Madonna
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Review by Davitt Sigerson, Rolling Stone, 17 July 1986
OF ALL CURRENT superstars, none has manipulated the apparatus of fame more astutely than Madonna. Like Prince, she recognized the virtue of a one-word name ...
Essay by Ben Thompson, The Independent, May 2001
IN HENRY JAMES' 1873 short story ‘The Madonna of the Future’, the American protagonist visits the city of Florence, where he encounters a strange and ...
Audio interviews
Interview by Steven Daly, Rock's Backpages Audio, July 2002
La Ciccone talks about her love of foreign films; about London then and now; about her new film Swept Away and other stage and movie projects; about being slagged off as an actress; about the difference between British and American class; and about her lapsed Catholicism and her devotion to Kabbalah.
File format: mp3; file size: 82.4mb, interview length: 1h 25' 51" sound quality: ***
List of articles in the library
Madonna: In Time with the Perfect Beat
Interview by Lloyd Bradley, New Musical Express, 26 March 1983
THE WEEK Madonna arrived in London was the same week that the winter we thought had forgotten us called in. In circumstances like this, most ...
Profile and Interview by Kris Needs, Flexipop!, May 1983
THESE DAYS I wake up more and more feeling death's breath around the corner as I near the winter of my years. It's so hard ...
Review by Paolo Hewitt, New Musical Express, 1 October 1983
LAZY MADONNA ...
Cheek to Cheatham: Madonna/Oliver Cheatham
Interview by Barney Hoskyns, New Musical Express, 5 November 1983
FROM CHIC TO STREET: BARNEY HOSKYNS FINDS OUT HOW FAR MADONNA AND OLIVER CHEATHAM HAVE MOTORED SINCE QUITTING DETROIT VIA THE DANCE STUDIOS OF NEW ...
Madonna: "l wanted to be a nun... then I discovered boys"
Interview by Graham K. Smith, Record Mirror, 19 May 1984
CLUBLAND MOURNS! Hang on to your hats, nightpeople — Doyenne of post-midnight dance developments, Madonna, has some bad news. The brand new Queen of disco, ...
Interview by David A. Keeps, Smash Hits, 24 May 1984
Bubblegum, Swimming, Rubber jewellery, Ice cream sundaes with hot fudge topping... Madonna thinks they're all yummy, as David Keeps finds out. ...
Virgin On The Ridiculous: Madonna: Like A Virgin (Sire)
Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 17 November 1984
WATCHING A TALENT as genuine and grounded as that of Cyndi Lauper pull off those pop Partonisms necessitated by the nature of today's marketplace is ...
Madonna: "I always acted like a star even before I was one!"
Interview by David A. Keeps, Smash Hits, 17 January 1985
And that time has certainly come. She's had massive hits both sides of the ocean, and she's started making movies and claiming she'd "like to ...
Maybe She's Good: 10 Theories On How Madonna Got "It"
Interview by Laura Fissinger, Record, March 1985
Usually it takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But like everything ...
Boy Toy Rock: Sex Sirens of the Decade
Report by Ben Fong-Torres, San Francisco Chronicle, 21 April 1985
IF THE reports from her first concert in Seattle are any indication, you can expect Madonna to ask San Francisco, early in her show at ...
Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 9 May 1985
How Rosanna Arquette, Madonna and director Susan Seidelman lost tempers and found each other through Desperately Seeking Susan ...
Madonna Milks Sexy, Savvy Image
Profile and Interview by Laura Fissinger, South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 10 May 1985
USUALLY IT takes a while for a pop star to earn heavyweight hatred from a significant percentage of the press and public. But, like everything ...
Madonna seduces Seattle: Madonna, Paramount Theatre, Seattle
Live Review by Michael Goldberg, Rolling Stone, 23 May 1985
Her first show featured all the hits and more... ...
Virgin Pruned!: Madonna: Convention Center, Dallas
Live Review by Cynthia Rose, New Musical Express, 25 May 1985
MULTI-MEDIA SUCCESS has made Madonna America's first generic pop star — and her first foray into live performance brought forth a capacity house of young ...
Madonna: 'Bruce Springsteen Was Born To Run, I Was Born To Flirt...'
