Madonna Biography

Name

Madonna

Real Name

Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone

Date of Birth

August 16, 1958

Birth Place

Bay City, Mich.

Relationships

Jesus Luz, boyfriend (2009 to present) Guy Ritchie, ex-husband (2000 to 2008; divorce final in Jan. 2009) Carlos Leon, ex-boyfriend (1994 to 1997) Warren Beatty, ex-boyfriend (1989 to 1990) Sean Penn, ex-husband (1985 to 1989) John "Jellybean" Benitez, ex-boyfriend (1983 to 1985) Steve Bray, ex-boyfriend (1980 to 1982) Dan Gilroy, ex-boyfriend (1979 to 1980)

Children

Lourdes Maria "Lola" Ciccone Leon, daughter (10/14/1996) Rocco John Ritchie, son (8/11/2000) David Banda, adopted son (9/24/2005) Mercy James, adopted daughter

1958

August 16

Madonna as Child

Madonna and Tony Ciccone welcome their first daughter, Madonna, nicknamed Nonni to avoid confusion with Mom. When Nonni is 5, her mother, 36, dies of breast cancer. Madonna's father later marries the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. "I didn't accept my stepmother when I was growing up," the singer later tells CNN. "In retrospect I think I was really hard on her."

1978

July

Bright Lights, Big City

Madonna, attending the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship, drops out after two years and moves to New York City, where she lives in a series of ramshackle apartments while studying and dancing with the Alvin Ailey and Pearl Lang companies. In 1979, she begins dabbling in New York's downtown music scene, eventually forming the punk-influenced Breakfast Club with boyfriend Dan Gilroy. Then she launches the rock group Emmy with drummer Steve Bray, a boyfriend from Michigan who helps write and produce dance club tracks that lead to her solo contract with Sire Records.

1982

October

Rock the House

After four years of struggling to earn money modeling, dancing and singing, Madonna's first single, "Everybody," puts her over the top in the New York club scene. She meets John "Jellybean" Benitez, an in-demand deejay who produces "Holiday." The song leads to an appearance on Dick Clark's "American Bandstand" and ignites her career. Madonna and Benitez, who date for two years, "were a great team," a friend tells PEOPLE.

1983

June 27

Madonna – The Album

After landing on the dance charts in '82, Madonna releases her self-titled debut album, which includes radio perennials "Lucky Star" and "Holiday." "Borderline" becomes the first in a string of 13 consecutive Top 5 hits, a winning streak bettered only by Elvis and the Beatles. She later tells PEOPLE: "Everything following that was like, 'Oh my God! What's happening to my life?' You get caught up in that."

1984

September 14

Like a Virgin

Vamping at the very first MTV Video Music Awards for her soon-to-be released second album, Madonna performs "Like a Virgin" on top of a giant white wedding cake, dressed in a white bustier, her trademark "Boy Toy" belt buckle and crucifix jewelry. Released on Nov. 12, the album becomes No. 1 in the U.S. for three weeks and sells 7 million copies worldwide by May.

1985

February 13

Crazy for You

Madonna and Sean Penn are photographed together at New York's Private Eyes video club after meeting on the set of her Material Girl video. Within weeks, Penn travels to Michigan to meet her family, and she meets his at an L.A. performance. In August, the pair weds in Malibu in front of 200 guests.

March 29

Wannabes Everywhere

Madonna makes her big-screen debut in Desperately Seeking Susan opposite Rosanna Arquette, reveling in the role of a wisecracking street urchin not unlike herself, but the singer's fanciful style eclipses her acting performance. Wannabes turn up all over the world, sporting leggings, lace gloves and bellybutton-baring shirts.

1986

August 29

A Taste of Failure

Months after Penn beats Madonna's pal and songwriter David Wolinski (Penn gets a $1,000 fine and a year's probation), Penn and Madonna costar in Shanghai Surprise. "I look back and think, 'Well, I invited it. I made some really stupid choices,'" says Madonna to PEOPLE. "It taught me to be more scrupulous."

1987

September 04

The Controversy Begins

Madonna begins the final leg of her "Who's That Girl?" tour in Turin, Italy, and the Pope urges the faithful to stay away. He further condemns the singer when her statue is erected in Pacentro, the Italian town of her ancestors. More run-ins with the Church will lead to a boycott of her 1990 "Blond Ambition Tour" that includes Madonna's signature mix of Catholicism and sexuality.

