Madonna Louise Ciccone (1958 - ) American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman.

She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy. She is also cited as an influence among other artists around the world.

Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an affiliate of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, she has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Into the Groove", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".

Madonna's popularity was further enhanced by her film roles, but most of them have received harsh feedback. But she garnered a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Evita (1996). Her other ventures include fashion design, writing children's books, and film directing and producing. She has been acclaimed as a businesswoman, most notably after she founded entertainment company Maverick (including the label Maverick Records) in 1992 as a joint venture with Time Warner. In 2007, she signed an unprecedented US $120 million 360 deal with Live Nation.

Madonna has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time by Guinness World Records. According to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), she is the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century and the second best-selling female artist in the United States, with 64.5 million certified albums. Billboard ranked her at number two, behind only The Beatles, on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists, making her the most successful solo artist in the history of American singles chart. The magazine also declared her as the top-touring female artist of all time. She became one of the five founding members of the UK Music Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in her first year of eligibility.

Source: Wikipedia