Q. Where and when was
Madonna born?
Madonna was born in Bay City, Michigan on August 16, 1958. Her family
lived in Pontiac, Michigan at the time but were visiting with Madonna's
grandmother in Bay City when she decided to appear in the world.
Q. Is Madonna really her true name?
Yes, Madonna was named after her mother - Madonna Fortin. Her full birth
name is 'Madonna Louise Ciccone'.
Q. How is Ciccone pronounced?
CHEE-KOH-NEH
Q. Isn't Veronica part of her name?
I've notice she puts the initials ML(V)C on some things.
Not technically. Madonna was raised Catholic and picked Veronica as her
confirmation name.
Q. Where did Madonna grow up as a
teen?
Madonna grew up in Pontiac, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. When the
house got too small for the growing Ciccone family they moved to
Rochester Hills, Michigan. Her father and step-mother still live in this
house.
Q. What happened to Madonna's birth
mother?
Madonna's birth mother died of cancer when Madonna was five. Her
father employed a housekeeper named Joan Gustafson and eventually
married her. They are still married.
Q. How many brothers and sisters
does Madonna have?
Madonna has 3 sisters - Melanie, Paula and Jennifer (half sister) and 4
brothers - Martin, Mario (half brother), Christopher and Anthony.
Q. What is Madonna's father's name?
His name is Sylvio (Tony) Ciccone.
Q. Is Madonna's mole real?
Yes, she does have a mole under her right nostril. It looks reversed in
some pictures, but that is just a result of reversing the negative
during developing. Sometimes it is covered with makeup.
Q. What is Madonna's real hair
color?
Her real hair color is dark brown.
Q. What nationality is Madonna?
Madonna is American, her father's family immigrated from Italy and her
mother is French Canadian.
Q. What is Madonna's religion?
She was raised Catholic, however she studies the Kabbalah (Jewish
religion).
Q. How many times has Madonna been
married and to whom?
Madonna has only married once and that was to actor Sean Penn on her
27th birthday, Aug. 16, 1985. The marriage officially ended on January
10, 1989 when Madonna (for the second time) filed for divorce (on Jan.
5th) on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. She has not been
married since.
Q. Does Madonna have any children?
Madonna has one daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, born October 14,
1996. The father is Carlos Leon, who is a personal trainer/actor
("Nash Bridges").
Madonna's son, Rocco Ritchie, was born August 11, 2000. The father is
British director Guy Ritchie.
Q. Where does Madonna live?
Madonna has homes in New York (an apartment in Manhattan), Los Angeles
and Miami, and London. She lives between them depending on where she is
working at the time.
Q. What movies has Madonna been in?
- A Certain Sacrifice (1979)
- Vision Quest (cameo appearance)
(1985)
- Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
- Shanghai Surprise (1986)
- Who's That Girl (1987)
- Bloodhounds Of Broadway (1989)
- Dick Tracy (1990)
- Truth or Dare (aka In Bed With
Madonna) (1991)
- Shadows & Fog (cameo appearance)
(1992)
- A League Of Their Own (1992)
- Body Of Evidence (1993)
- Dangerous Games (aka Snake Eyes)
(1993)
- Four Rooms (1995)
- Blue in the Face (cameo) (1995)
- Girl 6 (1996)
- Evita (1996)
- The Next Best Thing (2000)
Q. What albums has Madonna released?
- Madonna (aka The First Album) (1983)
- Like A Virgin (1984)
- Vision Quest (Soundtrack-contributed
2 songs) (1985)
- True Blue (1986)
- You Can Dance (compilation + 1 new
track) (1987)
- Who's That Girl
(Soundtrack-contributed 4 Songs) (1987)
- A Very Special Christmas
(contributed 1 track) (1988)
- Like A Prayer (1989)
- I'm Breathless (1990)
- Immaculate Collection (compilation +
2 new tracks) (1990)
- Red, Hot, and Dance (contributed 1
track) (1992)
- Barcelona Gold (contributed 1 track)
(1992)
- Erotica (1992)
- Just Say Roe (contributed 1 track)
(1993)
- With Honors (Soundtrack-contributed
1 track) (1994)
- Bedtime Stories (1994)
- Inner City Blues: The Music of
Marvin Gaye (contributed 1 track) (1995)
- Something to Remember (compilation +
3 new tracks) (1995)
- Evita-Complete Motion Picture
Soundtrack (1996 US; 1997 abroad)
- Carnival! (contributed 1 track)
(1997)
- Music from the Motion Picture Evita
(1997 US; 1996 abroad)
- Ray Of Light (1998)
- Ricky Martin (duet) (1999)
- Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged
Me (contributed 1 track) (1999)
- The Next Best Thing Soundtrack
(contributed 2 tracks) (2000)
- Music (2000)
Q. What long-form videos has Madonna
released in North America?
