SPECIAL EDITION The Queen of Pop!
GIVING GOOD FACE A moment from the Truth or Dare film, 1991. SPECIAL EDITION
PRIMA DONNA In Venice for the 2011 premiere of W.E., which Madonna directed. The film earned a Golden Globe for her original song “Masterpiece.”
MADONNA 4 STAGES OF HER LIFE A four-decade gallery of the evolving spectacle of Madonna’s tours 20 AMERICAN LIFE The star in her early years, from suburban Detroit to New York City’s East Village. 26 GET INTO THE GROOVE Planting a flag as an MTV pioneer and the ultimate ’80s star 46 CAUSING A COMMOTION From the start, controversy was part of the act. Are you shocked? 50 YOU MUST LOVE ME In the ’90s Madonna vogued, revamped the celebrity documentary and earned acting honors 68 ICONIC DON’T-MISS MOMENTS The concert stage alone can’t contain her. Broadway, late-night TV and other places Madonna made her mark 72 LIVE TO TELL The new millennium saw a growing family, broader interests and a deep devotion to dance music 84 TAKE A BOW Rest on her laurels? No, thanks. The Madonna of today is hitting the road again, giving fans something to celebrate
4 SUITED UP Madonna’s 1990 Blond Ambition tour (above, in Paris) was the first time many saw Jean Paul Gaultier’s coned corsets. But the designer had shown them on runways since the early ’80s.
FOUR DECADES OF TOURS M A D O N N A ’ S C O N C E R T S H A V E A L W A Y S S E R V E D S O N G S , S E X , S T R E N G T H A N D E N D L E S S S P E C T A C L E . N O O N E P U T S O N A SHOW THE WAY SHE DOES MADONNA PEOPLE 5
‘THAT WHOLE TOUR WAS CR AZY, BECAUSE I WENT FROM PL AYING CBGB AND THE MUDD CLUB TO PL AYING SPORTS ARENAS’ —MADONNA, TO ROLLING STONE MADONNA ON STAGE 6 MADONNA PEOPLE THE VIRGIN TOUR, 1985 Early shows were played before crowds of just 3,000-5,000. “I want fans to be able to see Madonna sweat,” manager Freddy DeMann told People. Above: in Detroit.
Just try to understand I’ve given all I can ’Cause you got the best of me Forty years ago this summer, Madonna gave us Madonna, her joyous, synthy, funky, twinkly first album, which announced a new rising star even as it grounded feet on dance floors. If it didn’t signal that this star would someday grow into an icon, it did deliver on the promise of those “Borderline” lyrics: Madonna has long given us her best. It’s made her the top-selling female recording artist ever. And perhaps surprisingly for an artist so associated with music videos and club remixes, Madonna became, after 11 world tours, the highest-grossing female live performer. But while others of her generation (and some younger) turned to highbrow Broadway career retrospectives, lowbrow jukebox musicals or other nostalgia fests, Madonna continued to tour the same way in her 60s as she had in her 20s: in support of new music. Every couple of years she tried on fresh looks, played in unexplored genres, and gifted fans with new collections of songs. “I’m not a ‘greatest hits’ kind of girl,” said Madonna in 2015 as she set out on the Rebel Heart tour. “I mean, Picasso didn’t paint the same paintings over and over again.” In 2023 she dropped two new singles: “Vulgar” with Sam Smith and “Popular” with the Weeknd and Playboi Carti; the tracks made her one of very few artists to chart in five decades. On the 40th anniversary of her debut, People looks back at Madonna’s singular career: onstage and off, hits and misses, shocks that now seem tame and her open invitation to all to dance and sing, get up and do your thing. 7
MADONNA ON TOUR 8 MADONNA PEOPLE WHO’S THAT GIRL, 1987 Madonna (above, in Chicago) wore a bustier Marlene Stewart had designed for the “Open Your Heart” video. It was later acquired by—and stolen from—Frederick’s of Hollywood Lingerie Museum.
9 BLOND AMBITION, 1990 Truth or Dare spotlighted those sharing the stage on Madonna’s third tour. Above: dancers Luis Camacho and Jose Gutierez (who together choreographed the “Vogue” video) as mermen. Below: Camacho in “Like a Virgin”; singers Donna De Lory and Niki Haris in a Fosse-esque “Keep It Together.”