Essay by Richard Cook, Sounds, 15 February 1986
RICHARD COOK takes a manly look at the pop tart goddess, MADONNA, who has put sleaze and safety back into pop stardom ...
Report by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 21 May 1986
...and what do you think the press do? After weeks spent camping out at airports, breaking into hotels and getting themselves run over to get ...
Report and Interview by Fred Schruers, Rolling Stone, 5 June 1986
HERE WE ARE on a nice drive down Cahuenga Boulevard — the journalist's rental wreck following Madonna's forty-plus-grand midnight-blue Mercedes sports coupe — and the ...
Review by Don Watson, New Musical Express, 12 July 1986
"SO I'M HERE looking through an old picture frame/Waiting for a perfect view/I hope something special will come into my life/Another fine edition of you" ...
Madonna: True Blue (Warner Bros.)
Review by Byron Coley, L.A. Weekly, 18 July 1986
Meditations on Madonna ...
Madonna: The Crucifixion Of A Junkyard Angel
Comment by Lucy O'Brien, John McCready, New Musical Express, 13 December 1986
Madonna: The Crucifixion Of A Junkyard Angel, part 1Lucy O'Brien ...
Report by Max Bell, No. 1, June 1987
MADONNA LOUISE Ciccone finally relented last Tuesday, June 9, when she appeared on a chat show for the first time. Madonna, nobody's fool, chose The ...
Madonna: Houston Astrodome, Texas
Live Review by Mat Snow, Sounds, 8 August 1987
So who is that girl! MAT SNOW travels to Texas and discovers a MADONNA who owes little to the soft vulnerability of Marilyn Monroe and ...
Madonna: Wembley Arena, London
Live Review by Roy Wilkinson, Sounds, 29 August 1987
CICCONE CABARET ...
Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by James Brown, New Musical Express, 29 August 1987
THE HORDES of topless Brooooce and Bono-philes who have come here before us have received nothing but the flabby hopes of two ugly old men ...
Jellybean Benitez: Spinning the Globe
Interview by David Toop, The Face, October 1987
First it was Jellybean the DJ playing disco in a Bronx salsa club and helping launch post-video game dance music from New York's Funhouse. Then it was Jellybean the producer working with megastars like Whitney Houston and Madonna. ...
Pat Leonard: The Madonna Method
Interview by Alan di Perna, Musician, May 1988
PRODUCING BRYAN FERRY AND ARRANGING MADONNA IN THE WORLD OF HIGH-STAKES HIGH-TECH ...
Essay by Paul Mathur, Spin, April 1989
Success and failure are both difficult to endure. Along with success come drugs, divorce, fornication, bullying, travel, medication, depression, neurosis and suicide. With failure comes ...
Review by Lloyd Bradley, Q, May 1989
TRUE BLUE was not going to be bettered and the three years since haven't been Madonna's easiest, so Like A Prayer follows the only logical ...
A Madonna Discography: The First Decade
Guide by Danny (Shredder) Weizmann, L.A. Weekly, 1990
THE ABBREVIATED HISTORY of music: first some guy banged on a rock in a cave somewhere: later there was Missing Persons, and now there’s Madonna. ...
Madonna: The Immaculate Collection
Sleeve notes by Gene Sculatti, Sire Records, 1990
"The Coolest Queen of White Heat"... "An outrageous blend of Little Orphan Annie, Margaret Thatcher and Mae West"... "Narcissistic, brazen, comic... the Goddess of the ...
Essay by Barney Hoskyns, Sunday Correspondent, 26 May 1990
As Britain limbers up for her Blonde Ambition tour and Dick Tracy movie, Barney Hoskyns casts a sceptical eye over the talents of Madonna Louise ...
Interview by Glenn O'Brien, Interview, June 1990
I INTERVIEWED Madonna at the Disney Studios, of all places, where she was rehearsing her Blond Ambition tour. It's not really so odd that she ...
Review by Mark Cooper, Q, June 1990
THE VIDEO FOR Madonna's recent Number 1 has her "voguing" her way through a series of classic Hollywood images. As Madonna metamorphoses into blonde after ...
Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Adam Sweeting, The Guardian, 21 July 1990
Madonna Inc in tireless and tiresome spectacle ...
Hasn't Madonna Snogged A Lot Of Blokes?