- Madonna (1985)
- Madonna Live: The Virgin Tour (1986)
- Ciao Italia (1988)
- Madonna-Live Blond Ambition (Laser
Disc only) (1990)
- Immaculate Collection (1990)
- Justify My Love (video single)
(1990)
- The Girlie Show: Live Down Under
(1994)
- Madonna: 93:99 - The Video
Collection
Q. How many times has Madonna been
on tour?
- The Virgin Tour (1985)
- The Who's That Girl Tour (1987)
- The Blond Ambition Tour (1990)
- The Girlie Show (1993)
Q. What singles has Madonna
released? Which hit #1?
1982
- Everybody
- Burning Up
1983
- Holiday
- Borderline
- Lucky Star
1985
- Material Girl
- Angel/Into The Groove lTG was the B
side and hence did not chart)
- Crazy For You #1
- Dress You Up
1986
- Live To Tell #1
- Papa Don't Preach #1
- True Blue
- Open Your Heart #1
1987
- La Isla Bonita
- Who's That Girl #1
- Causin' A Commotion
- The Look of Love (released abroad)
1989
- Like A Prayer #1
- Express Yourself
- Cherish
1990
- Oh Father (US only)
- Dear Jessie (released abroad)
- Keep It Together
- Vogue #1
- Hanky Panky
- Justify My Love #1
1992
- This Used To Be My Playground #1
- Erotica
- Deeper and Deeper
1993
- Bad Girl
- Fever (B-side to Bad Girl in
U.S./released abroad)
- Rain
- Bye Bye Baby (released abroad)
1994
- I'll Remember
- Secret
- Take a Bow #1
1995
- Bedtime Story
- Human Nature
- You'll See
- Oh Father (released abroad)
1996
- One More Chance (released abroad)
- Love Don't Live Here Anymore
- You Must Love Me
- Don't Cry For Me Argentina
1997
- Another Suitcase in Another Hall
(released abroad)
- Buenos Aires (radio only)
1998
- Frozen
- Ray Of Light
- Drowned World (released abroad)
- The Power Of Good-Bye
1999
- Nothing Really Matters
- Beautiful Stranger
2000
- American Pie
- Music #1
- Don't Tell Me
Q. What non-Madonna album tracks are
there?
- Gambler appears on the Vision
Quest soundtrack.
- Santa Baby a cover song
appearing on A Very Special Christmas.
- Ain't No Big Deal A B-side to
"Papa Don't Preach" (outside of US) and "True
Blue" (US)
- Supernatural Like a Prayer
leftover, first appeared as a B-side to "Cherish"; later a
remix appeared on the album Red, Hot and Dance.
- The Beast Within A haunting
version of "Justify My Love" which appears on the JML
maxi-single. Spoken word; Madonna is reading excerpts from the Book
of Revelation.
- Erotic the first version of
the song which became "Erotica." Different lyrics and
sound, released with the book "Sex." A remix appears on
the "Erotica" maxi-single.
- Up Down Suite A B-side to
"Rain." Includes a sample of "Goodbye to
Innocence."
- Goodbye to Innocence Appears
on "Just Say Roe." Originally supposed to appear on Erotica,
it was nixed in favor of "Fever."
- Let Down Your Guard A B-side
to the UK release of "Secret."
- Freedom Cut from
"Bedtime Stories" this appears on the rainforest benefit
album "Carnival!"
- In addition, Madonna reads a poem on
the soundtrack of 'Il Postino'. She has also done supporting vocals
on Guilty By Association with Joe Henry. However, she is NOT
the 'Mystery Girl' in Michael Jackson's "In the Closet"
- Has To Be Is included on the
Japanese version of 'Ray Of Light'.
- Be Careful (Cuidado Con Mi
Corazon) Duet with Ricky Martin, on his eponymous album.
- Beautiful Stranger From the
Austin Power's sequel, 'The Spy Who Shagged Me'.
- American Pie, and Time
Stood Still, from the Next Best Thing soundtrack.
- Paradise (not for me), on
Mirwais' album Production.
Q. Has Madonna ever appeared on
Broadway?
Yes, Madonna's first attempt at stage acting (1986) came in a little
known experimental theatre piece entitled "Goose & Tomtom"
which played for a short run in New York City. It cast Madonna and Sean
Penn and like their film collaboration was also a complete disaster.
