Madonna
- Profession: Singer
- Place/Date of Birth: Michigan USA
- Associated with: Guy Ritchie
But the pop icon’s spokeswoman Liz Rosenberg has denied Madge - who has a daughter, nine-year-old Lourdes and a son, Rocco, six - is planning to add to her brood.
"She’s kind of adopting an entire country of children," she said.
Madge sets record - Sept 21, 2020
Pop diva Madonna’s Confessions world tour has made her the highest-earning female touring artist of all time. According to US magazine Billboard, the singer will have pulled in a whopping £102 million by the time she performs the last gig of her controversial tour in Tokyo tonight.
The huge sum means she overtakes Believe singer Cher, who held the title for raking in more than £101 million for her Farewell tour between 2002 and 2005.
The star performed the first night of her dazzling stage show in Los Angeles in May, and has since played to more than a million fans. The 60-date tour stopped at big cities across the globe, including London, Paris and Tokyo.
The Material Girl’s tours have always made her a lot of cash. Her Re-Invention tour in 2004 made £71 million and 2001’s Drowned World tour reportedly earned her more than £39 million.
Madonna and Guy have been rowing - Aug 30, 2020
Madonna and Guy Ritchie have reportedly been rowing over their children’s schooling. Guy has grown increasingly unhappy with his wife taking Lourdes, nine, and five-year-old Rocco with her on her current ’Confessions’ world tour.
The ’Snatch’ director is reportedly fed up with the constant upheaval and has demanded the children are left in one place when the new school year begins next week.
A source told The Sun newspaper: "The kids already have schools in London and Los Angeles which they float between. "Madonna thinks it’s good for her children to be with mum and see the world but Guy disagrees - he’s more traditional. It’s causing a lot of tension."
Earlier this year, Madonna confessed she was a "c**p mother". The 48-year-old singer admitted she was finding it a struggle to balance her career with being a parent. She said at the time: "It is a struggle to balance my career with my children. I’m always going, ’Oh God, I’m a c**p mother’. I want to get home and put my kids to bed. "And then sometimes, if I’m spending a lot of time with my children, I think, ’Oh God, I just want to be an artist’."
Madonna faces arrest - Aug 18, 2020
Madonna faces arrest over her controversial mock crucifixion. The ’Hung Up’ singer could be arrested when she performs in Germany on Sunday (20.08.06) if she goes ahead with the much-criticised routine. Dusseldorf police have warned the singer that she could be in breach of their "insulting religious beliefs" law and they will be in the crowd ready to act if she attempts the stunt. During her ’Confessions’ tour, the 48-year-old singer wears a crown of thorns and is hoisted on to a ’disco cross’.
While numerous religious leaders have condemned the performance as "blasphemous", Madonna insists she is performing the stunt to try and raise Aids awareness. Catholic, Muslim and Jewish leaders objected before the singer’s Rome concert earlier this month and there calls for her to be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, speaking with the Pope’s approval, said: "The concert is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a profanation to the cross."
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The following year Madonna broke away from Kamins and recorded Holiday which went straight in to the American top 20 and was a hit across Europe. She cemented her raunchy image with Like A Virgin, her first US number one, and Material Girl with it’s iconic video. By this time Madonna was becoming one of the most emulated and best loved artists in the world and she became even more popular thanks to her part in Live Aid and a high profile marriage to Sean Penn.
The pop diva followed up her success with several singles from the True Blue album and turned her hand to acting for the first time in the poorly received A Certain Sacrifice and of course, Desperately Seeking Susan. Her first real flop was alongside her husband in the laughable Shanghai Surprise. Her failure’s in the film department didn’t stop David Mamet from casting her in a Broadway production of Speed the Plow - by this time talent or no, Madonna’s was name that guaranteed attention.
1989 saw the singer court controversy with the video for Like A Prayer, featuring a black Jesus, which outraged and shocked the Catholic church and caused Pepsi to cancel a sponsorship deal. But far from ruining her career, this stunt saw her become the icon that we know today. The 1990s were the pinnacle of Madonna’s success, her divorce from Sean Penn pushing her further in to the lime light, beginning with a part in Dick Tracy opposite Warren Beatty and a fantastic soundtrack album alongside featuring hit song Vogue. Documentary film Truth or Dare and her Blonde Ambition tour (with that pointy bra) followed with further controversy.
In 1992 she signed a multi million pound deal with Time Warner guaranteeing the release of music, films and books through her own record label, Maverick. She made the most of the deal with picture book Sex, which caused another controversy but rocketed up the bestsellers charts nonetheless. Erotica was her first album for years though not to generate a US number one. People thought that perhaps Madonna had gone too far with her need to shock, and perhaps she had realised it too as her next album was far mellower and a part in Evita in 1996 made her bankable again.
Later that year she fell pregnant with Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon, daughter of her personal trainer. But far from slowing her work, having a child only seemed to spur Madonna on, she released the runaway success, Ray of Light which produced hit after hit and recorded Beautiful Stranger for the second Austin Powers movie. she also starred alongside Rupert Everett in romantic comedy The Next Best Thing.
It was around this time that Madonna met British director Guy Ritchie - the man who would change her life. They had son Rocco in 2000 and they married in 2002 after Madonna moved permanently to England, took to wearing flat caps and drinking tea. The title track of her album Music gave her a transatlantic number one hit. Collaborations with Ritchie, especially their film Swept Away, have generally been unsuccessful but Madonna’s music career continues to go from strength to strength, her latest album American Life has been a worldwide hit and she has even found time to pen a children’s book, The English Roses. Now, an honorary Brit and devout follower of Kaballah, Madonna lives with her family in Marylebone and Wiltshire. She also owns a ?4 million Spanish-style villa in Beverly Hills, a house in Miami and a duplex overlooking Central Park in New York.
(Updated April 04)
November 2007