Madonna
- Profession: Singer
- Place/Date of Birth: Michigan USA
- Assiociated with: Guy Ritchie
TV comic Avid Merrion dressed up as the Material Girl in her leotard-wearing incarnation (see photos) and gave a comic rendition of her performance at MTV’s events last year.
He then told the audience: "I’m getting too old for this s***. I’ve been getting a lot of hoo-ha from the press recently just because I bought a baby.
"But I’m Madonna. If I want to buy a baby I buy a flipping baby."
His act was accompanied by a troupe of dancing "babies" gyrating in outsized babygrows.
Madonna offered David’s father help - Nov 1 2006
Madonna offered to financially help the father of the baby boy she is trying to adopt so he could keep his son in Malawi, she will reveal tonight.
In her first British interview about the adoption of baby David Banda on BBC Two’s Newsnight, Madonna will tell presenter Kirsty Wark how her offer was refused by Yohane Banda.
"I offered that option to the father and he declined," the singer said in a seconds-long clip of the interview which was shown at the end of last night’s programme.
Last week, the 48-year-old appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show to defend her decision to adopt 13-month-old David from an orphanage in Malawi.
Some critics believe that Oprah gave the singer an easy ride in the interview, and will be hoping for more difficult questions tonight.
Tonight’s interview was pre-recorded last night in the US.
Defending herself, Madonna will tell Kirsty: "When you have an entire adult population wiped out and no-one to look after these children, you have got to address the laws and make adoption easier for people."
She will insist that she did not believe David had any links with other family members.
"I never met a granny. I was told that from the day that he was left at the orphanage that he was not visited by any extended family."
Madonna will also say if she had been told that he had any link with his family she would not have become so interested in him.
Madonna to appear on Newsnight - Oct 31 2006
Madonna is to appear on BBC Two’s Newsnight programme to discuss her adoption controversy.
The pop star will speak to presenter Kirsty Wark in her first British interview since adopting 13-month-old David Banda from Malawi.
It follows her appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show in the US last week, and will be broadcast on Wednesday night.
Madonna will also use the chat to publicise her new children’s book The English Roses: Too Good To Be True.
The interview will be recorded tonight in the US where the singer has scheduled several other TV appearances.
She flew there at the beginning of the week with David and her other children Lourdes, nine, and Rocco, five.
Meanwhile, David’s father has revealed the little boy was due to be adopted by another American family - but Madonna took him first.
Yohane Banda said an American woman had recently adopted three children from the Home of Hope orphanage and wanted her brother to have David.
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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)
October 2007