Mark Kamins plays a central role. As ballsy as ever, Madonna approached Kamins at Danceteria, one of the city’s coolest clubs. Before long they were lovers. Once she had him in her grasp she lent him the demo tape. Kamins played her track ‘Everybody’ at Danceteria one night. The crowd loved it.
Kamins wanted to be a record producer. He saw Madonna as an artist who could go places. Taking the initiative, he gave the demo tape to a mate at Sire Records, part of Warner’s. Sire’s president was in hospital recovering from heart surgery, but he liked what he heard. Madonna was summoned to his bedside and the deal struck. She was on her way. It was 1983.
Madonna always found a way to stand out. And where to find the party
But those who had thought they could climb on board for the ride, like her pal Steve Bray, were left out in the cold. Even Kamins was passed over for album producer—in favour of Reggie Lucas. Madonna rationalised that she needed the most experienced people on her first record to give her the best shot.
‘Everybody’ was released first to test the waters. Madonna promoted the single tirelessly, going to clubs and radio stations to pump up interest. When the song jumped from the dance charts to the US Billboard top 100 a murmur ran through Sire Records. They were on the cusp of something big. Madonna went into the studio to record her first album.
With offers coming left, right and centre she needed a manager. Enter Freddy DeMann, the man who had taken Michael Jackson to mega-stardom. Madonna was delighted when she heard that DeMann was no longer with Jackson. It meant he could focus on her. Her first album sold nine million copies. DeMann knew he’d gotten lucky and he remained her manager until 1997.
Madonna was unleashed in July 1983. The singer and her band did the New York club circuit, driving audiences wild as she pumped up her volume. The first single ‘Holiday’ took some time to gather momentum, but eventually it reached number one on the Billboard club playlist along with ‘Lucky Star’, which was written by Madonna. Two more singles, her ‘Burning Up’ and ‘Physical Attraction’, co-written with Lucas, reached the top five of the club playlist. ‘Borderline’, another Lucas/Madonna collaboration, broke through into the mainstream hot 100, reaching number ten. Not a bad performance for a debut album.
A vision of movement and colour, Madonna was made for TV. ‘Borderline’ was the first Madonna video that MTV gave serious airplay, but it was ‘Lucky Star’ that introduced the world to her gyrations and reignited mass interest in popular dance music. Her routines were sexually charged and playful, and her costume—with its ripped fishnet stockings, lace, dangling crucifix earrings, chains, calf-length boots, rags in her dyed hair and an exposed midriff—was something to covet. Young girls around the country began to emulate their new idol.
One of the standout features of Madonna’s wardrobe was her Boy Toy belt, named after a moniker from her early New York days when she used to hang out with graffiti artists. She needed a street name and Boy Toy was it. This one badge sparked a merchandising empire that brought in millions of dollars as young girls everywhere mimicked the Madonna look. They wore crucifixes dangling from their ears and Boy Toy belts strapped low across their hips so as not to obscure their belly buttons. Showing the belly was critical to getting ‘the look’ right.
The launch of her first album coincided with the filming of Desperately Seeking Susan. Madonna had a supporting role. In the off-beat comedy her character Susan is a mirror of Madonna herself. She ‘washes in a public bathroom, latches on to total strangers, bums food and money, lives out of a suitcase’.
During filming, her record was climbing the charts and sparking a flurry of Madonna-mania. It was like there was a hypnotic message in her music that converted the listener to the new religion. Her influence was unprecedented, especially in the time it took her to take hold of the American, and later world, public.
no one had exposed themselves so graphically and so intimately on camera
On the movie set, the star Rosanna Arquette despaired at the growing interest in this amateur. Playing the lead in a quirky Susan Seidelman film was meant to
deliver Arquette a giant step up the showbiz ladder. Instead, there were security guards on set keeping Madonna’s fans away. Desperately Seeking Susan became Madonna’s film.
Her triumphant debut album was followed in 1984 with Like a Virgin. The success of the title track written by the little-known Billy Steinberg and Tom Kelly began a run for the songwriting pair that would lead to more number one hits, including Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colours’. On this album Steve Bray got his break as a producer, but in the driver’s seat, along with Madonna, was Nile Rodgers of Chic fame.
