Madonna

The Rise of the Material Girl

“I wanna be famous. I wanna be a star”. Miss Ciccone had already made everything clear with that famous incipit to her entire career, contained in her first video compilation. Everything so meticulously and tremendously planned as to seem artificial, were it not for the fact that the star named Madonna filled that diabolical plan with a personality and an artistic ability such as to make believers even out of her most unshakeable early detractors. A model that has dictated the law, almost as if it were proof positive that even a seemingly ordinary singer, not particularly gifted with vocal means or interpretive talent, could quickly become a star in the pop firmament. In short, if a manual for the perfect popstar truly exists, it was written by her: Veronica Louise Ciccone, born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, USA. A mutant, cannibalistic popstar, multiform and postmodern, capable of launching trends but also of riding them shrewdly, of turning herself into an icon and a fetish while at the same time mocking the crudest instincts of an audience hungry for idols to worship and sacrifice on the altar of stardom. Pretending to be a sex object and easy prey, she has in fact always subjugated everyone, from record executives to her own fans. A ruthless dominatrix, in short, like the "Mistress Dita" of her Erotica, but in managerial form: velvet glove, iron fist.

In truth, the registry office had already given a helping hand to the exuberant Miss Ciccone's climb, bestowing on her the most forbidden and impossible of names: Madonna. And yet the brazen Veronica Louise would show precious little of the virginal, taking pleasure instead in poking fun at that solemn name paired with her unrepentant sexual voracity. Born in Bay City, Michigan (August 16, 1958), and raised in Pontiac, third of six siblings, she lost her mother Madonna Louise Fortin to breast cancer at just five years old, left alone with her father Silvio Anthony, of Abruzzese descent. The pain of that loss helped give Madonna an indestructible shell, forcing her to grow up fast. The girl who grew up in Detroit and studied modern dance already had few scruples and one fixed idea: to become famous and loved by everyone. The "popstar mission" begins in New York at the end of the Seventies, where Veronica Louise moves to work with a dance company. Miss Ciccone starts her climb elbowing her way into Soho's "off" clubs and begins making dance tracks, some of which get played at New York's Danceteria by DJ Mark Kamins. He would be the deus ex machina of her true vinyl debut, producing "Everybody", the first single released under the name Madonna. From then on it's an unstoppable ascent. The dynamite trio "Holiday"-"Lucky Star"-"Borderline" cements Madonna's name on the American dance charts and paves the way for the release of her self-titled debut LP in 1983, which reveals her unsuspected talent as a songwriter (she wrote almost every track) as well as performer, drawing on the infectious grace of urban pop-dance blended with synth-pop sounds typical of the eighties, to narrate love among the bohemian kids of New York's bleakest corners.

Pop's Virginity

A heroine of the post-disco era, Madonna makes promiscuity and sexual excess her guiding path, mixing sacred and profane in a wild, shameless way. Singing in a shrill little voice and blending provocative nymphet poses with sacred-blasphemous looks (crucifixes and lingerie, miniskirts and fishnets), the American singer forges a bizarre mix of raw post-pubescent sensuality and calculated diva posturing: the perfect formula to capture multitudes of teenagers hunting for new role models to identify with.

But the knockout blow was still to come. To land it, Madonna chose the perfect showcase: the MTV stage. On September 18, 1984, at the very first MTV Video Music Awards, she emerged from a wedding cake in pristine bridal white, writhing outrageously, sporting a flashy belt emblazoned with the words "Boy Toy". On stage she premiered her new single "Like A Virgin", delivering a sensual, provocative performance. Even more than the tumbling and rolling around on stage, what truly scandalized the prudish was that brief moment when Madonna simulated an act of self-pleasure, grinding her hips back and forth beneath the voluminous organza skirt. A kind of supreme outrage, in an era of showbiz still dominated by machismo. The performance, instantly hailed as one of the most memorable in VMA history, became a formidable springboard to stardom.

