Before Britney, Gaga, and Christina, there was Madonna. Her influence can be traced through the music of Janet, J.Lo, and Rihanna. There wouldn’t be an Ariana, Dua, or Olivia without Madonna. She ran, danced, and gyrated so Katy, Miley, and Robyn, could kiss girls, like it, buy their own flowers and dance by themselves. She was a Material Girl before Gwen even knew about Harajuku.
For 40 years, Madonna has been booked, busy, and blessed due to her talent, (blonde) ambition and, of course, provocation. She has constantly pushed the limits of her artistry. She is an author, director, philanthropist, producer, singer and songwriter. She made power, feminism and sexiness her own unique amalgam. But, she has always had her detractors. People who felt she owed more to her fans, people who criticized her politics, philanthropic contributions, religion, singing voice, film performances or later, script and film direction. That was in addition to decade after decade of publicly critiquing her appearance, hair color, clothing—or lack thereof. This happened as recently as February of this year, when her appearance at the Grammys set the wood-chipper that is social media into a bloodlust-fueled frenzy. In the early 90s, foreign governments even weighed in but she never took a bow… to censorship. There are those, of course, who say she invites it, or outright deserves it. To date, she claims to have been ex-communicated from the Catholic Church three times. Madonna has always been held to an unreachable standard. And, yet, she prevails.
2023 was supposed to be the year of Madonna. Shortly before turning 65 this past August, amidst a summer chock full of competing tours, she was set to kick off the Celebration tour (her 12th!), covering four decades of music and 14 albums. In a time where the word “iconic” is all too casually tossed around, Madonna was and remains the icon of icons. Truly the Queen of Pop.
Well, that queen was almost dethroned. Rumors of extreme rehearsal schedules turned into a frightening hospitalization and a long road to recovery. The tour was flipped. Starting this month, Madonna takes on Europe before heading back to the US. Mere days before it begins, Mary Gabriel’s unauthorized and exhaustingly comprehensive 880-page doorstop of a biography, Madonna: A Rebel Life will be published. For Gabriel, Madonna “is not just an entertainment icon, she is an artist who has changed cultural and social history globally.” Agreed.
The true power of the biography comes from the fact that Madonna is finally being taken seriously. It’s not just an album-by-album analysis or a glop of specious and salacious suppositions hastily pasted together. It’s her life with sources and documentation to back it up. It’s an in-depth look at a person who becomes an icon and how those two things have to uneasily sit side-by-side for both the decades past and the rest of her life. What it was like to be raised as a Catholic and the continual presence of Catholic iconography in her work, the loss of her mother at a young age and how it shaped her maternal philosophy, her musical influences, her love of reading and foreign film, and the cost she paid and continues to pay as a celebrity trying to live a full life as the paparazzi and now, social media, become ever more pernicious and invasive. It’s all there.
By harnessing “Music, dance, sex, politics and an imaginative presentation,” Madonna’s tours have become globe-spanning spectacles ranging from erotic playgrounds to Fritz Lang-inspired dystopian factories and back to dance floors with EDM-beats which out thump the elevated heartbeats of thousands of diehard fans. Gabriel gives readers an in-depth look at each tour and though there were dancers and producers who showed up each time she went out, the tour itself was never a rehash.
Celebration will be unlike anything Madonna has undertaken. When she first publicly commented after her near-death, she posted about her two concerns: “her children” and “not disappointing anyone who bought tickets for my tour.” That passion and dedication has been a hallmark since her days at the University of Michigan and single handedly propelled her through the drug- and crime-crusted New York of the ‘70s. In this era of the superstar and the endless tour, with all of the demands on our attention, you can keep your red scarf and your holographic horse.
2023 ends up being the year of Madonna after all. The tour begins and she gets a book-length work dealing with her as the serious cultural force she has been and continues to be. As we look towards whatever comes next for her, she moves forward, back straight, head with crown of thorns atop, unbowed. You know people are going to talk about it. Why? Because, to paraphrase a song of hers, “Bitch, she’s Madonna.”