1989

January 06

Love Don't Live Here Anymore

After nearly four years of splits, spats and fistfights with paparazzi, Madonna files for divorce from Penn for the second time – she withdrew the first petition in 1987 at the urging of friends. "I do believe we all have soulmates," Madonna later tells PEOPLE. "I don't believe that we necessarily end up with them."

1989

March 02

Pepsi Pulls the Plug

Two months after Pepsi signs Madonna to a $5 million multiyear endorsement deal, the company features her in a TV commercial. The following day "Like a Prayer", one of the singer's most controversial videos, debuts with images of her kissing a black saint and dancing in front of a field of burning crosses. Backlash from religious groups forces Pepsi to pull the campaign, but Madonna keeps the cash.

September 30

A Date with JFK Jr.

Madonna brings young district attorney John F. Kennedy Jr. to a party she throws for art-world types at younger brother Christopher Ciccone's downtown New York loft. Onlookers say Madonna spent most of the party cozying up to John, but that he left alone to dine with girlfriend Daryl Hannah.

1990

June 14

Breathless for Beatty

Madonna stars as nightclub singer opposite Warren Beatty in Dick Tracy, and they begin a short-lived romance. She soon takes up with rapper Vanilla Ice and her interpretation of Stephen Sondheim's "Sooner or Later" on the Dick Tracy soundtrack wins an Oscar for Best Song. That October, Forbes celebrates Madonna as "America's Smartest Business Woman," estimating that she has earned $125 million between 1985 and 1990.

November 27

Justify This

MTV bans Madonna's five-minute "Justify My Love" video, which features S&M, bondage, lesbian sex and rampant nudity. "I think the video is romantic and loving and has humor in it," Madonna tells the New York Times. "Why is it that people are willing to go to a movie and watch someone get blown to bits for no reason, and nobody wants to see two girls?"

1991

March 25

Madonna Steps Out With Michael

Madonna and Michael Jackson walk the red carpet together on Oscar night – he in his gold-tipped cowboy boots and blinding diamond brooch and she, dazzling in a pearl-encrusted Bob Mackie gown and $20 million worth of Harry Winston diamonds. At the post-Oscar party, though, she makes a beeline for Beatty, and Jackson hangs with Diana Ross.

May 10

Playing Truth or Dare

The black-and-white documentary Truth or Dare chronicles many intimate moments during her 1990 Blond Ambition tour and receives an R rating. Entertainment Weekly calls Madonna "a natural egomaniac whom stardom completes." Indeed, an exasperated Warren Beatty is captured on film exclaiming, "She doesn't want to live off-camera!"

1992

July 01

Play Ball

Departing from her sexy persona, Madonna turns in an endearingly sweet performance in A League of Their Own, a box-office grand slam about baseball's first female professional league. Off-screen, she strikes a close friendship with costar Rosie O'Donnell.

October 21

Queen of Rebellion

Madonna celebrates her liberation from prevailing social mores with Sex, a book of erotic pictures of herself by fashion photographer Steven Meisel. It is a commercial success but causes a passing image problem. "My rebellion happened, instead of in my teens, when I was 30," Madonna later tells PEOPLE. "I just wanted to go, 'Don't tell me what to do just 'cause I'm a girl. Don't tell me I can't be sexual and intelligent at the same time.' "

1996

New Faith

Madonna, who was raised a strict Catholic, becomes an avid devotee of Kabbalah, a form of Jewish mysticism. She will later draw future husband Guy Ritchie and Demi Moore into the practice. "He understands there are laws of the universe one has to live their life by," she tells PEOPLE in 2004. "That's the glue that will hold us together."

October 14

Madonna, with Child

Madonna gives birth to Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, her daughter with personal trainer Carlos Leon. "I've never seen her happier," Rosie O'Donnell tells PEOPLE. "Lola has helped her to become more grounded, to leave the star part behind." Her relationship with Lola's father, however, ends within a year of the baby's birth.

1996

Christmas Day

Screen Praise at Last

Madonna stars as Eva Perón in Evita, which earns her a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy and an Oscar for Best Song "You Must Love Me" from the movie's double disk soundtrack, which includes several other songs by Madonna.

2000

August 11

Two Years and Baby No. 2

Madonna meets Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels director Guy Ritchie (10 years her junior) at a 1998 luncheon hosted by Trudie Styler, Sting's wife. Two years later, the couple have baby boy, Rocco Ritchie, 5 lbs., 9 oz.

