Madonna: Warrior, genius and icon – how the Queen Of Pop defined an era and set the bar for female stars
The Queen Of Pop, a Material Girl, a gay icon and a self-proclaimed “warrior” – Madonna is many things to many people.
Rihanna, Britney Spears, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga have all recognised her influence on their careers, with Beyonce hailing her a “masterpiece genius”.
Pictured with Taylor Swift in 2015. Pic: AP
She’s had more top 10 hits than Elvis, sung a Bond song, met Queen Elizabeth and performed at Super Bowl half time. There’s even part of an academic discipline devoted to her – Madonna studies.
But now, following news of a stint in intensive care following a “serious bacterial infection”, fans have been left scrabbling for positive news around the pop icon’s health, not to mention the ticket-holders for her now-on-pause tour which had been due to kick off next month.
While the star is understood to be home and recovering, the media frenzy around her illness is just a small sign of the impact Madonna has had on the world, transcending the music industry to become one of the most recognisable faces of the 20th and 21st centuries – a post-modern icon playing the game by her own rules.
The best-selling female recording artist of all time, her sparkling four-decade career has earned her multiple awards and a place in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
A master of reinvention, those of a certain age who have followed her over the years have been treated to numerous musical styles, as well as a succession of colourful personas.
Hits have ranged from her early pop tunes Into The Groove and True Blue, to the electronic dance beats in Ray Of Light, a country vibe in Don’t Tell Me and classic musical theatre in Don’t Cry For Me Argentina.
As for her physical makeovers, they have spanned the fingerless gloves and lacey look of her first number one, Holiday, aged just 27, to the much-imitated Jean Paul Gaultier cone bra and scraped back hair of her Blonde Ambition tour 10 years later.
Then there was the earth goddess hippie look for her Ray Of Light album, her first as a mother, and then the Farrah Fawcett flip hair and leotard look to usher in her 50s.
In 1985. Pic: AP
In 1987 Pic: AP
With each different phase as distinctive as the next – and each one signalling a mini-comeback of sorts – her skill at keeping herself in the headlines means she’s rarely been out of the public conscience over the last 44 years.
Always aware of the selling-power of controversy, many moments in her career have dominated the cultural conversation over the decades.
In 1989 her Like A Prayer video scandalised many featuring burning crosses, bleeding stigmata and a sexually active black saint. The Vatican condemned it and Pepsi cancelled a sponsorship deal. The resulting outcry helped the single become a massive hit and her seventh number one on the Hot 100.
In 2003 after opening the MTV VMAs with a performance of Like A Virgin, an on-stage snog with Britney Spears went viral – two years before YouTube came into existence.
And when during a performance in 2015 a wardrobe malfunction saw her pulled backwards down a flight of stairs live on stage, she picked herself up and carried on. She later denied the fall – which left her with whiplash – was a publicity stunt.
With Donatella Versace and Cher in 1997. Pic: AP
Performing in 2004. Pic: AP
And of course, she’s got another string to her bow – not just a singer, but also an actress. While many have maligned her acting ability, she has starred in over 20 feature films – including the Oscar-winning 1996 drama Evita – as well as numerous TV shows and commercials.
She’s starred opposite industry heavyweights including Rosanna Arquette (Desperately Seeking Susan); Antonio Banderas (Evita) and Warren Beatty (Dick Tracy). And she’s also performed on Broadway and the West End.
With Rosanna Arquette on set in 1985. Pic: AP
On the Slammer film set in 1986. Pic: AP
Plus, she has literature – her 1992 coffee table book Sex, featuring softcore pornography and sadomasochism – topped the New York Times best-seller list for three weeks, selling over 150,000 copies on its first day, becoming the fastest-selling coffee table book of all time.
Considered a bold post-feminist work – and featuring a naked Madonna to boot – it remains one of the most in-demand out-of-print publications of all time.
When it comes to managing her own destiny, Madonna has led the charge from the get-go, writing and producing the majority of her own music from early on in her career, succeeding in moulding and steering her career her way.
