HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADONNA!!

Several articles I found commemorating the Queen's big 5-0!
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In Style Magazine's look back at Madonna's style transformation over the years.

BBC's look back at Madonna's career highs and lows (what lows!?)

ABC News: Better With Age? (Hell ya.) Madonna turns 50

People Magazine: Madonna's 50 looks we can't forget.

From Contact Music.com
50 Facts About Madonna
Happy birthday MADONNA! The Material Girl has hit the big 5-0 and we thought we'd celebrate by searching through cyberspace, books and articles to find 50 fascinating facts you may or may not know about Mrs. Ritchie.
From her personal statistics, Italian roots and early successes to her all-conquering pop landmarks and the crazy things that have been named after her, feast your eyes on this treasure of trivia:
- MADONNA once drummed for New York pop group the BREAKFAST CLUB. A later member of the band was AMERICAN IDOL judge RANDY JACKSON. Ex-boyfriends DAN GILROY and STEPHEN BRAY were also members of the Breakfast Club.
- MADONNA beat out acting greats GLENN CLOSE, FRANCES MCDORMAND, DEBBIE REYNOLDS and BARBRA STREISAND to grab a Best Actress Golden Globe Award in 1997 for her role in EVITA.
- MADONNA has acted in 22 films.
- The Recording Industry Association of America has named MADONNA the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century. She's also the second top-selling female artist in the United States with 63 million certified albums.
- The Guinness World Records list MADONNA as the world's most successful female recording artist of all time; she has sold over 200 million records worldwide.
- MADONNA is one of six children born to SILVIO CICCONE and MADONNA LOUISE CICCONE (nee FORTIN). She was named after her mother.
- She also has a stepbrother and stepsister from her father's second marriage to his former housekeeper JOAN GUSTAFSON.
- Born in Bay City, Michigan, MADONNA's roots stretch back to Pacentro in Italy, where her grandparents came from. In 1988, town officials in Pacentro began to construct a 13-foot (4 meter) statue of Madonna.
- MADONNA was a member of the cheerleading team at Rochester Adams High School.
- MADONNA worked in a New York City Dunkin' Donuts while she was struggling to make it as a dancer in the Big Apple. She was reportedly fired after squirting jam in a customer's face.
- MADONNA's first single, EVERYBODY, was released on 24 April, 1982.
- MADONNA's hit album LIKE A VIRGIN is among the Definitive 200 Albums of All Time, according to the Rock + Roll Hall of Fame, which inducted the pop star earlier this year (08).
- As well as starring alongside SEAN PENN in SHANGHAI SURPRISE, MADONNA also joined her then-husband onstage in her theatrical debut GOOSE + TOM TOM in 1986.
- MADONNA and SEAN PENN separated on New Year's Eve (31Dec) 1988.
- MADONNA's Confessions Tour is the highest grossing concert tour by a female artist.
- MADONNA is the most successful female in her adopted U.K.'s pop charts and has more number one singles than any other female solo artist.
- MADONNA has a new species of tardigrade named after her. The anthropod-type animals, also known as water bears, are often found living on mosses. They can survive in extreme conditions that would kill most other living species.
- MADONNA'S father, TONY CICCONE, recently decided to advance his winery business by releasing Madonna Wine, which is available in five varieties: Pinot Grigio, Pinot Noir, Gewurztraminer, Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay. Prices range from $25 (GBP12.50) to $40 (GBP20) per bottle.
- Celebrity Cellars also produced a line of collectible wine, called Madonna - Confessions on a Dance Floor.
- MADONNA made her London West End stage debut in 2002 in Up for Grabs.
- MADONNA'S first children's book, The English Roses, was published in 2003 and she has since published a total of 10 books.
- MADONNA was among the inaugural UK Music Hall of Fame inductees in 2004.
- MADONNA has released a total of 68 official singles to date, according to the singer's own website.
- MADONNA was among People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People of 1991' and '25 Most Intriguing People of 2001'.
- In March 2007, MADONNA created a clothing line for the retailer H+M.
- MADONNA is good friends with STING and his actress wife TRUDIE STYLER, who introduced her to director GUY RITCHIE. The couple fell in love and are now husband and wife.
- STING is godfather to MADONNA and GUY RITCHIE's son ROCCO.
- MADONNA is the only artist who performed at the benefit concerts Live Aid (1985), Live 8 (2005), and Live Earth (2007).
- MADONNA suffers from brontophobia - a fear of thunder.
- MADONNA was considered for the role of CATWOMAN/SELINA KYLE in the 1992 film BATMAN RETURNS. She turned the part down and the role went to MICHELLE PFEIFFER. She also fought for the role of GINGER in CASINO, but lost out to SHARON STONE.
- MADONNA turned down leading roles in SHOWGIRLS and THE FABULOUS BAKER BOYS.
- MADONNA is 5 feet, 44 inches (1.64 metres) tall. Her measurements are 34C-23-33.
- MADONNA does not have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was selected for the honour in 1990 but she showed no interest and the invitation has now expired. Walk of Fame spokeswoman Ana Martinez-Holler states that, in order to receive a star, Madonna would have to be "resubmitted for a nomination," adding, "since she is not interested, I highly doubt that she will give a nominator the permission to do so."
- MADONNA was paid $5 million (GBP2.5 million) by Pepsi to film a commercial that never even aired. Pepsi bosses pulled the controversial ad, which was related to her Like A Prayer video and full of religious overtones.
- MADONNA has won nine Razzie Awards: Worst Actress for Shanghai Surprise in 1987, Worst Actress for Who's that Girl in 1988, Worst Actress for Body of Evidence in 1994, Worst Supporting Actress for Four Rooms in 1996, Worst Actress of the Century in 2000, Worst Actress for The Next Best Thing in 2001, Worst Actress and Worst Screen Couple for Swept Away in 2003, and Worst Supporting Actress for Die Another Day in 2003.
- GWEN STEFANI, CELINE DION and MARK WAHLBERG are distant relatives of MADONNA, according to a recent ancestry study.
- MADONNA auditioned for the part of KEVIN COSTNER's high-maintenance love interest in THE BODYGUARD. WHITNEY HOUSTON landed the role.
- MADONNA played a lesbian witch in the 1996 movie FOUR ROOMS.
- MADONNA originally dreamed of becoming a ballet dancer.
- The BEASTIE BOYS supported MADONNA on her very first solo tour.
- MADONNA was ranked Number 1 on VH1's '100 Sexiest Artists' in 2002.
- MADONNA has been nominated for a total of 18 Grammy Awards; she has won five.
- MADONNA has been a vegetarian since she was 15.
- MADONNA hates the colour orange.
- MADONNA was named one of People magazine's worst-dressed, in 1999.
- MADONNA's controversial SEX book, which featured naked photos of the Material Girl, was so popular that a re-print had to be ordered within 48 hours.
- MADONNA dedicated her album TRUE BLUE to then-husband SEAN PENN, who she called "the coolest guy in the universe".
- GWYNETH PALTROW was Maid of Honour at MADONNA's Scottish wedding in 2000.
- FIGHT CLUB director DAVID FINCHER was the man behind the camera on four of MADONNA's videos.
- MADONNA's WHAT IT FEELS LIKE FOR A GIRL and JUSTIFY MY LOVE were banned from MTV.