Report by Chris Heath, Smash Hits, 1 May 1991
She certainly has! Film stars. Pop stars. Producers. She's had more boyfriends than hot dinners! Here's CHRIS HEATH to tell us about the eight most ...
The Billion Dollar Lady's New Deal
Comment by Barney Hoskyns, The Times, 13 November 1991
THE NEWS THAT Madonna has just clinched a deal making her the highest-paid performer in the history of the pop industry only confirms what we ...
Pat Leonard: The Song And Dance Debate
Interview by Robert Sandall, Q, February 1992
"MY BACKGROUND and my real musical desires lean far more toward Roger Waters than they do toward Madonna," Miss Ciccone's principal songwriter, keyboardist and MD, ...
Madonna: Non-Stop Erotica Cabaret
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 26 September 1992
Few papers get to interview MADONNA. Hardly anyone gets to see her home. Now — exclusively, natch — the NME charm their way into the ...
Madonna: Dominatrix Of The Trade
Interview by Gavin Martin, New Musical Express, 3 October 1992
In Part Two of our sexclusive interview, GAVIN MARTIN reveals how an increasingly in-control MADONNA plans to conquer the '90s with her multi-media conglomerate Maverick, ...
Madonna: Erotica (Maverick/Sire 9362-45031-2)
Review by David Sinclair, The Times, 17 October 1992
Madonna may find her role as Venus in furs a turn-on. But for the rest of us her new album is less than erotic. ...
Review by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, December 1992
WEIRD. ALMOST EVERY blushful purchaser will have recently caught the artist in flagrante, bollock, so to speak, naked. ...
Madonna: Erotica (Maverick/Sire)
Review by Max Bell, Vox, December 1992
NOW WE'VE ALL been in bed with Madonna, and studied her Sex, this Erotica business seems determined to encourage a few mind-games with the intent ...
Shep Pettibone: Spontaneous Combustion
Interview by Jeff Lorez, Blues & Soul, 27 April 1993
No amount of studio technology can ever compete with the priceless element of spontaneity to set things on fire, says Shep... ...
The Entertainer — Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 27 September 1993
Despite attempts to write her off, Madonna's spectacular costume cabaret proved that she's not dead, just feverish. ...
Girlie In A Coma: Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Keith Cameron, New Musical Express, 2 October 1993
8.25PM: SHE'S HERE. Heads swivel and mouths gawp as her Royal Raunchiness makes an entrance few could hope to emulate. "I saw her! I saw ...
Damsel In Distress?: Madonna: Wembley Stadium, London
Live Review by Everett True, Melody Maker, 9 October 1993
"DO YOU think she's lonely?" The question comes halfway through a butt-bumping take on 'Deeper And Deeper'. ...
Essential Guide To "Explicit" Albums
Guide by Stephen Dalton, Vox, August 1994
Back in 1985, one seemingly harmless song led a woman to take unprecedented action against the American recording industry. Thanks to her moral crusade, albums ...
Not CD of the week: Madonna: Bedtime Stories (Maverick 9362-45767-2)
Review by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 28 October 1994
"MAKING THIS album was a test of my sanity and stability," Madonna writes in the sleevenotes, admitting for the first time that she's not always ...
Review by Mat Snow, Q, December 1994
"MINNIE MOUSE on helium," was how wags described Madonna back in the days of 'Holiday' and 'Lucky Star'. Such a girlie voice clearly betokened a ...
Um, Forgettable: Madonna: Something To Remember (Maverick/Warners)
Review by Dave Simpson, Melody Maker, 11 November 1995
She's trying to get all sophisticated in her old age, isn't she? Record company supremo, new cultured, metropolitan image, and a collection of her slower, ...
Madonna: Meanwhile Back at the Raunch
Interview by Barbara Ellen, New Musical Express, 2 December 1995
Phew!!! Hold on to your seats because MADONNA is about to reveal all... NOOOOOO!!! she's not stripping off again, but she IS telling all to ...
Madonna: Ray Of Light (WEA/CD/Tape)
Review by Paul Moody, New Musical Express, 28 February 1996
HOW TIME flies. Four years, one child and the rise and fall of the most successful female-led uprising since the suffragettes and the lady Madonna ...