DROWNED WORLD, 2001 Some 18,000 fans in Barcelona happily sang along with the superstar as she dressed up as a cowgirl and performed “Don’t Tell Me.” Returning were singers Niki Haris and Donna De Lory. THE GIRLIE SHOW, 1993 Madonna launched her tour in London to promote her album Erotica. Reviews were mixed: While Newsday called it “part big-top circus, part Broadway musical and part soft-core porn act,” The New York Times saw it as “a good-time song-and-dance revue, not a provocation.” 10
MADONNA ON TOUR MADONNA PEOPLE 11 RE-INVENTION, 2004 Along with designers Stella McCartney, Christian Lacroix and Karl Lagerfeld, Tony-nominated costumer Arianne Phillips dressed Madonna (here, in L.A.) on what was that year’s highest-grossing tour.
‘THERE ISN’T A SECOND IN MY DAY THAT ISN’T TAKEN UP LOOKING AFTER MY FAMILY OR THINKING ABOUT MY SHOW’ —MADONNA, 2001 12 MADONNA PEOPLE
MADONNA ON TOUR 13 CONFESSIONS, 2006 During “Future Lovers” (here, in Germany) the singer emerged from a mirror ball, a reminder that—for all the elements of sex, religion and other hot-button issues—a Madonna concert is primarily about dancing.
14 STICKY & SWEET, 2008-09 At 50, Madonna (here, in London) “seems even more determined to prove that she doesn’t stand still,” noted the BBC. “And she certainly doesn’t slow down.”
MADONNA ON TOUR MADONNA PEOPLE 15
‘IT’S HARD TO WATCH MYSELF DO ANYTHING. I CAN’T EVEN STAND TO WATCH MYSELF IN CONCERT’ MADONNA ON TOUR 16 MDNA, 2012 During the tour Madonna (here, in Ramat Gan, Israel) raised such issues as gun violence and human rights violations, releasing a letter to Billboard noting that “We cannot allow our anger or bitterness to swallow us up.” MADONNA PEOPLE
REBEL HEART, 2015-16 When Madonna sang the French classic “La Vie en Rose” in Montreal (above)—and apologized about her nonfluent French—the Associated Press reported that the audience “went wild and sang along.” In Brooklyn (right) she strummed a ukulele.
MADONNA ON TOUR 18 MADAME X, 2019-20 The star reimagined her show for an intimate theater stage, with The New York Times writing that at 61, “Madonna is still taking chances.” The tour was cut short in early 2020 because of COVID, and a documentary chronicling it appeared in 2021 (above).
‘MADAME X IS A SECRET AGENT TR AVELING AROUND THE WORLD, CHANGING IDENTITIES, FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM . . .’ —MADONNA MADONNA PEOPLE 19
A DAN C E R I N D E T R O I T , A N E A S T V I L L A G E P U N K E R A N D C L U B K I D I N N E W Y O R K , M A D O N N A B E AT A S U R P R I S I N G P AT H TO GETTING HER FIRST BREAK B y JED GOTTLIEB HER EARLY YEARS AMERICAN LIFE even as a seventh grader in suburban detroit, Madonna entertained, educated and shocked—in a mild, junior high school way. For West Middle School’s talent show, the 12-year-old, covered in Day-Glo colors, danced to the Who’s “Baba O’Riley”—a rebellious rock anthem powered by the climatic cry of “It’s only teenage wasteland.” She considered it her fi rst provocative performance. Born Aug. 16, 1958, Madonna Louise Ciccone grew up in a large Italian American family touched by tragedy. At just 5, she lost her 30-year-old mother and namesake, Madonna Louise Fortin, to cancer. As an adult Madonna explored the pain through music, most notably in “Promise to Try” from 1989’s Like a Prayer. But as a kid in a crowded family—she was one of eight siblings raised by father Silvio Ciccone and stepmother Joan—Madonna found release in dance. Childhood friends have described Madonna as sensitive, shy and smart, arty, fl irtatious and troubled, depending on whom was asked—everybody remembered the star-in-the-making diff erently. But they seem to agree on one thing: Madonna shone on the dance fl oor. Preteen jazz and tap lessons led to cheerleading in high school, cheerleading to serious ballet studies, ballet to an 20 MADONNA PEOPLE MADONNA AS CHILD Above: Madonna Louise Ciccone, age 10 in 1968, a few years before she made her stage debut at a West Middle School talent show in suburban Detroit. Right: Newly arrived in New York City, 10 years later.
