Madonna - Madonna > Reviews > The Complete Story of a Mega Star

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money

Advantages:	Cool to like her
Disadvantages:	Difficult to get hold of her tour tickets

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I have read a few of the Madonna reviews so far here in Ciao as I normally do before writing my own, and from the information available in those reviews I thought I would take you the readers a little step further and paint the whole Madonna picture for you.

The Blonde bombshell first came to UK shores back in 1984 when Holiday entered the UK charts as a top ten hit, giving Madonna her first taste of success in the UK.

After the release of her next two singles Madonna’s UK chart success looked to be a little poor. Lucky Star struggled to reach the top 20 and only remained on the UK chart for a mere 9 weeks a poor show for a single at that time! Next up was Borderline this reached a pitiful number 56 and remaining on the chart for only 4 weeks.

Then came massive success at the latter stage of 1984, Madonna released her controversial single ‘Like A Virgin’. The single shot to number 3 in the UK and topped the charts all over the world including the USA where Madonna was still struggling to prove herself as an artist. This was the only Madonna single to spend more than 15 weeks on the UK charts until last year’s release of Music that has spent a staggering 21 weeks on the UK chart and is still in the top 40.

Madonna had now hit the big time and with the release of her first album simply called ‘The First Album’ success in the UK and other shores also and in her native America she was one the biggest stars of that time!

‘Like A Virgin’

This was Madonna’s second album to be released and shot her into mega stardom all over the world. Maintaining her run of UK top ten hits with releases of ‘Material Girl’ and ‘Crazy for You’ and the album title track. But there was still no number 1 for the Ambitious Blonde.

‘You Can Dance’

That was not to long in coming, with the release of the next album ‘You Can Dance’ Madonna eventually hit the top spot in the UK with ‘Into The Groove’ and another turn in the top 10 for ‘Holiday’ seeing it this time go straight to number 2, Madonna was now truly a star here, America and the whole world over.

‘True Blue’

This was early 1986 and was the album that shot Madonna into the big league stars. This album gave Madonna 3 UK number 1’s with ‘True Blue’, ‘Papa Don’t Preach’ and ‘La Isla Bonita’ and further 2 top ten hits with ‘Open Your Heart’ and ‘Live To Tell’. Also now Madonna was making sensational videos that were causing outrage all over and with more hair colour changes than you can imagine, it was now more than cool to be a Madonna fan.

‘Who’s That Girl?’

This was the question on everyone’s lips as she made headline news everyday in the tabloids, Madonna was now one of the most talked about stars and with the release of this film proved that acting was maybe a talent that was not her best but with more amazing songs produced to coincide with the release of the film with the same name! Producing yet another number 1 again with the album title track and several further top ten hits.

‘Like A Prayer’

Just when we thought Madonna could do no more to shock this was the album to do it all. By far the best album release to date (my personal opinion) and could have had more hits than it actually did. The only number 1 to come form this album was again the title track that caused controversy from here to the Vatican. ‘Like A Prayer’ had an outstanding video to accompany it, which was quickly banned from MTV America and other channels all over the world, at first MTV Europe banned the video only for it to be shown at a later date? The video was of a young girl who witnessed a rape and a murder and an innocent black man was convicted of the crime. Madonna was the witness and confides in the church only to find that the statue of Jesus was a resemblance of the young black man, this was shocker number one, the story in the video I am sure most of you know but the biggest shocker of the video was the burning of crucifixes this outraged Catholics the world over, needless to say the imposed ban! Other hits that spawned from this album were the fantastic ‘Express Yourself’, ‘Cherish’ and ‘Dear Jessie’ again al top 10 hits.

