sourceMadonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone /tʃɪˈkoʊneɪ/ chi-KOH-nay; August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, director, dancer, and entrepreneur. She has sold more than 300 million records worldwide and is recognized as the world's best-selling female recording artist in history by Guinness World Records. Considered to be one of the "25 Most Powerful Women of the Past Century" by Time for being an influential figure in contemporary music, she is known for continuously reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry. Critics have praised her diverse musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy.
Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album in 1983. She followed it with a series of albums that attained immense popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Throughout her career, many of her songs have hit number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Papa Don't Preach", "Into the Groove" "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".
