Madonna Early Life

Early Life
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan. She was the third of six children born to Silvio "Tony" Ciccone, an Italian-American Chrysler engineer whose parents originated from Pacentro, and Madonna Louise Fortin, who was of Québécois descent.

She was raised in a Catholic family in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township (now Rochester Hills). Madonna's mother died of breast cancer at age 30 on December 1, 1963. Her father later married the family housekeeper, Joan Gustafson, and they had two children together.

Madonna convinced her father to allow her to take ballet classes. Her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, exposed Madonna to gay discotheques. She attended Rochester Adams High School, where she was a straight-A student and a member of the cheerleading squad. Madonna received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan.[citation needed]

She left at the end of her sophomore year in 1978 and moved to New York City to pursue a dance career. Madonna has said:

“ "When I came to New York it was the first time I'd ever taken a plane, the first time I'd ever gotten a taxi-cab, the first time for everything. And I came here with $35 in my pocket. It was the bravest thing I'd ever done." ”

She had little money and for some time lived in squalor, working low-paying jobs including a stint at Dunkin' Donuts. She also worked as a nude model. She studied with Martha Graham and Pearl Lang, and later performed with several modern dance companies, including Alvin Ailey and the Walter Nicks dancers.

While performing as a dancer for the French disco artist Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna became involved with the musician Dan Gilroy, with whom she later formed her first rock band, the Breakfast Club. In it, she sang and played drums and guitar before forming the band Emmy in 1980 with drummer and former boyfriend Stephen Bray. She and Bray wrote and produced dance songs that brought her local attention in New York dance clubs. DJ and record producer Mark Kamins was impressed by her demo recordings, so he brought them to the attention of Sire Records founder Seymour Stein.

Rise to Fame
In 1982, Madonna signed a singles deal with Sire Records (a new wave label belonging to Warner Bros. Records) in the United States that paid her $5,000 per song. Her first release, "Everybody", a self-written song produced by Mark Kamins, became a hit on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Chart but failed to make an impact on the Billboard Hot 100. It also gained airplay on U.S. R&B radio stations, leading many to assume that Madonna was a black artist. The double-sided 12" vinyl single featuring "Burning Up" and "Physical Attraction" followed in 1983, and was a success on the U.S. dance charts. These results convinced Sire Records' executives to finance an album.

Her debut album, Madonna, a collection of dance songs, was primarily produced by Reggie Lucas, but in the process both realized they could not work well together. After initial production on the album was completed, Madonna took the record to her then boyfriend, John "Jellybean" Benitez, who remixed and rearranged it. It reached number eight on the U.S. albums chart and contained three successful Hot 100 singles, "Holiday", "Borderline", and "Lucky Star". At the time of its release, Madonna sold three million copies worldwide, one million of those in the U.S. It has since been certified with current sales of thirteen million worldwide.

As Madonna rose to fame, teenage girls became increasingly influenced by her fashions portrayed in photographs, live performances and music videos. Defined by lace tops, skirts over Capri pants, fishnet stockings, jewelry bearing the Christian cross, and bleached hair, this distinctive style became a popular female fashion trend in the 1980's.