She acted alongside Joe Mantegna and
Ron Silver in a more recent David Mamet play, "Speed The Plow"
(1988). And of course, she starred in the screen version of 'Evita' and
is slated to star in the screen version of 'Chicago.'
Q. Who is Madonna's personal
manager?
Madonna left Creative Artists Agency (in Feb/2000) for United Talent
Agency, which will handle all her movie work.
Caresse Henry Norman is Madonna's
personal manager. Madonna's NEW co-managers are: Cliff Burnstein and
Peter Mensch of Q-Prime management.
Madonna's manager of 18 years, Freddy
DeMann, previously managed such artists as Michael Jackson, Lionel
Ritchie and The Smithereens. If you want to get in touch with anyone who
has anything to do with Madonna however, all such enquiries usually go
through Madonna's publicist Liz Rosenberg.
Q. Who's clothes (designs) does
Madonna like to wear?
Of the many designers that Madonna admires some of her favorites are
Dolce & Gabbana, Jean Paul Gaultier, Betsy Johnson, and Gianni
Versace.
Q. What musicians/singers influenced
Madonna?
In Madonna's own words, "a lot of Motown...like Diana Ross and
Stevie Wonder". Her three favorite records-which she owned as 45
RPM singles-were Strawberry Alarm Clock's "Incense &
Peppermint", Gary Puckett's "Young Girl" and The Box Tops
"The Letter". Later, when she started playing in bands she was
said to have been influence heavily by The Pretenders and The Police.
Q. What bands was Madonna in prior
to going solo?
Some names of bands Madonna was in were: The Millionaires, Modern Dance,
The Breakfast Club, Emmy, and also auditioned to be backup singer for
disco singer, Patrick Hernandez who was best know for his single,
"Born To Be Alive".
Q. What's the deal with
"Sidewalk Talk"? Did Madonna write it, does she sing lead
vocals on it?
"Sidewalk Talk" is one of the few songs composed soley by
Madonna. The track was produced by Jellybean Benitez. The lead vocals
are by Catherine Buchanan. The backing vocals are Madonna.
Q. Who the hell is this guy Otto Von
Wernherr who I keep hearing about and released albums like,
"Madonna, In The Beginning" etc?
In 1981, when Madonna was hard-up for money she took a job singing
back-up for avant garde German artist Otto Von Wernherr. She lent her
vocals to three of his songs, "Wild Dancing", "Cosmic
Climb", and "We Are The Gods". Her actual participation
on the tracks was minimal consisting of repetitive chorus lines behind
Otto's monotone, spoken, flat and German accented vocals. When Madonna
hit the big time, he remixed the songs to bring Madonna's voice out to
the front of the mixes and released them on the UK label, Receiver
Records which is now marketed as the package "Madonna (& Otto
Von Wernherr) In The Beginning" and features extended dance mixes
of the songs. The tracks and Madonna's voice are all horrific and his
countless re-releases and picture discs are soley a rip-off. If you're a
completist collector, you'll probably want to have at least one version
of it, but other than that, it's a complete waste of time and money.
Von Wernherr continues to milk those
vocals tracks most recently on a cd entitled WOW! He also used his
Madonna connection to record a parody record entitled Madonna Dont
Preach.
Other early Madonna demos exist that
are of better quality including the Emmy Demos which feature her with
the band of that name, her solo demos for Gotham Management and three
punk tracks known as the Giorlando Demos released on Receiver Records
such as Shine A Light.
There is also an album out called 'PreMadonna'
which is produced by Madonna's long time collaborator Stephen Bray. It
is of higher quality than the Otto crap and is comprised of early demos
of some of her later hits.
Q. How can I get a copy of Madonna's
book, "Sex"?
The book is now out of print and stores have completely sold out. You
might find a seller on the MaterialWorld
Mailing List, but you might end up shelling between $150 - $500.
Good Luck!
Q. The "Truth Or Dare"
home video says it has previously unseen live performances of
"Hanky Panky" and "Like A Prayer", so why doesn't my
video have them?
Some versions of the "Truth Or Dare" home video do have the
live footage of "Hanky Panky" and "Like A Prayer".
The extra live footage is attached at the end of the tape after the
credits have rolled. Not in the film.
Some copies of the home video do not
have the footage even though it is mentioned on the cover of the movie
case. These tapes were mass produced in EPmode, which is probably why
your copy was inexpensive. The rights were sold to a company to mass
produce the video. This company copied the video box artwork, but does
not have the rights to the limited edition footage. Return your tape and
seek a higher quality, more expensive version.