There's a lot more but those are the best ones I found.
Happy Birthday Mrs. Ritchie!!!!
Speaking of The Ritchies, here they are celebrating her birthday in London. And I think A-Rod may have been in the bushes .....

Biggest Production EVER at a Stadium???

I'm having heart palpitations.....

Member of Madonna Tribe's forum 'waynieboy' has posted first LQ photos of Sticky & Sweet Tour stage and a short description of the stage.


He also reports that there are at least three screens on or above the stage, one is a circular screen in the center, and the side screens are huge.

Accordng to the security employee, there are two platforms that come out at each side of the stage. He also stated this was the biggest production he has seen at the stadium.


There is also a catwalk, but supposedly it isn't as big as on the Confessions Tour.








Source: Madonnatribe

Madonna's Influence on the history of Music.

Sorry I've been kind of MIA on this blog (if anyone even reads it but me. haha) but the posts will be heavy with concert stuff as soon.

A great article, Madonna getting the recognition she deserves:

There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just come right out with it. As Madonna’s 50th birthday approaches on Aug. 16, it’s looking like her influence on pop music has outshone that of the Beatles.

Let me qualify the above statement before all the peace-and-love baby boomers start hating. It’s Madonna’s impact on the course of pop music that bests the Fab Four, not her sociological importance, songwriting skills or recording innovations. Influence means an artist has an effect on the future direction of music. While the Beatles influenced scads of artists in their time, after their breakup, their sound became yesterday’s news. Artists that tried to copy them (Badfinger, the Raspberries, Squeeze) seemed quaint or quirky.