escape from her traditional religious upbringing. “Ours was a strict, old-fashioned family,” Madonna told People back in 1985. “When I was tiny, my grandmother used to beg me not to go with men, to love Jesus and be a good girl. I grew up with two images of a woman: the virgin and the whore. It was a little scary.” Mentor and ballet teacher Christopher Flynn gave Madonna a glimpse beyond the borders of her midwestern suburb, introducing her to art, classical music and gay dance clubs in Detroit pulsing with the beats of the fl ourishing disco culture. Flynn, who died in 1990, spoke of her to People as “a very worldly sort of woman even as a child. We would go to gay bars, and she and I would go out and dance our asses off . People would clear away and let her go.” In 1976 the 17-year-old —a straight-A student — graduated Adams High a semester early and headed to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on a dance scholarship. A year later she won another scholarship, this time to the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s New York City summer workshop. New York hooked her. With a loving push from Flynn, she dropped out of college and stormed the city. Her dance skills opened doors—musical-theater auditions got her singing; her strong sense of rhythm made her a natural drummer. Madonna’s curiosity, ambition and determination did the rest. Between day jobs, including stints at fast-food joints and the famed Russian Tea Room, she connected with every corner of the city’s wild arts scene. She performed with professional modern 22 HAPPY TO BE BACK As a Rochester Adams High School sophomore in Rochester Hills, Mich., Madonna (far right) flashed a smile during a homecoming event in 1974. SHE’S GOT SPIRIT Madonna had the ambition but lacked the blonde locks when she performed with the junior varsity cheerleading squad at Rochester Adams High in 1974. WHO’S THAT GIRL ? Far right: Even as a teenager in small-town Michigan, Madonna had a sense of style that set her apart from her peers.
dance companies. She acted in a low-budget art film. She sang and played drums and guitar in a series of rock bands, including Emmy (“Burning Up”). She dated painter Jean-Michel Basquiat and befriended artists Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. In the ’80s Madonna started to write her own songs. With on-again, off-again boyfriend Stephen Bray, she produced a four-song demo of her originals. Then she slipped future boyfriend Mark Kamins one of those tracks while he was deejaying at legendary club Danceteria. Kamins spun it, and the crowd liked what it heard: “Everybody” was a simple, hypnotic throb that bridged disco and new wave. “She had this incredible sense of style,” Kamins told Time magazine in 1985. “She had an aura.” Kamins connected Madonna to Sire Records founder Seymour Stein, the music executive who had signed the Ramones, the Pretenders and Talking Heads. Stein played the complete demo. Then he played it again. Then he invited Madonna to his hospital room, where he was recovering from a heart infection. (Stein, who remained close with Madonna throughout her career, died in April.) “When she walked into the room, she filled it with her exuberance and determination,” Stein told People. “It hit me right away. I could tell she had the drive to match her talent.” Madonna had spent half a decade grinding it out in punk dives, dance troupes and Dunkin’ Donuts. She wasn’t going to wait any longer. The debut single for Sire Records was a polished up version of “Everybody” produced by Kamins. The DJ MADONNA PEOPLE 23 EARLY YEARS
STRIKE A POSE: By the spring of 1979, Madonna had become a New York club kid who spent as much time dancing in discos as she did onstage. 24
didn’t really know how to produce. Madonna, who had no training as a singer and had never been in a professional studio, belted out the jam in one take. And yet, the two amateurs delivered a dance anthem. Released Oct. 6, 1982, “Everybody” missed the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. But it hit No. 3 on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart. Enough to serve as a proof of concept. Sire wanted an album. BURNING UP: Having cycled through a series of underground rock bands and modern dance troupes, Madonna took center stage as an upcoming pop star in 1983. INVENTION AND REINVENTION: Madonna’s style evolutions started long before she hit the charts. In early 1979 she straddled punk and new wave. EARLY YEARS ‘I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN RESOURCEFUL , WHETHER IT WAS CONVINCING MY FATHER TO LET ME STAY OUT L ATE OR GETTING OUT OF PAYING A CAB FARE IN NEW YORK WHEN I DIDN’T HAVE ANY MONEY’ —MADONNA , 1985 25
madonna invented the ’80s. An arguable assertion? Perhaps. But Madonna, more than any other artist of the MTV era, perfected its defi ning unifi cation of sound, vision, hype, pop and personality. After disco was declared dead, Madonna’s 1983 self-titled debut album made the world dance again. Blending ’70s club music with synth pop and R&B, the album spun off hit after hit—“Borderline,” “Holiday,” “Lucky Star”— and went on to sell 10 million copies worldwide. A blockbuster, Madonna barely teased what was to come. At MTV’s fi rst Music Video Awards on Sept. 14, 1984, Madonna insisted on performing a then-unreleased song, “Like a Virgin.” And she wanted to perform it wearing a white wedding gown and veil, a bustier, garters and a “BOY TOY” belt buckle. The only thing people remember about the show is Madonna. (Try to name another moment from that night.) A few weeks later the “Like a Virgin” video doubled down on the provocativeness. Shot on the canals of Venice for an outlandish estimate THE ’80S D I D M A D O N N A M A K E M T V , O R D I D M U S I C V I D E O S M A K E H E R ? D E B AT E A W AY ! W H AT ’ S I N A R G U A B L E : S H E D O M I N AT E D T H E D E C A D E L I K E N O O T H E R B y JED GOTTLIEB 26 MADONNA PEOPLE
DRESS YOU UP In 1984 Madonna went global. Here she takes over London, or at least a corner of it, during a photo shoot at the city’s Holborn Studios. 27
28 BRACE YOURSELF Before Madonna’s Like a Virgin album appeared in 1984, she posed in Amsterdam. A French stylist, Maripol, had introduced her to what became her signature rubber bracelets.
