"Madonna has become one of the most successful and notorious female singers the world has ever seen," proclaimed The Times magazine in 1991. "The news that Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the Pop industry only confirms what we already knew, which is that she is now the biggest star on the planet.".
Madonna Louise Ciccone, born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. Madonna is a singer, dancer, song writer, musician, actress, record company holder, wife, mother, and mass media phenomenon. Penguin Encyclopedia of Popular Music defines Madonna: "She is an ideal icon, her skilful stage act, image and music combining to make an oddly innocent pop phenomenon, harking back to the flirtatious glamour of earlier times: it was an illusion then, more so now; but she seems likely to endure one way or another." In search of her ambitious dream, the 24-year-old college student got on a bus to New York with only US$35 in her pocket in 1977. Since then, she has become the most ubiquitous artist in the history of popular music. Nobody could have predicted the longevity or enormous impact of her amazing career. No other female artist could dominate the pop arena prominently, and reign as Queen of Pop as she could. In 1989 when Rolling Stone magazine proclaimed her album Like A Prayer to be, "as close to art as pop music gets", she had rightfully earned the title, Queen of Pop. Even the rather conservative Sunday Telegraph recognized her as the 'female icon of the age.' .
Madonna broke into the pop music scene with Holiday in 1983. She helped to link the gap between disco and new wave, and simply defined it as Dance. (Note: Everybody and Burning Up were the 2 initial singles she released in underground disco scene) It reached the US Top 20 and UK Top10. Holiday, produced by dance pop mix-master John Benitez (a.k.a. Jellybean) became her first Billboard Top 40 hits.