But a quarter century after Madonna emerged, artists still use her ideas and seem modern and edgy doing so. Beyond the obvious Madonna wannabe 1980s singers, Madonna’s influence is felt in artists from Gwen Stefani to Britney Spears to boy bands, who found in the 1990s there was an audience beyond the old rock crowd.

Madonna, like Elvis, recast the focus of popular music. By emphasizing modern R&B grooves where most singers used rock beats, she was the catalyst that changed music from being rock-centric to being dance and R&B-oriented. (Disco, which influenced Madonna, might have done the same thing had it not died because of rock resentment.) It’s worth noting that before Madonna, most music mega-stars were guy rockers; after her, almost all would be female singers.

Combining genres, inventing styles How did this happen? Let’s scroll back to 1983, the year of Madonna’s first album. Like Elvis and the Beatles, Madonna combined genres. So her first two singles (“Everybody” and “Burning Up”) may have been lost on people because of the way they didn’t quite fit in with R&B or rock. Top 40 and MTV back then treated black music like a subgenre — not the backbone of 20th century American music, as it’s recognized now. With her music and videos, Madonna sliced away at genre straightjackets like a surgeon, opening the doors for the future hip-hop explosion.

As for style, well, Madonna’s rag-tag early clothing get-up defined much of what was to come in the 1980s. She was also perhaps the ultimate video pioneer, because her videos were integral to her presentation, not an appendage of it. Her career highlights came early on. She famously rolled around on the stage singing “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress at the 1984 MTV Video Music Awards. She had a featured role in “Desperately Seeking Susan” and got a huge hit out of that with “Into the Groove.” She topped the charts with “Crazy for You,” which wasn’t even on one of her albums. Forbes recently dubbed her the richest woman in music. The Billboard Book of Top 100 Hits lists her as the top female pop artist of the 1980s.

Women’s work
The word “female” is significant in that assessment of Madonna because she presented herself in a fresh way for women artists. She didn’t try to be one of the boys, but she wasn’t a girly-girl or a singer-songwriter. When the Beatles hit America, they changed the paradigm of performer from solo act to band. Madonna changed it back — with an emphasis on the female. With female artists everywhere these days, it’s easy to forget how revolutionary her success was (historically challenged Millennials especially seem not to realize this). But look at old music magazines or Billboard charts for proof that in the pre-Madonna era, women were the aberration, not the norm. Madonna’s countless hit records opened people’s minds as to how successful a female artist could be. Nineties artists such as Tori Amos and Bikini Kill have zilch in common with Madonna, but benefited from her opening the ears of teen-female pop fans to something other than the usual heavy metal shouters (trust me, teen girls in the 1980s loved that stuff). Her early audience was the recipient of some panic-stricken journalism early on, much of which took the tone of: “Madonna’s come to ruin your daughters!! Arghghgh!” The consensus then was that Madonna probably wouldn’t have the longevity of Cyndi Lauper (who immediately preceded her) and would disappear like other recent suggestive singers (remember Dale Bozzio? Terri Nunn?). But Madonna also had the Beatles-like tendency to anticipate the maturing of her audience and also the ability to reinvent her style. Her personal life became fodder for 1989’s “Like a Prayer,” just when her audience was looking beyond dance music. When Gen X grew more mature, she told erotic “Bedtime Stories” and unleashed her “Sex” book on the world.

Still in vogue
Madonna’s no-holds-barred example broadened the palette of what artists — especially female artists — could attempt. Liberate yourself, Madonna seemed to say, and the rest will follow. When her popularity didn’t fade, as predicted, people — especially skeptical Boomer critics — were forced to take her seriously. Madonna was also responsible for throwing off some of the unconscious modesty of pop music. Peripheral artists had attempted this, but Madonna was unique in that she brought a no-apologies approach to sex to her music. As she sung in “Burning Up:” “Unlike the others, I’d do anything / I’m not the same, I have no shame.” She could be calculating one minute and coy the next. Her concert tours, like 1992s “Girlie Show,” brought this to the fore, blurring sexuality, satire and social commentary. The late rock critic Lester Bangs observed in 1975 the Beatles’ jangly sound and somewhat naive worldview was unable to transcend its 1960s origins. Bangs never gave the band enough credit for their songs, but he was right that some of their continuing appeal was fueled by hippie era nostalgia. That’s still the case. It’s hard to get nostalgic about Madonna, though, because her influence stayed current. Not bad for someone who is about to hit the half-century mark.




Source: MSNBC (Found on Madgetribe)