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Face, February 1997
New Madonna, new danger? Groomed, elegant — the Material Girl has matured with good grace. Will her fans wish she hadn't bothered, asks Caitlin Moran ...
Report by Susan Corrigan, The Guardian, 1 December 1997
Coming soon to a suburb near you: Madonna. Susan Corrigan reports on a transatlantic affair ...
Madonna: Ray of Light (Maverick 9362-46847-2)
Review by Andy Gill, The Independent, 27 February 1998
Ray of Light opens like an Eno album from the mid-Seventies, with an amorphous, watery blur of sound. It even has an Eno-soundalike title, or ...
Immaculate Projection: Madonna: Ray Of Light (Maverick/WEA) *****
Review by Angus Batey, Vox, April 1998
Music, motherhood and much, much more: real revelation from the world's most famous single parent ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, April 1998
La Ciccone's latest embarks on a course of 'techno' therapy ...
Madonna: Ray Of Light (WEA) ****
Review by Stuart Maconie, Q, April 1998
She's dumped Warren Beatty, she's been Eva Peron and she's had Carlos The Tackle's child. Now it's time to go back to work... ...
Madonna: Mother of Reinvention
Retrospective by Gavin Martin, Vox, April 1998
With a new image and a new album MADONNA comes to 1998 in bullish form. Here, we assess the Material Girl's metamorphosis from disco diva ...
Overview by Caroline Sullivan, The Guardian, 15 June 1998
They maybe rock icons, mad, bad and dangerous to know. But somewhere, some long-suffering woman remembers them in nappies. Caroline Sullivan on that great institution, ...
Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, October 2000
Her Madgesty's eighth studio album is a clinical future-dance monster ...
Madonna: Brixton Academy, London
Live Review by Chris Roberts, Uncut, February 2001
The live shows you really shouldn't have missed - a transcendent pop moment ...
Madonna: Madonna****; Like A Virgin***; True Blue**** (Maverick/Warner)
Review by Gavin Martin, Uncut, July 2001
THE MAKING of a modern icon – her first three LPs remastered with extra remixes. ...
Live Review by Simon Price, Independent on Sunday, 8 July 2001
FOR £85, OF course, you'd expect her to lap-dance for you privately. Outrage might be what we've come to expect from Madonna, but this isn't ...
Madonna: Serious artist, or celebrity hustler?
Comment by Evelyn McDonnell, Times Herald-Record, 25 August 2001
The great Madonna debate: Does she inspire or annoy you? ...
Audio transcript of interview by Steven Daly, unpublished, 2002
This is a transcription of Steven's audio interview with Madonna. Listen to the audio of this interview. ...
Review by Stephen Dalton, Uncut, January 2002
Second decade of hits and myths from La Ciccone — but no 'American Pie' ...
Madonna: Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret
Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Q, March 2002
Plagued by accusations of bimboism and blasphemy, Madonna put on her conical bra, reduced her body fat to an "unhealthy level" and began playing with ...
Review by Dan Gennoe, Yahoo! Music, April 2003
AS A single, Madonna's 'American Life' is both a clever cultural statement and a crushing disappointment. ...
Retrospective and Interview by Phil Sutcliffe, Q, September 2003
"SHE'LL BE BIGGER than Olivia Newton John!" That's what incandescent young A&R man Michael Rosenblatt told his boss, Sire Records founder-owner Seymour Stein back in ...
Madonna : Manchester Evening News Arena
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, August 2004
PARTS OF MANCHESTER almost ground to a halt this weekend as the European wing of Madonna’s Reinvention Tour opened with two nights at the city’s ...
Retrospective by Dan Gennoe, Q Icons, Fall 2004
THE EXECUTIVES at MTV must have thought God himself was shining a light on them. In 1984, for the first Video Music Awards, they needed ...
Famous for being more famous than famous: Madonna and other icons
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 4 November 2005
Our writer muses on the qualities that separate the icon from the merely great. ...
Live Review by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 16 November 2005
THE LAST TIME Madonna played this venue was, as she reminded us, 22 years ago. Then, she was just another struggling blond singer/dancer/actress living on ...
Madonna: Looks Good on the Dancefloor
Interview by Simon Garfield, Observer Music Monthly, 20 November 2005
With 'Hung Up' at number one and her new album also set to storm to the top of the charts, Madonna has taken back her ...