Like a Virgin, the single and album, firmly positioned Madonna’s star at the top of the tree. Both reached number one on the Billboard hot 100 and the single topped the club playlist chart as well. ‘Material Girl’, written by disco dynamos Peter Brown and Robert Rans, further cemented her position as the queen of dance. She was unstoppable.
they were a strange couple, almost unattractive, more often seen arguing than in a loving embrace
At the inaugural MTV awards in 1984 Madonna took the stage to perform the opening song, ‘Like a Virgin’. Wearing a white wedding gown, she writhed with an energy that blew the minds of her audience, all those years of dance paying off in a spectacular routine. She was in her element.
Hollywood brat packer Sean Penn invited himself on to the ‘Material Girl’ video set for a closer look. It wasn’t long before the pair became an item.
It was an unlikely union, this publicity-seeking newbie on the brink of unimagined fame and the moody, at times violent, actor. They were a strange couple, almost unattractive, more often seen arguing than in a loving embrace. In the early days of their relationship the press interest in Madonna was escalating. She enjoyed the media exposure but it drove Penn to drunken nights and ugly brawls. He tried to keep himself in check, but one intrusion after another wore away at his resolve.
Their relationship was fuelled by a strong sexual attraction. Madonna enjoyed Penn, but even he wasn’t enough to quench her thirst. Throughout their courtship she continued her liaisons with other men—among them graffiti artist Jean-Michel Basquiat who she used to hang out with—despite Penn’s increasingly violent jealous outbursts.
The two surprised everyone by announcing their engagement. At their 1985 wedding, on Madonna’s twenty-seventh birthday, journalists went to extraordinary lengths to gain access—even dressing as waiters and climbing the patrolled boundaries of Penn’s Malibu mansion. All were discovered and thrown out.
The incensed bridegroom scrawled FUCK OFF in the sand to the flock of helicopters that buzzed above. But the paparazzi were undeterred. Before the ceremony Penn could be seen raging around the garden firing shots indiscriminately at the helicopters. Madonna wasn’t adverse to a burning helicopter—the more publicity the better. The drone of the choppers was so loud it was hard to hear the marriage vows. Madonna was in her element. Penn was desperate.
Off on the Virgin tour in 1985 Madonna had little opportunity to comfort the brooding Penn, who was pining for his wife. The two tried to keep the spark alive, she travelling to his film sets and he to her concerts. But their efforts were fraught.
The Virgin tour played the USA and Canada with sell-out shows at Radio City Music Hall and Madison Square Garden in New York. The critics who said she couldn’t sing and wouldn’t outlast Cyndi Lauper are still eating their words. Madonna eclipsed all comers.
fans loved ‘Like a Prayer’ but it was a red rag to the Catholic Church. Unholy desire and burning crucifixes left it bleating about blasphemy
Her third album, True Blue, was released in 1986. It had more number one hits—‘Live to Tell’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’, ‘Open Your Heart’ and the album itself. As Stephen Thomas Erlewine said, True Blue is ‘one of the great dance-pop albums, a record that demonstrates Madonna’s true skills as a songwriter, record-maker, provocateur, and entertainer through its wide reach, accomplishment, and sheer sense of fun.’
She was enraging all sorts of groups with her songs, her scanty outfits and her smart mouth. The feminists were up in arms—her outrageous, overtly sexual stage performances and videos, almost soft porn at times, reportedly setting the women’s movement back thirty years. ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ made family groups believe she was anti-abortion and encouraging teen girls to have babies. She laughed off the criticisms. Madonna was more interested in selling records than advocating moral reforms.
In 1987 she embarked on her first world tour, Who’s That Girl, to Japan, Britain, US and Europe. Many of the shows were massive stadium events with crowds of 70,000 or more. By the end of the tour ur she’d entertained around two million fans. Earning an estimated half million on dollars per show, Madonna donated all the proceeds of her Madison Square Garden concert to the American Foundation for AIDS Research—she he had lost close friends to the disease.
That year the film Who’s That Girl was released. Directed by James Foley, Madonna played the lead role in the quirky comedy, which was canned.
Even though she’d only released her first album four years earlier, You Can Dance, a compilation of dance hits, was released in 1987. The album featured long-play singles and remixes of ‘Holiday’ and ‘Into the Groove’.
Her marriage ended in 1989 with Penn screaming he would have preferred to have annulled his wife not the marriage. Madonna moved on as if nothing had happened. Penn has said ‘he can’t remember ever having a proper conversation with her ... It was a miserable marriage.’ For her part she said it failed because ‘I just wasn’t ready to be married. I was completely obsessed with my career and not ready to be generous in any shape or form.’