A businesswoman as well as an artist, Forbes has named her the top earning female musician 11 times, and estimates her to be worth $580m (£457m) as of 2023.
In 2013 she launched her own skincare range – MDNA Skin.
With Iggy Pop and Justin Timberlake in 2008. Pic: Jackson Lee/starmaxinc.com/AP
Unsurprisingly, as a woman at the top of her game and in financial control of her art, her business acumen has led to the Grammy, Brit and Ivor Novello-winning singer being labelled a “control freak”.
However, Madonna insists she values collaboration, saying in a 2012 interview: “I can’t work on my own… I need to hear what people think all the time.”
Battling her way in the industry years before the #MeToo movement, she reportedly rejected the advances of Harvey Weinstein (whose then company Miramax produced her 1991 documentary Truth Or Dare) telling him: “Get away from me, you smell like a f****** ashtray.”
On her Sticky & Sweet tour in 2009. Pic: AP
Performing in 2012. Pic: AP
Her more recent criticism of ageism and sexism in both the music industry and society, has received widespread media coverage.
So where did it all begin? The eldest girl of a Catholic family of six children, she was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in Michigan in August 1958.
She was named after her mother, whose death from breast cancer when she was aged just five left her bereft. This early loss resulted in Madonna rejecting the idea of having children for many years, saying she “associated motherhood with sacrifice, suffering and ultimately death”.
Dropping out of college, and moving to New York in 1978 to pursue a career in entertainment, the then-19-year-old Madonna was raped at knifepoint during her early days in the city.
She has since said she never reported it to police, fearing the humiliation.
Beatles-like levels of excitement greeted her first UK concert tour in 1987. Pic: AP
Refusing to let the attack phase her, she found a series of jobs including at Dunkin’ Donuts and as a coat check girl, before segueing from a backing singer and dancer to a solo performer.
Multiple number one hits followed, across 14 studio albums. And as well as singing, she also plays the piano, guitar, ukulele and drums.
An early adopter of the hands-free headset microphone, the piece of kit has since been informally named in her honour, dubbed the “Madonna mic”.
Blonde Ambition tour in 2000. Pic: AP
A woman who clearly knows the power of fame, she’s used it for good on many occasions.
In 1998 she set up the Ray Of Light Foundation – named after her seventh studio album – promoting peace, equal rights and education for all.
In 2006 she founded the non-profit organisation Raising Malawi, supporting orphans and vulnerable children, many of whom have been directly affected by HIV and AIDS.
And in 2014 she donated money to her hometown Detroit after the city declared itself bankrupt, and in 2020 – as COVID spread around the world – she donated $1m (£788,000) to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help find a vaccine.
With Sean Penn in 1986. Pic: AP
With Guy Richie and baby son Rocco in 2000. Pic: AP
As for her personal life, she’s been married twice. First, her notoriously fractious marriage to actor Sean Penn which came to a close in 1989.
She then became an honorary Brit – buying a Wiltshire estate and a London pub and even adopting the accent – after wedding English film director Guy Richie. The couple split in 2008 after eight years of marriage.
She’s had many other well-documented relationships with stars – albeit some of them brief – including with Michael Jackson, Tupac, Vanilla Ice and Dennis Rodman.
Out for dinner in LA with Michael Jackson in 1991. Pic: AP
Alongside her performance career, she is also mother to six children – Lourdes, 26, Rocco, 22 – both her birth-children – and David 17, Mercy, 16, and twins Estere and Stella, 10, who were all adopted from Malawi.
Raised a Catholic, in the early 2000s her devotion to Kabbalah – a form of Eastern mysticism – led her to change her name to Esther, which means “star”.
One constant in her career has been her ferocious work ethic. An exercise lover, she has at times worked out for five-hours per day as well as following a strict macrobiotic diet. It’s a dedication which has allowed her to maintain a peak level of fitness and tour into her 60s.
With daughter Lourdes Leon 1998. Pic: John Barrett/PHOTOlink/AP
With son David and daughter Mercy in 2014. Pic: AP
So far, she’s completed 11 gruelling concert tours – many of them sold out – and two of those broke records.