of $150,000 (about $438,000 in 2023), the video featured Madonna purring and dancing on gondolas while a circus lion roamed the set (as an armed trainer stood close by “just in case”). “Like a Virgin” became her fi rst No. 1 single, spending six weeks at the top spot. Madonna whiplashed her look from disco-punk bohemian to silver screen glamor for “Material Girl.” Another big-budget aff air, the video paid homage to the 1953 Marilyn Monroe musical Gentlemen Prefer Blondes while poking fun at wealth-obsessed yuppies. The No. 2 hit celebrated Madonna’s subversive nature. Both the lyrics to and videos for “Material Girl” and “Like a Virgin” showed off how Madonna excelled at pairing satire with Top 40 glory. Any critic who labeled her as vapid, disposable or materialistic missed how sly and subversive she could be—even at the start of her career. “Whether it was ‘Material Girl’ or ‘Like a Virgin’ or whatever, you can’t take anything I say literally,” Madonna refl ected in a 2022 Paper magazine interview. “Everything I say is said with irony or tongue-in-cheek or there are multiple meanings. . . . The confusion and the mystery and the wink and the smile were all very important elements, not only in the music and the record but in terms of establishing me and what I stand for as an artist.” Madonna crafted 1984’s Like a Virgin with super producer (and Chic alum) Nile Rodgers, who had MADONNA PEOPLE 29 VIDEO STAR Madonna and then boyfriend DJ John “Jellybean” Benitez at the opening of New York nightclub Private Eyes on July 17, 1984. THE Õ80S
previously brought forth David Bowie’s Let’s Dance. The album’s hooks, charm and cheekiness pushed it to sell more than 21 million records worldwide. By 1985 Madonna was everywhere: at the movies, playing a free spirit in director Susan Seidelman’s hit fi lm Desperately Seeking Susan; headlining her fi rst tour; and that July 1985 onstage at the Live Aid concert before an audience of 89,484 people at Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy stadium, in a show broadcast to 1.9 billion in 150 countries. For that performance she wore an uncharacteristically modest stage outfi t of a fl owered pantsuit and high-collared blouse—perhaps a reaction to having early prefame nude art-modeling photos published without her consent in both Playboy and Penthouse earlier that year. “I’m ain’t taking s--- off today,” she quipped. In August she found time to marry actor Sean Penn at a friend’s home in Malibu with a starry guest list that included Tom Cruise, Cher and Andy Warhol. In love, she next delivered an album, True Blue, with the unabashed declaration “Open Your Heart.” But she was still Madonna and morphed again. She ditched the diamonds, lingerie and rosary beads of the Virgin era and debuted a bleach-blonde pixie cut for the “Papa Don’t Preach” video, in which she played an (Continued on page 34) 30 MADONNA PEOPLE CELEBRATE Hours after wrapping up the final concert on 1985’s Virgin tour at Madison Square Garden, Madonna and band let loose at an afterparty at the New York City club Palladium (above). Madonna channeled Marilyn Monroe while filming the video for “Material Girl” in 1985 (right).
