Madonna

Born: 16th August 1958
Where: Bay City, Michigan

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone is the third of eight children in a large traditional Italian family. Her father, Sylvio Ciccone raised his children with a solid Catholic background and a disciplined work ethic.

In high school, Madonna was a cheerleader and enjoyed dancing which won her a scholarship to the University Of Michigan. Finding the academic atmosphere stifling after a year of college, the budding starlet set off for New York City in 1977.

Before long she had earned a spot with the Alvin Ailey Dance Troupe and, for a while, worked as the assistant to modern dance choreographer, Pearl Lange.

After struggling for several years in the dance world, Madonna began to broaden her artistic horizons and turned her energies to music. In 1979 she met Dan Gilroy and the pair formed club band, the Breakfast Club.

Madonna played drums and sang with the band before setting up Emmy in 1980 with former boyfriend, Steve Bray. Together, Madonna and Bray created club tracks which led to a recording deal with Sire Records.

Madonna broke out from the disco scene into mainstream pop with Holiday.

From 1985-87, she released a stream of Top 5 singles - Crazy For You, Into The Groove, Dress You Up, Papa Don't Preach and True Blue to name a few.

Early in her career, she starred in Desperately Seeking Susan and following that, she appeared in Shanghai Surprise in 1986 in which she co-starred with her then husband Sean Penn. They were married in 1985 and divorced 1989.

Back on the music scene, the singer continued to attract controversy when, in 1989, the video for Like A Prayer was condemned by the Vatican because of its links between religion and eroticism.

This caused Pepsi-Cola to cancel a sponsorship deal with the star. Nevertheless the album became a global bestseller.

In 1990 she was cast opposite Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy and the two had a highly publicised fling.

But her reputation as a strong businesswoman was confirmed in 1992 when she signed a multi-million dollar deal with the Time-Warner conglomerate, parent company of Sire.

This guaranteed the release of albums, films and books created by her own Maverick production company.

The publication of her graphic and erotic book Sex put her back on top of the charts. The book was an unprecedented success, selling out within hours.

A year later, her record company Maverick Records signed a distribution deal with A Band Apart Records, a record company founded by Quentin Tarantino and Lawrence Bender. A Band Apart Records was set to focus on film soundtracks.

Madonna returned to music with 1998's Ray Of Light. Beautiful Stranger, taken from the soundtrack to the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, reached number 2 in the UK charts in June 1999.

Another soundtrack, for the movie The Next Best Thing, co-written and co-produced by Madonna and William Orbit, was released on the singer's Maverick label.

On 22 December that year she married UK film director Guy Ritchie, in Scotland.