‘Immaculate Collection’

This was the dream every Madonna fan had been waiting for a greatest hits albums which quickly became one of the best sellers of the decade and all time, It contained 15 of Madonna’s biggest hits one of them being the most recent at that time ‘Vogue’ a classic number 1 with a stunning video and based around the lives of Marilyn Monroe and Bette Davis to name a few… With a further two bonus tracks that were later released only to make them also greatest hits from the album ‘Rescue Me’ and ‘Justify My Love’ the first video ever to be given and 18 rating in the UK and was also the first ever release of a video single. The video had scenes of a very sexual nature and had Madonna involved in Lesbian sex clichés and all sorts of kinky acts!!

During this time Madonna appeared in what was said to be her best movie performance ever until ‘Evita’, which was ‘A League Of Their Own’ in which she co starred with the almighty tom Hanks and Geena Davis. This movie created the top 10 classic ‘This Used To Be My Playground’ a haunting ballad that played at the closing credits to the film.

‘Erotica’

This was surely the period that Madonna shocked the whole world, she produced a coffee table book simply named ‘Sex’, which to this day is widely sought after by many enthusiasts especially if still contained within its original foil. The album produced 5 top 10 hits ‘Erotica’, ‘Deeper and Deeper’, ‘Rain’, ‘Fever’ and ‘Bad Girl’. The videos for this album all had their own characteristics the main one being ‘Erotica’ with scenes of bondage and lot’s of leather wearing, ‘Deeper and Deeper’ was a celebration of the 60’s and 70’s disco days, ‘Bad Girl’ had bad man Rutger Hauer, the guy from the Guinness ads here in the UK and ‘Fever’ saw Madonna painted head to toe in silver.

‘Bedtime Stories’

This was a totally new direction for Madonna a much calmer approach to music and was the first to see Madonna not hit the top 10 with some of the single releases, was her popularity finally diminishing? The newspapers had a ball! ‘Secret’, ‘Bedtime Story’ and ‘Human Nature’ were only ones to make the top 10, although ‘Human Nature’ only managed 5 weeks in the top 75, the album unlike the rest to date failed to make the top spot. ‘Bedtime Stories’ was deemed to be a flop especially from Madonna’s past results!

‘Something To Remember’

This was again was another greatest hits; only this time it was all of Madonna’s classic ballads plus a bundle of new tracks. One being the classic ‘You’ll See’ which seen Madonna back in the top 10 with a huge seller, this charted for a total of 13 weeks. This was the only main contender from ’Something To Remember’; although the album was a good seller it failed to produce any further top ten hits.

‘Evita Original Soundtrack’

This was the turnaround for Madonna’s diminishing pop career, with an outstanding performance in the big screen movie version of ‘Andrew Lloyd Webber’s’ classical stage show ‘Evita’, Madonna once again wowed the world and even got herself nominated for an Academy Award for her performance, although the album produced 3 top 10 hits the only memorable one from it was ‘Don’t Cry For Me Argentina’ which was not to be released until public demand was so great and they gave in. Madonna was back on the tip of everyone’s tongues and again she had reclaimed her queen of pop crown.

‘Ray Of Light’

This was Madonna back at what she does best with the release of ‘Frozen’ putting Madonna back at the top of the UK charts, and also the massive number 2 release of ‘Ray Of Light’ the album quickly became the fastest selling of the year and saw Madonna totally reclaim her title as ‘Queen Of Pop’, after the single releases from this album Madonna worked on a track for the ‘Austin Powers’ movie which saw Madonna notch up yet another UK number 1 and then a further UK number 1 with ‘American Pie’ this time from her film ‘Next Best Thing’

That swiftly brings us back up to date with her latest and classic release ‘Music’ with the title track cranking up yet another UK number 1and a further top 10 hit with ‘Don’t Tell Me’, as previously stated ‘Music’ is Madonna’s longest charting single after 21 weeks it is still in the top 40, this could mainly be due to the massive popularity Madonna has received recently with her marriage to UK film Director Guy Ritchie, her much calmed ways making her the perfect role model for any teenage girl. Madonna has also spent more time in the UK this year than she ever has in her whole career and is now calling our homelands home! We can only have one Queen on our shores but I am sure we can make room for another. Welcome to the UK Madge I am sure you will love it!!