THE ’80s 31 ‘BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN WAS BORN TO RUN. I WAS BORN TO FLIRT’ —MADONNA , TO PEOPLE, 1985
THE ’80s 32 MADONNA PEOPLE
33 CRAZY FOR HER A Madonna-wannabe contest at a London nightclub in 1985.
unwed pregnant woman butting heads with her father (Danny Aiello). Noting in a 1986 New York Times interview that it was a work “that everyone is going to take the wrong way,” Madonna managed to anger members of Planned Parenthood, which suggested it glorified teenage pregnancy, and to delight conservatives, who interpreted the song as an antiabortion anthem. All fine by her. As Madonna told the Times, “I like challenge and controversy—I like to tick people off.” Controversy was the currency that had, in part, fueled her ascent. So it came as a shock to suffer her first failure, the 1986 box office bomb Shanghai Surprise, costarring her husband, Sean Penn. Critics also panned her (Continued from page 30) (Continued on page 39) 34 MADONNA PEOPLE ONSTAGE AT LIVE AID Madonna performed on a bill that included Duran Duran, Led Zeppelin and Tina Turner at the Philadelphia edition of the landmark July 13, 1985, charity concert.
THE ’80s 35 CLASS OF ’85 Backstage at JFK Stadium during Live Aid, Madonna posed with (back row, left to right) Keith Richards, Daryl Hall, John Oates, Ron Wood, (front row, left to right) Tina Turner, Mick Jagger and Bob Dylan.
THE ’80S 36 MADONNA PEOPLE ‘EVEN WHEN I WAS A LITTLE GIRL , I KNEW I WANTED THE WHOLE WORLD TO KNOW WHO I WAS, TO LOVE ME AND BE AFFECTED BY ME’ —MADONNA , 1985
WATCH OUT! Madonna came home on Aug. 7, 1987, to headline the Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac, Mich., where she performed “Open Your Heart” with 13-year-old dancer Chris Finch. The date was part of the Who’s That Girl tour promoting her True Blue LP and Who’s That Girl soundtrack. 37
38 EXPRESS YOURSELF In 1989 Madonna spent millions and oversaw every detail to create one of her most iconic videos. The work resulted in three MTV Video Music Awards wins.
1987 screwball comedy throwback Who’s That Girl (which has since earned a cult following). But she boomed with every music release. Over 18 months in ’86 and ’87, she tallied seven Top 5 singles, three smash albums (True Blue, the remix LP You Can Dance and the Who’s That Girl soundtrack) and a series of must-see videos that embraced androgyny and gay culture while evoking art-house cinema and Hollywood archetypes. But every controversy and career triumph was purely a prologue to the title track of her 1989 album Like a Prayer. In January 1989 Madonna signed a $5 million deal with Pepsi. On March 2 she teased the new single in a feel-good two-minute TV commercial for Pepsi. The next day MTV debuted something very diff erent. The full video for “Like a Prayer” included stigmata, a stabbing, an interracial love story and Madonna dancing in front of burning crosses. Pepsi canceled the ad and its sponsorship of Madonna’s upcoming tour. Pope John Paul II condemned the video. But “Like a Prayer” became a phenomenon. The single spent three weeks at No. 1. The video won MTV’s 1989 Viewer’s Choice Award, a category sponsored by Pepsi. (Continued from page 34) MADONNA PEOPLE 39 THE Õ80S LIKE A PRAYER The album, the song and the video were all inescapable in 1989, pushing the star’s fame— and infamy—to unprecedented levels.
40 MADONNA PEOPLE BECAUSE IT WAS THE ’80s With David Lee Roth, celebrating the Van Halen frontman’s birthday on Oct. 10, 1984. (Not, for the record, as a couple.) THE ’80s
She made headlines again when the price tag for her next project, the “Express Yourself” video, ran into the millions, making it one of the most expensive ever produced. Directed by David Fincher—who went on to make Fight Club and other acclaimed films—and meticulously overseen by Madonna, the video used Fritz Lang’s 1927 science-fiction epic Metropolis as inspiration to create an intensely erotic, unfailingly beautiful work of art. Equally important: It featured Madonna reclaiming the crotch grab as a symbol of women’s empowerment. Like a Prayer proved Madonna was a dynamic artist: mature and playful, earnest and satirical, poppy and experimental. It dealt with religion and death, her childhood and her 1989 divorce from Sean Penn. The album ensured that Madonna exited the decade as the world’s definitive pop star and provocateur. But she wanted to be all that and a Hollywood icon. FRIENDS AND A LOVER Madonna was joined by artist Keith Haring and comedian Sandra Bernhard at a benefit to raise money for rain forest conservation in 1989 (above). The star and then husband Sean Penn at an AIDS benefit in Los Angeles in 1987 (below).