And yet the song's gestation had not been easy. The lyrics were penned by Billy Steinberg, who, together with Tom Kelly, had already scored several number-one hits, including "True Colors" for Cyndi Lauper, "Eternal Flame" for the Bangles and "So Emotional" for Whitney Houston. Fresh out of a relationship gone wrong, Steinberg had virginity in mind as a metaphor for emotional rebirth: "I remember writing that lyric about feeling clear-headed and new, almost like being a virgin again, at least emotionally," he would later reveal. "I'd gone through a really difficult time and in the end I'd made it through." His friend Tom Kelly, however, struggled to shape it into a romantic ballad: "How can you do that with a song called 'Like A Virgin'? It seems ridiculous!" he protested. But Steinberg wouldn't let go, convinced there was something in that lyric - as Davide Pezzi recounts in "Quello che le canzoni non dicono". So, after several attempts, Kelly tried singing it in falsetto, in a very high register, somewhat like the classic Motown records. "That's it," Billy exclaimed, "that's the song!" They pitched it to Michael Ostin of Warner Bros.' A&R department, who was on the hunt for songs for Madonna's second album. The next day he played it for Miss Ciccone, who went absolutely wild for it and immediately knew it was the perfect song for her.

But there was a rather sizeable obstacle to overcome, one that went by the name of Nile Rodgers, the legendary producer brought in to man the boards. The leader of Chic, fresh off producing hits like "Upside Down" for Diana Ross, "The Reflex" for Duran Duran and the entirety of David Bowie's "Let's Dance", had been struck by a performance from the Material Girl: "I went to a club to see another singer, but when I got there, Madonna was on stage. I was struck by her stage presence, and we met right after. I wanted to work with her, and 'Like a Virgin' seemed like the perfect opportunity," he would later recall. Though enthusiastic about Rodgers ("he has a great passion for pop and has done great dance work with Chic, Sister Sledge and everyone else"), the American singer knew exactly what she wanted and had no intention of compromising. Hence the following exchange: "Nile, if you don't like all the songs, I can't work with you" (Madonna). "Well, I don't like all of them, but by the time I'm done with them, I'll love them!" (Rodgers). The problem was that one of the songs he didn't love was the title track itself, which he felt lacked a sufficiently strong chorus. Even before Madonna's stubbornness could change his mind, it was the song's sheer impact that won him over, as he admitted he couldn't get it out of his head: "I thought 'Material Girl' was much better than 'Like A Virgin'. In fact, I thought every song on that album was better than the single, and in the end I had to apologize to Madonna and admit I was wrong." It happens, even to the best.

In the studio, Madonna stayed remarkably faithful to the original demo, with the notable addition of Tony Thompson's drumming. What resulted was yet another of her sexual pantomimes in service of a dance novelty that sounds almost like an even more amphetamine-fuelled version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean", with that obsessively pulsing bass, those shimmering synth lines and those two hooks, Madonna's voice climbing into a higher register, punctuated by a hammering drum arrangement. After its debut at the MTV Awards, the single was released on November 6 and immediately conquered charts worldwide, staying at number one on the US Billboard chart for six weeks. Its success was also boosted by the now-iconic video directed by Mary Lambert, shot between New York and Venice: Madonna, sporting the same bridal look from the VMAs, sets off from Brooklyn and arrives in the lagoon city, where she sings and dances among the gondolas and the baroque halls of Palazzo Zenobio. Images that may look naive today, but which at the time helped cement her status as pop's provocative icon.

"Like A Virgin" would be reinterpreted by numerous artists, including Bow Wow Wow, Marilyn Manson with Nine Inch Nails, as well as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. It also earned a cinephile shout-out in the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino's "Reservoir Dogs", in which the characters debate the song's real meaning, speculating it might be "a metaphor for big dicks". In response, Madonna sent her friend Quentin a copy of her book "Erotica" with the dedication: "It's a song about love, not big dicks. Madonna."

Madonna c'est Chic

Aware he had to contend with a bulldozer dressed in lace, Nile Rodgers nonetheless refused to hold back from stamping his signature sound onto the nine songs of "Like A Virgin". And he made no secret of his dislike for some of the demos put together by the singer with Stephen Bray: "There were too many sequences, not enough live musicianship," he would reveal. "I told her: 'With this material you can only get cute pop songs. But if we work with great musicians, we can take it all to a higher level. Performing with a real band will make you look like a complete artist.'"