Her Sticky & Sweet tour, which ran from August 2008 to September 2009, and her 60-date Confessions tour in 2006 both topped the most money grossed on tour by a female entertainer ($194m and $411m respectively).
However, her last few tours have been beset by illness, leaving her unable to satisfy her own brutal work ethic. Multiple dates of her 2019-2020 Madame X tour were called off due to “overwhelming pain”, with the star pictured walking with a cane and wearing knee braces.
Jogging in 1987. Pic: AP
An acrobatic performance in 2004. Pic: AP
Now of course, The Celebration tour is on hold following a “serious bacterial infection”.
Madonna has previously called cancelling gigs a “punishment”, and at the time of her Madame X cancellations told fans that despite considering herself to be “a warrior I never quit, I never give in”, she had been forced to stop performing “so that I don’t inflict further and irreversible damage to my body”.
Despite the setbacks, her tour record as highest-grossing female performer of all time was only broken last year, when she was overtaken by Taylor Swift’s The Eras tour.
At the MTV Video Music Awards in 2021. Pic: AP
Perhaps the last word should go to the curatorial director of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Howard Kramer, who said: “Madonna and the career she carved out for herself made possible virtually every other female pop singer to follow… She certainly raised the standards of all of them… She re-defined what the parameters were for female performers.”
A re-inventor, a re-definer and a role-model – Madonna may be briefly out, but as her history proves – she’s unlikely to stay down for long.
Entertainment
New Universal theme park set to open in UK – with promise of ‘billions’ of pounds for the economy
A deal for a new Universal theme park in Bedfordshire has been confirmed, which Rachel Reeves says will bring “billions” to the economy and create thousands of jobs.
It will be the first Universal-branded theme park and resort in Europe and is set to open in 2031, when it is expected to become the UK’s most popular visitor attraction.
The government said it will bring an estimated £50bn into the British economy and will create about 28,000 jobs – nearly 20,000 during the construction phase, and 8,000 more in hospitality and the creative industries when it opens.
A 500-room hotel and a retail and entertainment complex is planned alongside the theme park, which will be built on a former brickworks.
Universal, which is owned by Sky News’ US parent company Comcast, expects the 476-acre site just south of Bedford to generate nearly £50bn for the economy by 2055, with 8.5m visitors in its first year.
The plan remains subject to a formal planning decision process from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
Universal has committed to working with local colleges and universities to train students for hospitality jobs.
There are Universal theme parks in Florida (pictured), California, Japan, Beijing and Singapore. Pic: AP
Among some of the famous Universal films are Wicked, Minions, Oppenheimer, Bridget Jones, Fast and the Furious, and Jurassic World.
There are five Universal theme parks already: Orlando in Florida, Hollywood, Japan, Beijing, and Singapore.
The new Universal theme park will be just south of Bedford
Speaking to Wilfred Frost on Sky News Breakfast, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the deal was “huge”.
“This is not just about numbers on the spreadsheet,” she said.
“This is about good jobs. It’s about growth. It’s about raising people’s living standards and putting money in people’s pockets. And it’s a massive vote of confidence in the United Kingdom.”
Welcoming the timing of the announcement, Ms Nandy added: “This deal comes off the back of one of the most tumultuous few weeks in global markets that I think anyone can remember within living memory.”
She said the fact that the government had been able to show it kept a “cool head” and “we don’t take knee-jerk decisions in response to global events” was one of the reasons it was able to announce the deal.
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The proposals to transform the site, a former brickworks, remain subject to a formal planning decision process
The government has said about 80% of employees at the theme park are expected to come from local areas, and it will support the “Oxford-Cambridge corridor” revived by the chancellor in January after the Conservatives scrapped plans for an Abingdon-Milton Keynes train link in 2021.
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It will also commit to a “major investment” in infrastructure around the Universal site to ensure it is well-connected and easily accessible.
The announcement comes days after the government approved an expansion of nearby Luton Airport.
Mike Cavanagh, President of Comcast Corporation, said: “We could not be more excited to take this very important step in our plan to create and deliver an incredible Universal theme park and resort in the heart of the United Kingdom, which complements our growing US-based parks business by expanding our global footprint to Europe.