Stayin' Alive: Madonna: Confessions On A Dancefloor (Warner Bros) ****
Review by Keith Cameron, MOJO, December 2005
Her Madgesty's career saving eleventh album proves it's never too late to get back into the groove ...
Madonna: HP Pavilion, San Jose
Live Review by Joel Selvin, SF Gate, 1 June 2006
Madonna follows her glitzy, exhausting script to the letter. The Madonna circus rolls in — but it's not about the music ...
Madonna tackles her critics head on
Comment by Caitlin Moran, The Times, 2 November 2006
HAD ONE CONSIDERED, five years ago, which controversy Madonna would next be embroiled in, it is unlikely that many of us would have guessed "something ...
Madonna: For the first time, her friends and lovers speak out
Retrospective by Lucy O'Brien, Independent on Sunday, 2 September 2007
How did a destitute dance student become the princess of pop? ...
Review by Ben Thompson, The Observer, 20 April 2008
Thanks to her henchmen, writes Ben Thompson, the shameless idol still has much to give ...
Review by Miles Marshall Lewis, The Village Voice, 6 May 2008
A half-centenarian provides more porny pop excellence ...
Madonna: Millennium Stadium, Cardiff ***
Live Review by Stephen Dalton, The Times, 25 August 2008
HOURS BEFORE Madonna launched her Sticky & Sweet world tour in Cardiff on Saturday, the phenomenal pulling power of history's biggest ever female pop star ...
Seen It All Before: Madonna, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
Live Review by Jude Rogers, New Statesman, 11 September 2008
After 25 years of pop hits, Madonna's shock tactics are just embarrassing ...
Madonna: Why Madonna's Still A Material Girl
Profile by Robert Sandall, The Sunday Times, 5 April 2009
Turning 50 and divorcing Guy Ritchie doesn’t seem to have dented Madonna’s fortune – or her bankability. Robert Sandall investigates the business of being a ...
Review by Ian Gittins, Virgin Media Music, March 2012
THIRTY YEARS INTO her career yet still at the apex of the pop world, Madonna is a victim of her own success in that she ...
Review by Kate Mossman, New Statesman, 6 March 2012
SHE HAS A STOCK answer for it now. American news anchor Cynthia McFadden recently questioned Madonna about the uncanny resemblance between her 1989 hit 'Express ...
Madonna: Yankee Stadium, Bronx NY
Live Review by Iman Lababedi, Rock NYC, 7 September 2012
AT THE MIDWAY point of Madonna's lousy Yankee Stadium set Thursday night, she hectors the exhausted audience like a shrewish old maid, on the use ...
Thoughts On Madonna's MDNA Tour in America
Live Review by Carol Cooper, Rock's Backpages, 9 September 2012
AS I WRITE THIS Thursday night, I can hear Madonna singing from Yankee Stadium through the window of my Harlem apartment. In fact, the sound ...
Q: When will Madonna stop being relevant? A: When we stop asking if Madonna's still relevant.
Comment by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 14 November 2012
WHEN MADONNA drolly announced to fans packed into the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 24, that "we have a black Muslim in the ...
Madonna: Time Warner Cable Arena, Charlotte, NC
Live Review by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 16 November 2012
IF YOU WALKED away from the Madonna spectacle Thursday at Time Warner Cable Arena with only the image of the 54-year-old pop icon's ultra-fit ass ...
Another view: My night with Madonna (and Sean Hughes)
Memoir by Tim Cooper, The Evening Standard, 20 October 2017
BACK IN THE LATE 1990s I used to run into Sean Hughes all the time at parties. He was a Perrier Award-winning stand-up comedian and ...
Dance of the Roma: How a Russian Guitarist From Charlotte Wound up on Tour With Madonna
Profile and Interview by Mark Kemp, Creative Loafing, 28 March 2018
THE YEAR WAS 2008. Charlotte-based Russian guitar virtuoso Vadim Kolpakov was onstage in front of 60,000 Madonna fans packed into Park Izvor in Bucharest, Romania. ...
Madonna: Where to start in her back catalogue
Guide by Lucy O'Brien, The Guardian, 17 June 2020
In Listener's digest, we help you explore the work of great artists. Next: how the 1980s material girl transformed herself into a mature millennial pop ...
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