How Madonna Got Her ‘Madge’ Nickname and More Revelations from Extensive New Biography

Madonna did not become the queen of pop overnight. She earned the title through several decades of work, good music and numerous controversial moments.

Every year of the “Vogue” singer’s life is explored at length in Mary Gabriel’s new biography Madonna: A Rebel Lifewhich comes out on Tuesday, and compiles interviews with the superstar and those around her to paint a complete portrait of her art and influence.

Through the 800-plus page book, readers learn about each of Madonna’s albums and their creation, as well as her experiences growing up in Michigan, moving to New York, achieving success as a pop star, multiple marriages, and raising six children.

Below are seven posts from Madonna: A Rebel Lifefrom her first shock performance to how she earned the nickname “Madge”.

Madonna.

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Madonna performs what would become known as the controversial “Madonna” performance for the first time

While attending West Junior High in Michigan’s conservative Rochester Hills neighborhood, Madonna Louise Ciccone performed in school talent shows — “my one night a year to show them who I really am and what I can really be,” she told Los Angeles Times 1990 “I just wanted to do totally outrageous things.”

After dancing to Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man” during seventh grade, Madonna choreographed The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” the following year and shocked audiences. Wearing shorts and a top covered in green and pink hearts and flowers, she and a friend moved sensually for the performance.

Madonna performs in Las Vegas in May 2019.

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The audience was taken aback, as was Madonna’s father, Tony Ciccone, who found the performance inappropriate and banned her for two weeks. They never discussed the moment in detail at home, according to her brother Christopher Ciccone, but Madonna was apparently called a “slut” around town afterward.

After that, she was sent to her grandmother’s house, which she liked, because her grandmother allowed her to go out with boys and drink beer. When Madonna got home, she said Interview In 1985, her stepmother Joan “told me I looked like a slut and that I was really broken.”

Soon, Madonna herself began to adopt the term along with a friend who also received criticism. “We got bras and stuffed them so our breasts were too big and we wore really tight sweaters – we were sweater girls. We wore loads of lipstick and really bad make-up and huge beauties and did our hair like Tammy Wynette,” she said. Interview.

Madonna in New York in 1984.

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Madonna’s first time in a gay nightclub

After Madonna met ballet teacher Christopher Flynn—the first openly gay man she ever knew—in Rochester Hills, he took her to Menjo’s nightclub when she was 16. Located in an LGBTQ+ area of ​​Detroit, the club played songs like Vicki Sue Robinson’s “Turn the Beat Around” and Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing” while “guys were doing poppers and going crazy,” she said. Rolling stone in 1984.

She appreciated the freedom that everyone in the room felt, as she felt the opposite in many other areas of her life. “At school and in my neighborhood and everything, I felt like an outsider, a misfit, a weirdo. And suddenly when I went to a gay club, I didn’t feel like that anymore,” Madonna explained to Advocate 1991 “I just felt at home. I had a whole new sense of myself.”

Madonna at the Grammy Awards.

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The first song Madonna wrote: “Tell the Truth”

After moving to New York in 1978 to become a dancer, Madonna quickly met a musician named Dan Gilroy and they began dating. He taught her to play guitar, and she eventually moved into his apartment in Queens before starting to play drums in Dan and his brother Ed’s The Acme Band (later known as The Breakfast Club).

After Madonna gained enough confidence on the guitar, she tried her hand at writing a song called “Tell the Truth” — her first of many. “It was maybe four chords, but there were verses, a bridge and a chorus, and it was a religious experience,” she told Rolling stone in 2009. “The words just came out of me. I thought, ‘Who’s writing this?'”

Madonna in Cannes in May 2008.

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Madonna informed fans about the facts related to AIDS before the United States government

The AIDS epidemic was in full force when Madonna embarked on her Who’s That Girl world tour in 1987, and she was already watching friends, including Martin Burgoyne and Andy Warhol, die of the disease. She was devastated and decided to turn her July performance at Madison Square Garden into a benefit concert with proceeds donated to amFAR, becoming the first pop star to hold such a large fundraiser for the cause.

As she performed “Papa Don’t Preach” during the show, a message appeared on the screen behind her: “SAFE SEX.” She also dedicated “Live to Tell” to Burgoyne. At the event, she handed out a pamphlet with information about how AIDS is spread and tips for prevention – before the United States government did such a thing.

“There is currently no cure for AIDS, but there is a way to stop its spread. Don’t let fear stop you from learning the facts,” read Madonna’s handwritten message on the brochure. “Read this booklet—and then give it to your best friend. It could save his or her life… It could save yours, too.”

The concert ultimately raised $400,000 for amFAR.

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Madonna at the first MTV VMA Awards in New York in September 1984.

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How Madonna got the nickname “Madge”

Madonna moved to London when she started working on the 2000s music, music album, and her fans in the UK appreciated the way she showed the behavior of a normal, everyday person rather than a huge celebrity. Soon they started calling her “Madge” – which sounds more like an average person’s name than “Madonna”.

At the time, she was romantically involved with Guy Ritchie, and he reportedly told her the nickname came from “Her Majesty” – seemingly trying to reassure her that she wasn’t being labeled as a common woman.

For the first time, Madonna censored herself

Several of Madonna’s controversies came about because she refused to censor her own artistic messages. Former President George W. Bush was in office when she wrote the angsty, political song “American Life” and shot a highly controversial music video filled with images of war and commentary on its cultural effects. Recorded before Bush called for the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, the video was released afterward and was immediately dismissed as insensitive.

Not wanting to offend anyone, she pulled the music video a day after it was released — marking the first time she has censored herself, despite refusing to do so on several other occasions. This time it seemed different to her, because she became a mother of two children – Lourdes and Rocco – and she did not want them to have to face the brunt of her controversies. An alternate video was then released showing Madonna performing the song “American Life” in front of the flags of various nations as a sign of unity.

Christopher Ciccone with his sister Madonna.

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Madonna’s Dating History: From Sean Penn to Guy Ritchie

Madonna and her brother Christopher have parted ways after decades of friendship and collaboration

Madonna was very close to her brother Christopher Ciccone, who was also her assistant and interior designer for a while. They began drifting apart around 2000, and she didn’t ask him to join her Drought World Tour — her first string of concerts that he wouldn’t be on. Around the same time, he was troubled by her choice to hire someone else to redesign her New York apartment.

As she prepared to marry Guy Ritchie in 2000, Christopher was bothered by the director’s frequent homophobic remarks, which Madonna did not always keep quiet despite her alliance. Christopher – who identifies as gay – walked out of one wedding, feeling insulted.

In 2008, Christopher published a book called Life with my sister Madonna about their relationship. She was angry at the time and tried unsuccessfully to stop its publication, throwing a copy of the book across the room after receiving the copy.

He went on to write about Ritchie’s alleged homophobia in the book, which sparked a backlash Snatch the then director. “I’m not doing anything about the book. The poor guy wrote it out of desperation,” he said Guard. “I don’t think it would be intelligent to comment on that. I can’t put too much stock in what the guy is going to write in that book… But it would be hard to get you to be a homophobe and marry Madonna.”

Christopher and Madonna understand each other better now. “We’re at peace now and we talked last week,” Christopher said Radar in 2019

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Source: HIS Education