Madonna Concerts Setlist

Madonna Louise Ciccone, better known by her stage mononym Madonna, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan. Madonna grew up in a deeply Catholic family with an Italian-American father, hence she’s named after the Virgin Mary. Despite that, her father married the family housekeeper after her mother passed away from breast cancer, which led to a lot of friction and resentment in the family. At a young age, she learnt to play the piano and took ballet lessons. She proved to be exceptionally talented in the latter, which earned her a dance scholarship at the University of Michigan.

However, Madonna dropped out of college and moved to New York City where she worked as a backup dancer and part-time fast food worker. In 1979, her boyfriend Dan Gilroy founded the new wave band “The Breakfast Club”, in which Madonna sang backup vocals, and played the drums and the guitar.

Madonna left the group in 1984 to focus on her solo career. The Breakfast Club went on to achieve some success in the music industry after, mainly with their 1987 hit single “Right on Track”. However, by the time she left them, Madonna had two hit solo songs near the top of the charts, “Everybody” and “Burning Up”.

Her self-titled debut album, “Madonna”, came out in July 1983, published by Sire Records. It became a massive hit, peaking at the #8 spot on the Billboard 200 chart. The success of her debut album led her to land a role in the 1985 romantic drama “Vision Quest”.

Her second studio album, “Like a Virgin” from November 1984, made her an international superstar. It is still one of the best selling albums of all time with 21 million copies sold worldwide. The titular track, “Like a Virgin”, topped the charts in the US for many weeks, and sent her to her very first Madonna cocnert tour across the US and Canada.

Since then, Madonna has released 12 more studio albums, thus she has 14 in total. The best selling one among them is her third one, “True Blue” from June 1986, which sold a staggering 25 million copies worldwide. Meanwhile, the latest new Madonna album is titled “Madame X”, which came out in June 2019.

Madonna’s biggest hits to date are the aforementioned “Like a Virgin” (1984), “Material Girl” (also 1984), “La Isla Bonita” (1987), “Like a Prayer” (1989), and “Hung Up” (2005). Her legacy in the world of music still holds up, although rare, a Madonna concert is still bound to fill an arena anywhere.

She married famous actor Sean Penn in 1985 but they divorced in 1989. She’s also had a commendable career as a film actress, appearing in such movies as “Dick Tracy“ (1990), “A League of Their Own” (1992), and “Evita” (1996).