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THE ’80s 43 IN HER ELEMENT Madonna meets the press at the 12th Annual American Music Awards on Jan. 28, 1985, at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
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AT THE MOVIES BEING MORE THAN A MUSIC STAR WAS ALWAYS THE PLAN As soon as her videos got her noticed, Madonna leaped to the big screen in (clockwise from opposite) Desperately Seeking Susan (1985 with Rosanna Arquette), Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989 with Jennifer Grey), Who’s That Girl (1987 with Griffin Dunne), Shanghai Surprise (1986, below with producer George Harrison and costar Sean Penn) and Vision Quest (1985), in which she played a singer who delivered the hit “Crazy for You.”
10 CONTROVERSIES CAUSING A N O T H I N G ’ S R E A L LY S H O C K I N G N O W , B U T A T T H E T I M E , COMMOTION MADONNA MADE PROVOCATION PART OF THE ACT 1. PEPSI BOWS OUT AFTER “LIKE A PRAYER” BACKLASH, 1989 A saint statue brought sexily to life, an interracial kiss, burning crosses—Madonna and director Mary Lambert knew the pots they were stirring with the “Like a Prayer” video. Still, they had, Lambert told Rolling Stone, “underestimated the influence and bigotry of fundamentalist religion.” When Pepsi used the song for an ad with different imagery—Madonna recalling her childhood—religious-right groups boycotted. The soda company pulled the spot, while Madonna doubled down, telling The New York Times: “Art should be controversial.” Perhaps. But not commerce. 46
2. “LIKE A VIRGIN” AT THE FIRST VMAS, 1984 Madonna wanted a white Bengal tiger beside her. MTV balked at the jungle cat, but the young star delivered something more ferocious. After descending from a 17-ft.-tall cake in white lingerie, Madonna writhed against the stage. Her manager was told that her “career was over with.” Instead, MTV would eventually call it “one of the most iconic pop performances of all time.” 3. MADONNA PLAYS A PREGNANT TEEN, 1986 Though she was 27 when she filmed “Papa Don’t Preach,” Madonna (a pro-choice proponent) played a girl still living at home with her dad (Danny Aiello) when she gets “in trouble deep” and makes up her mind to keep the baby, potentially making teen motherhood as attractive as her black bustier. “She has more impact on young teenagers than any other single entertainer since the Beatles,” said the head of New York City Planned Parenthood. “That’s what makes this particular song so destructive.” 4. MTV BANS “JUSTIFY MY LOVE”, 1990 How to go viral before the Internet: Make a steamy video that, despite arty black-and-white footage directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, doesn’t disguise its hints of S&M and bisexuality or its flash of nudity. Second, get MTV—the network that played Mötley Crüe’s stripper-heavy “Girls, Girls, Girls” roughly a billion times—to refuse to air it. Third, sell the clip on videotape at $10 a pop, letting the inevitable news coverage do the work of promoting it. Voilà! 2 3 4 MADONNA PEOPLE 47
5. BLOND AMBITION’S SIMULATED SOLO SEX, 1990 Pope John Paul II urged a boycott. Canadian police stood by to arrest her. Her own dad said he could have done without some bits. People still talk about the tour’s “Like a Virgin,” which included mimed masturbation. Less discussed: how Madonna— once she had everyone’s attention—used her stage to advocate for safe sex. 6. SEX, THE BOOK, 1992 Yes, Sex was a book. It was a book full of nude pictures of Madonna, whips and chains, same-sex eroticism and risqué snapshots of celebs from Isabella Rossellini to Vanilla Ice. But it was really a pop culture event. Fans spent $75 million to buy every copy of the one-time print run of 1.5 million. 6 5 7. MADONNA TO DAVID LETTERMAN: “#@$!”, 1994 “You realize this is being broadcast, don’t you?” asked the exasperated host. Oh, she did. Foulmouthed and funny, Madonna began by giving her panties to Letterman. It got worse, or better, from there. For some it was a career low— but one with high ratings. 8. KISSING THE GIRLS, 2003 A champion of same-sex love and of tempests in teapots, Madonna smooched (yawn) both Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera at the MTV Awards. A camera fixed on Spears’s ex Justin Timberlake caught the only big reaction to the stunt. 7 48 MADONNA PEOPLE ARE YOU SHOCKED?