At the time she was caught up in the controversy over the video of her number one hit single ‘Like a Prayer’. Fans loved it but it was a red rag to the Catholic Church. Madonna couldn’t have cared less. Unholy desire and burning crucifixes left churches bleating about blasphemy. Once again Madonna was in the press, just as she had intended—this time in battle with the Vatican.
Albums kept coming in rapid succession. I’m Breathless was released in 1990 to coincide with the launch of her next celluloid catastrophe, Dick Tracy, with the equally publicity fond Warren Beatty. The album’s most notable hit ‘Vogue’ went to number one on the Billboard hot 100 chart. Slick and elegantly choreographed, the video for ‘Vogue’ introduced Madonna with cropped blonde hair and tailored suits—creating another fashion trend. The song paid tribute to women Madonna admired: Marlene Dietrich, Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly and Greta Garbo.
Beatty and Madonna embarked on a brief affair, the intimate details of which were shared in her documentary In Bed with Madonna (known as Truth or Dare in the USA) filmed during her Blonde Ambition tour. It offered a ghastly close-up look at the Material Girl in all her ugly greediness.
No one had exposed themselves so graphically and so intimately on camera. Audiences loved it. The more outrageous she was the better. As the media wailed, the New York Post calling her a tramp—‘Vulgar Madonna is the Degenerate Queen of Sleeze’—the movie became a box-office smash.
The Blonde Ambition tour was an epic, drawing the ‘ire of law enforcement officials’ for its saucy, even naughty content and sexy costumes. It introduced conical breasts and bustiers, created by Jean Paul Gaultier. Suddenly wearing underwear on the outer was in vogue. The concert was a Hollywood spectacular with all the production values of a blockbuster movie. Catholics were beseeched by the Pope not to attend. The Italian concerts were the only ones not to sell out.
her descent into the weird, dark, psycho-sexual world of her album Erotica and the book Sex genuinely shocked many with her depravity
As her fame grew, so did her ego. It didn’t matter what she did, the public, her subjects, would continue to adore her.
Then, shock horror, she took a wrong turn. Her descent in 1992 into the weird, dark, psycho-sexual world of her
album Erotica and the much publicised coffee table book Sex genuinely shocked many with her depravity. Had the woman lost her mind?
Sex was a strange compilation of simulated sexual situations—everything from Madonna masturbating in front of a mirror to lesbian sex and implied bestiality. ‘Catholicism inspired the sadomasochistic photos in Sex. I think a lot of Catholicism is based on punishment. A punishment-equals-pleasure kind of a thing,’ Madonna said. Whatever the reason for its existence, Sex produced by her new enterprise Maverick Recording Company, became a huge seller.
The album wasn’t received with the same vigour. The video for its number one single ‘Justify My Love’ was yanked from airplay by MTV after only a week. Its S&M imagery was too much. Madonna wouldn’t be intimidated. She retaliated by releasing the video into record stores—and she made a fortune.
The following year’s Bedtime Stories went a long way to restoring the faith of her fans. It reached number three on the album charts and its singles, ‘Secret’, ‘Take a Bow’, ‘Bedtime Story’, co-written by Bjork, and ‘Human Nature’, made the top five of the hot dance charts. The queen of dance was back.
Madonna pushed the sanctimony further, taking on the role of Eva Peron in the movie version of Evita—and winning a Golden Globe. Buoyed by the success, Madonna appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s episode in Four Rooms, the awful Blue in the Face and Spike Lee’s Girl 6.
In 1996 she gave birth to a daughter, Lourdes. Carlos Leon, the willing sperm donor, was Madonna’s personal trainer at the time. He soon faded into the background and Madonna took full charge of her daughter’s life.
Her post-motherhood triumph was the emotionally and spiritually rich Ray of Light, a 1998 masterpiece that had the media hailing a more mature Madonna. Despite the heavy emphasis on god in various guises and the preachy, sometimes corny lyrics, Madonna had timed it beautifully, reinventing herself as a spiritual goddess. Ray of Light reeled off the hits—the album’s title song, plus ‘Frozen’, ‘Nothing Really Matters’ and ‘The Power of Goodbye’.
Rock Chicks Page 17