December 22

Madonna & Ritchie Wed

In a Stella McCartney gown, Madonna marries Ritchie, who wears a Mackintosh clan kilt at the Great Hall of Scotland's 19th-century Skibo Castle. Lourdes, then 4, acts as flower girl, and a kilt-clad Rocco held by the nanny sits in front. Guests include Gwyneth Paltrow, Donatella Versace and Sting.

2002

October 11

Swept Away

Ritchie directs Madonna in Swept Away, a critical and box office flop. "Everybody wants to know, 'God, weren't you really bummed out by the reaction?' Yes, I was," she tells PEOPLE. "But did it affect my relationship with my husband? No. If our relationship couldn't have handled the failure of that movie, what would have been the basis of it?" Besides, she says, they had fun filming it. "Contrary to what people think, I take direction very well."

2003

March 24

Wartime Protest

In her album American Life, Madonna expresses her feelings about the war in Iraq. The original version of the video shows the singer tossing a grenade at a George W. Bush lookalike and has to be re-cut. "Children, brothers, wives and sons were over there, and people at home were worrying about them," the singer said to PEOPLE about the decision to change the video. "I'd be putting salt in their wounds."

August 28

A Pop-Star Threesome

During the MTV Video Music Awards, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera join Madonna onstage for a much talked about performance that ends with Madonna locking lips with Aguilera and then Spears. "It was a lovely, soft kiss," Aguilera tells PEOPLE.

September 15

Madonna's Roses

Madonna's children's book The English Roses goes on sale. "I want to be able to help girls and in the process help myself," says the singer, who follows the success of Roses with Lotsa de Casha in June 2005.

2005

November 15

Back to the Dance Floor!

After spending her 47th birthday in the hospital for injuries sustained from falling off a horse, Madonna releases Confessions on a Dance Floor. After embarking on a worldwide tour, she wins her sixth Grammy for Best Electronic/Dance Album in 2007.

2006

October

An International Family

Despite following all legal procedures, the superstar faces scrutiny from human rights groups and the media when she begins the process to adopt David Banda, a 13-month-old from Malawi. In a statement to PEOPLE, Madonna says she was shocked by the reaction: "I expect to be given a hard time about many of the things I do. I know they are provocative and I prepare myself, but I did not expect the media, the government or any human rights organizations to take a stand against me trying to save a child's life."

2007

October 16

Madonna's New Deal

Madonna leaves Warner Music Group for a deal with concert promoter Live Nation. The agreement, which will give the company a stake in her albums, tours, merchandising, films and other music-related projects, is worth about $120 million over 10 years, according to the AP. "The paradigm in the music business has shifted and as an artist and a business woman, I have to move with that shift," Madonna says in a statement.

2008

Spring

Madonna's Candy

After getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Justin Timberlake, Madonna, 49, debuts her single, "4 Minutes," which she worked on with Timberlake. The song is off her new album, Hard Candy, which takes the top spot on Billboard's 200 albums chart.

May 28

David's Adoption is Official

After premiering her documentary on the children of Malawi, I Am Because We Are, Madonna's adoption of 2-year-old David Banda is finalized. Justice Andrew Nyirenda says he is satisfied that Madonna and Ritchie "are perfect parents" for the toddler. Although Madonna says the controversy surrounding the adoption has been painful, "It made me stronger, so I guess I can't complain."

October

Madonna & Guy Divorce

After being plagued with reports of having an affair with New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez, Madonna and Ritchie announced the end of their marriage. In January, their divorce becomes final, and Madonna moves on with model Jesus Luz.

2009

March 29

Malawi Gives Madonna Mercy

Madonna returns to Malawi in the hopes of adopting 3-year-old Mercy James. "Many people say that David should have a Malawian brother or sister," she tells the country's Nation newspaper. Although her request is initially rejected, the country's Supreme Court eventually grants Madonna the right to adopt the orphan girl.

2010

August 03

Material Girls

Madonna ventures into the world of fashion with the launch of Material Girl – a juniors clothing line she designed for Macy’s with her budding fashionista daughter Lourdes. "As we are working, I see her more as a creative person, as an artist,” the singer says of her 13-year-old daughter. "Then every once in a while, I remembered that she is my daughter."