Q. What's with 'In The Closet'? Who
is the 'Mystery Girl'?
Madonna and Michael Jackson had considered doing a duet together.
However, Madonna wasn't too keen on the path Michael was taking such a
provocative title ('In The Closet') and abandoned the project. The
vocals on the album version (on Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous') are by
Princess Stephanie of Monaco. The video version features Naomi
Campbell's vocals.
Q. How many versions of
"Erotica" are there?
Essentially, there are two different versions of "Erotica":
- The clean version has no
warning label. This version does not contain the track
"Did You Do It", and bleeps out the 'You F*cked It Up' in
"Bye Bye Baby".
- The dirty version has a
warning label (not a sticker) on the cover of the album. This
version does contain "Did You Do It", but still
bleeps the 'bad' words in "Bye Bye Baby".
Q. If 'Don't Stop' wasn't a single,
why did I hear it on the radio?
Don't Stop was not released on promo formats or promoted in other ways
by Maverick. Basically radio did not like 'Human Nature' and stations in
some markets started playing Don't Stop instead. Madonna insisted on
sticking with HN, even though Maverick gave approval to some stations
playing 'Don't Stop'. Although airplay was reported from numerous
quarters, it was not sufficient to chart it on Billboard's Hot 100
Airplay.
Q. How many versions of
"Something To Remember" are there?
- German - white sticker on front of
the cover
- Taiwanese release with large
OBI-strip
- Canadian - white sticker on front of
the cover
- - all of them have white disc
with black titles, and the back of the cover has "You'll
See"-flower on the black background and titles to the left.
- Japanese re-release (white disc, no
back cover, OBI-strip, lyrics insert, bonus track La Isla Bonita)
- US first edition (white disc, no
back cover)
- US second edition (flower design on
the disc with no titles, M lying on the bed on the back cover,
titles in the upper side)
- Mexican release (white disc, M lying
on the bed on the back of the cover bonus track Veras, green sticker
on the cover)
- Argentinian release (white disc, M
lying on the bed on the back of the cover, bonus track Veras, white
sticker on the cover)
- German second edition (white disc,
no sticker on the front of the cover, M lying on the bed on the back
of the cover)
Q. Was "I Want You"
released as a single?
"I Want You" garnered a very limited promotional cassette only
release in the late summer of 1995. This cassette features alternate
takes on the album and orchestral versions, but does NOT contain
any drastic reconstructions. The song was originally scheduled to be
both the lead single from "INNER CITY BLUES", the Marvin Gaye
tribute album, and from Madonna's "SOMETHING TO REMEMBER", but
was scratched (17730- Release cancelled) due to label conflicts and
Madonna's stellar new recording, "YOU'LL SEE" ("I WANT
YOU" was recorded back in the winter of 1995). Remixes of "I
WANT YOU" by Junior Vasquez do exist, but were never officially
commissioned or released, promotionally or otherwise. "I WANT
YOU" was never promoted to radio, nor did it ever chart on any of
the Billboard charts.
"I WANT YOU" has a videoclip,
directed by fashion photographer Earle Sebastian, and filmed in August
of 1995 in an apartment in New York City. This video was the first to be
released from "SOMETHING TO REMEMBER", and premiered
exclusively on VH-1 in September of 1995. Airings of the video
introduced the song to Madonna's fans, who had no previous opportunity
to hear it. Also unique about this release was that no commercial single
was released and no radio promotion accompanied it, and it was followed
only a month later by the premiere of "YOU'LL SEE", the lead
single from Madonna's compilation of ballads and the second promotional
short film to be released from the project.
The video ranked as high as #11 in
rotation on VH-1 in the three weeks it was on that channel's video- play
monitor. The video was officially added to MTV but never appeared on its
video-play monitor.
Q. How many albums has Madonna sold
worldwide?
Total albums sold: 130 million albums worldwide.
For more details visit the Album
Stats area in MadonnaLand.
Q. Are there any Madonna Fanzines or
Fan Clubs which I can subscribe to or become a member of?
ICON is the official Madonna Fanzine.
ICON
The Official Madonna Fan Club
8491 Sunset Boulevard
Suite 485
Hollywood, CA 90069 USA
In addition, there are several internet
resources for Madonna discussion:
- Newsgroup: alt.fan.madonna
- Mailing list: visit www.mlvc.org
Q. Whom
is Madonna recently married to?
Guy Ritchie, a British Film Director.
Q. Where and when
did they had the wedding ceremony?
Skibo Castle, Scotland on Friday 22 December. The had their wedding
ceremony in Buddhist style.
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