WE’RE STILL CRAZY FOR YOU!
The superstar proves she’ s still in a league of her own
She’s known as the Material Girl, the Queen of Pop and the Mother of Reinvention. But rather than names, it’s perhaps numbers that best tell the story of Madonna’s incredible career.
Over 36 years, she’s sold 300 million albums and won 292 major awards. She’s the fourth best-selling act of all
time (behind The Beatles, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson) and has amassed an $850 million fortune. Not bad for a woman who arrived in New York in the late ’70s with just $50 in her pocket.
But there’s one number Her Madgesty has never been that interested in – her age. And who can blame her? Even when Madonna was in her 30s, she was already being quizzed about the likelihood of her growing old gracefully.
“When you reach a certain age, you aren’t allowed to be sexual – you aren’t allowed to be adventurous and that’s hideous,” she purred in 1992.
Age is a numbers game that Madonna won’t play, so as the clock ticks down to her 60th birthday on August 16, despite the buzz from fans and showbiz friends, there has been little comment from the icon herself.
In a new interview with
the star ignores the elephant in the room, instead raving about her new life in a 19th-century mansion in Lisbon, where the twice-married mother-of-six has relocated for her son David’s football career.
Madonna tells, “The energy of Portugal is so inspiring – I feel very creative and alive here.” Although she adds, “Any woman who is a soccer mom could say it requires you to have no life because things change from week to week and games change from weekend to weekend.”
The chat appears alongside a typically risqué photo shoot that’s quite the finale to kissing goodbye to her 50s. But then, right from the start, she’s never been one to follow convention.
Born into a strict Catholic family in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna Louise Ciccone was largely raised by her Italian father Silvio after her FrenchCanadian mother, also named Madonna, died from breast cancer when she was five.
In 1979, the broke bleachblonde dancer moved to the Big Apple to seek stardom, her break coming three years later, when music exec Seymour Stein showed an interest in her song “Everybody”. When she heard, a bolshie Madonna immediately insisted on meeting him at New York’s Lennox Hill Hospital, where he was recovering from a heart attack.
Shocktactics!
Dressed in a cheap punk outfit, she told him, “Take me – I’m yours! And now you give me the money.” When Seymour, now 76, looked baffled, the 20-year-old replied, “Just tell me what I have to do to get a f***ing record deal in this town.”
He recalls, “She’d come to get a contract before this old guy croaked, along with his cheque-signing hand.”
Fortunately, Seymour signed Madonna to a modest $65,000 deal for three singles. “Everybody” and “Burning Up” were modest dance hits, but the third single “Holiday” became a true smash, paving the way for global domination.
Since then, Madonna hasn’t so much ignored the rule book as ripped it to shreds, staying relevant while the stars of her contemporaries fade.
In her 20s, the pop rebel started a long-running feud with the Vatican over the religious imagery in her “Papa Don’t Preach” video. In her 30s, the sexually confident star was nearly arrested for simulating masturbation on stage in Toronto. In her 40s, Madonna made headlines for pashing both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the MTV Video Music Awards. And in her 50s, there has been a steady rotation of flings with gorgeous men three decades her junior.
“People say I’m controversial,” says Madonna, “but the most
controversial thing I’ve done is to stick around.”
So what could be in store for the next decade? As a close pal says, “Madonna at 60 is a truly liberated woman. She is definitely still very sexy, but her happiness comes from herself and her family.”
And as well as her children – Lourdes, 21, Rocco, 18, David and Mercy, both 12, and twins Stelle and Estere, who turn six this month – there’s also a new toyboy on the scene, Frenchborn model Kevin Sampaio, 31, who is almost three decades her junior, as critics have been quick to point out.
But from her love life to her fashion, her music and her muchderided film career, Madonna has never been one to listen to detractors. Asked recently why she still works, the superstar snapped, “I’ll stop doing everything I do when I don’t want to do it any more. I’ll stop when I run out of ideas. I’ll stop when you f***ing kill me. How about that?”
As the world marks her 60th birthday, Madonna will continue just as she always has. She’s about to release a new single and an album. And she’s unlikely to ever relinquish her title of Queen of Pop until the very last minute of her incredible journey.