The problem was the budget: Rodgers was Chic even when it came to his fees, and Sire didn't have deep pockets. So they struck a seemingly risky deal: if the record sold over three million copies, the producer's royalty percentage would increase drastically. The label, convinced this was an unrealistic target, agreed. Little did they know the album would blow well past that threshold...

Madonna, in any case, arrived in the studio with very clear ideas and an already defined tracklist. The sessions took place at Power Station Studios in New York in the spring of 1984: six intense weeks recorded digitally, with the singer always present, attentive to every decision, eager to learn but also ready to impose her own vision. "On the first day I was the first to arrive at the studio, but it never happened again," Rodgers would recall. "Madonna would never let me be the first again. I've never worked with someone I respected more."

The producer rounded up his Chic partners: bassist Bernard Edwards, drummer Tony Thompson and keyboardist Rob Sabino, joined by beatmaker Jimmy Bralower. It was the latter who revealed a curious detail about the sessions, reported in Giulio Mazzoleni's book "Madonna Songbook": "We intentionally created extreme backbeats. The drums were very sharp, the kick drum was powerful: it wasn't a normal set of sounds, we were pushing the limits almost to the point of being cartoonish." To bolster the backing vocals, meanwhile, Curtis King (who had already worked with the E Street Band, Michael Jackson and Meat Loaf) and brothers Frank and George Simms, fresh off David Bowie's Serious Moonlight Tour, were brought in. The production naturally became richer and more sophisticated, as did the arrangements, far more elaborate and complex than the suburban-disco feel of the debut. The result was a tight, gleaming pop sound, with drums and bass stretched to breaking point, framing the still-raw but already unmistakable voice of the American singer.

On the dancefloor front, alongside the title track, standouts include the obsessive, pounding beats of “Angel” and “Over And Over”, but above all the delightful “Dress You Up”, born from a demo by two first-time songwriters, which weaves a sensual melody through relentless synth pulses and a guitar solo, defying, with its 6 minutes and 20 seconds, the sacred dogmas of radio airplay. To this lineup would later be added a precious bonus track (featured only on the European edition), “Into The Groove”, another spectacular dancefloor-filling smash that bounces intoxicatingly over mighty basslines and increasingly clipped patterns, landing yet another winning refrain (plus a memorable video, taken from the film “Desperately Seeking Susan” starring Madonna herself, for which it also served as the theme song).

But of course image demands its due as well. Having ditched the streetwise riot-girl look of her debut, Madonna increasingly settled into the role of the diva, even channeling the sexiest icon in Hollywood history. "Material Girl" is in fact a blatant homage to Marilyn Monroe, a kind of remake of her "Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend" (1953), a parody in turn parodied in the song's music video, in which Madonna, sheathed in pink silk, apes cinema's most famous blonde, drawing a parallel that is anything but accidental. The theme itself is fairly trite, but it proves crucial in the shaping of the icon, serving as a manifesto for Madonna's cynical, brazen ethic and perhaps also for the more frivolous, rapacious spirit of the '80s ("The boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right/ 'Cause we're living in a material world/ And I am a material girl").

There's no shortage, though, of two atmospheric slow numbers like "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" and "Crazy For You", in which Madonna begins honing her skills as a vocalist. The former is especially splendid, reinterpreting a 1978 Rose Royce track with an added soul touch, revealing an interpretive ambition that goes beyond chart-topping pop. Rodgers would reveal how recording the track was a moment of genuine emotion for an artist usually portrayed as glacial: "Madonna had never sung live with an orchestra before, and she herself was hesitant at first, but unexpectedly the results turned out great. She got swept up in the emotion and started crying, but I let the recording keep rolling." All things considered, the other ballad, "Crazy For You", is effective too, a perfect theme for a teen movie, as it indeed became for "Vision Quest", whose soundtrack it ended up on.