“We appreciate the leadership and support of Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chancellor Rachel Reeves, Minister for Investment Poppy Gustafsson, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and their teams, as we work together to create and deliver a fantastic new landmark destination.”
Entertainment
BAFTA Games Awards: Astro Bot tops leaderboard – with psychological horror close behind
Astro Bot was the big winner at this year’s BAFTA Games Awards, taking home five prizes, including the coveted best game.
The 3D platformer, which was launched to critical acclaim in September to mark PlayStation’s 30th anniversary, was nominated for eight gongs, while Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II, led with 11 nods.
But in the end, the critics – some of whom had dubbed Astro Bot a “perfect game” – were right as it dominated the awards at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, hosted by comedian Phil Wang for the second year running.
Astro Bot. Pic: Team Asobi
Nicolas Doucet with his five awards for Astro Bot. Pic: PA
BAFTAs for audio achievement, game design, animation, and best family game completed the set for developers Team Asobi, who designed multiple galaxies and dozens of levels for the titular Astro to journey through, retrieving spaceship parts and rescuing lost robots.
“We’re a team based in Japan, but we have over 12 nationalities. We really mix it up and get ideas from everyone,” Nicolas Doucet, president of Team Asobi, told Sky News.
“We do a lot of jokes in the game, but the joke has a different meaning depending on where you are in the world. So it’s really, really nice to go around and ask everyone ‘is that joke fine in your country?’ And then together we come to a kind of universal playfulness.”
Among the gongs for Astro Bot was the best game award. Pic: BAFTA
It’s a very different atmosphere than that generated by British psychological horror Still Wakes The Deep, which won three awards for best new intellectual property and best supporting and leading roles.
Compared to John Carpenter’s 1980 sci-fi horror The Thing but on a Scottish oil rig, the game sees players take on the role of an electrician trapped on a damaged facility while being pursued by monsters.
Still Wakes The Deep. Pic: Sumo Digital Limited
Developer The Chinese Room has been praised for using home-grown talent to voice the characters, including comedian and actress Karen Dunbar, who picked up best performer in a supporting role for voicing Finlay.
“I’ve been nominated for quite a few BAFTAs in my time in Scotland, and I’ve never won one,” said Dunbar.
“It was such a great category, so many great performances. When they shouted my name, I think I started clapping for someone else!”
Read more: See full list of winners
Still Wakes The Deep star Karen Dunbar won best performer in a supporting role. Pic: BAFTA
Meanwhile, best multiplayer game went to Helldivers II – a satirical, sci-fi shooter that sees players fight bugs, aliens and robots with the gumption and gullibility of the characters in Paul Verhoeven’s Starship Troopers.
It has gained a cult following since launching in February 2024 with so much initial interest it created server problems.
“Games for me are about connecting people and forging those bonds of friendship and the multiplayer award is exactly what it stands for,” said Johan Pilestedt, chief executive of Arrowhead Game Studios.
Helldivers II. Pic: Arrowhead/Sony
From outer space to a fictional Yorkshire town called Barnsworth. Thank Goodness You’re Here! – a cartoonish, comedy platformer – won Best British Game. Like Still Wakes The Deep, it has won praise for the authenticity of its actors and setting.
“I think it’s been a real privilege to be able to represent Barnsley on the silver screen,” said Will Todd, who is from the town and one of two game designers behind the project.
Thank Goodness You’re Here! Pic: Coal Supper/Panic Inc
Co-creator James Carbutt added: “Me and Will wrote everything in our tone of voice, quite literally. The further along development we got, the more we lent into it. I think the voices from different parts of the UK and different voices in gaming are super important, and hopefully we’re one of them.”
By the time the BAFTAs wrapped up, Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II was only handed one of the 11 BAFTAs it was nominated for, technical achievement.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. Pic: Ninja Theory
But developers Ninja Theory are already adding this year’s win to a tally of five BAFTAs they were awarded for the first game in the series, which created a protagonist with psychosis by drawing on clinical neuroscience and the experiences of people living with the condition.
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