It is instead a tribute to the glorious Motown era and to the doo-wop of 1960s girl groups like The Shirelles or The Crystals, the ironic divertissement of "Shoo-Bee-Doo", written by Madonna herself: a retro pop number with a high saccharine content, complete with a shamelessly crowd-pleasing sax solo. Rounding things off are two more forgettable tracks, "Pretender", which opens with the chorus before moving through verses telling a story of uncontrolled seduction, and "Stay", which closes the album incorporating a noise vaguely reminiscent of taps on a microphone and a spoken passage that fades out into the ending.

A star is born

Madonna enlists photographer Steven Meisel and stylist Maripol to create a cover as explicit as it is disruptive. The pairing of her name with the title "Like A Virgin" is in itself a short circuit between sacred and profane, innocence and provocation. Reinforcing the message is the chosen image, which shows her sprawled on a velvet bed, in a wedding gown but sexy lingerie, bouquet in hand, sporting the now-famous "Boy Toy" belt buckle. A staged provocation destined – inevitably – to offend the sensibilities of conservative America in the 1980s, sparking controversy and fascination in equal measure. It's the final piece of a perfect mosaic. "Like A Virgin" hits its target with surgical precision: turning the callow disco starlette of "Lucky Star" into a global pop diva. The vehicle is a glittering dance kaleidoscope that updates the codes of disco music – of which Rodgers was a pioneer – for the age of polished pop and blockbuster productions in the '80s. A broader, more universal sound, designed to break out of the airless confines of the clubs and take over Fm radio and Mtv. "A smart, fun, sexy, irresistible record", is how its author would describe it – one that also showed real vocal growth, as she dared to reach for higher notes and brought out a timbre some dismissed as "cartoonish", but which in truth clearly revealed her sources of inspiration – Diana Ross and Michael Jackson above all – filtered through an utterly personal sensibility.

Released on November 11, 1984 after several delays, the album is an overwhelming success. It quickly climbs to number one on the Billboard 200 in the United States, where it stayed on top for three weeks. It becomes the first album by a woman to sell more than five million copies in the US in a single year, and to date has sold over 21 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling records of all time. In the United Kingdom it debuts at number one on the Uk Albums Chart, staying on the chart for months. In Italy too – as well as in Australia and Canada – it reaches the top spot, while in many other countries, such as Japan, France and Germany, it settles into the top ten. It's the prelude to a triumphant tour that started in West Coast theaters and ended on a much grander scale at Madison Square Garden.

Naturally, her success draws widespread envy, mixed with bigoted and misogynistic attacks. Rodgers himself would come to her defense, once again confirming his prescient clarity, even regarding the music criticism of the period. Particularly telling is a comment from the producer reported by Mazzoleni: "Someone like Iggy Pop can go on stage and be super-sexual and wild and that's fantastic – said Nile Rodgers in 1985 – but Madonna is a woman, so they say she's sleazy. Madonna is brazenly sexual and sensual, but not sleazy, not even a little. She's an excellent singer and musician, a serious artist. It would be nice if some apparently intelligent people who know music looked past the image and got into her songs. Most of the bad things said about her are said by men". And they would keep saying them for a long time to come.

With “Like A Virgin”, in short, Madonna becomes a star by turning stereotypes on their head and using sex, if anything, as a tool to express her own strength. Inexplicably snubbed six months earlier for the recording of “We Are the World”, she is invited to perform at the historic Live Aid concert. Two days later, “Into The Groove” is released as a single in Europe, while the film “Desperately Seeking Susan” puts her on cinema screens worldwide. But the relentless Veronica Louise cannot rest on her laurels. With managerial instincts worthy of Bowie, she understands that her reflection in the mirror can become even more important than she herself is. And she begins to develop the sophisticated strategy that will keep her in the saddle for over four decades, thanks also to her extraordinary knack for media manipulation and her shrewd reading of the social changes underway. Hers will be an American dream steeped in cynicism and clear-eyed calculation. And yet she will embody the most successful female stardom story we have witnessed in the last 45 years.

Ride the wave of great music

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08/04/2026