Madonna

Madonna Louise Ciccone (born August 16, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for maintaining her autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions which have also been known to induce controversy. Often referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she is cited as an influence among other artists around the world. Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna attended the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance before moving to New York City to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an auxiliary label of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, she has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Into the Groove", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".

Links To Peel
In the 80's Peel was a fan of Madonna's music and went to see her perform at Wembley in 1987 with his family, where he also saw support act, The Bhundu Boys, who were one of his favourite artists from Zimbabwe. Despite virtually not playing Madonna on his shows, Peel in the media admitted liking her records and in an article published in the Observer (later re-published in the Olivetti Chronicles) on 23rd August 1987, he stated:
 * "Before we take another step, I should emphasise that I like Madonna records; which as they echo without respite from our William's bedroom and what is left of my radio cassette player, is just as well"

On Peeling Back The Years 2 (Transcript) broadcast in 1987 on BBC Radio One with John Walters, when asked a question about mainstream music, Peel stated:
 * " A lot of the records that get into the charts – I find utterly repellent, that annoy me a lot, and it makes me very cross hearing them on the radio. I mean, that has always been the case. I think perhaps more recently, having got, having children of my own, has sort of mellowed me a little bit, so I can now listen to the records that they like, things like Madonna and Europe and so forth, without having dangerous increases in blood pressure and so forth"

On S4C's Welsh language music programme Fideo 9 in 1988, when asked a similar question about non-mainstream music, Peel replied:
 *  'Well I quite like records from people like Madonna and so on, but a lot of other people play those and I'm interested in what goes on in the fringes' 

On 11 July 1989, listeners Dave and Michaela requested Peel to play a Madonna track on his show, which Peel responded by stating:


 * "I've just had a Dave and a Michaela and a somebody from York who want me to play a Madonna record. Well, this is obviously one of those rare programmes I do that doesn't have a Madonna record in it. Isn't life like that in so many ways."

By the end of the 90's, Peel seemed not to have any interest in Madonna, when on 01 September 1999, he mentioned in response to a listener enquiry about whether he had ever completed the NME crossword he replied:


 * "I've never tried it, I must admit, because there are whole areas of popular music about which I know nothing at all. you know, if someone said to me like, name three Madonna hits or die, I should have no choice but to just drop dead at their feet."

On 21 February 2002, Peel teased his listeners that he will play a Madonna record, which later out turned out to be from another singer also called Madonna(2) who was from Lebanon.

Madonna's debut self titled album later was found in Peel's Record Collection: M after his death in 2004.

Shows Played
1993 TOTP
 * 05 April 1993 (John Peel Is Jakki Brambles): Fever (single) Maverick (JP: 'She's such fun, isn't she? That's Madonna of course and her version of 'Fever'. I'll play you the original now, not as you're probably thinking, 'not that Peggy Lee record!' - no, no. The original was by Little Willie John and was one of the great records of all time.')
 * 08 April 1993 (John Peel Is Jakki Brambles): Fever (single) Maverick (JP: 'Ah, another grumpy fax here. This is from all the boys from Carder's timber merchants in New Barnet, especially Lawrence the governor. He says 'bring back Bramble quickly, we can't take much more of this Peel fella. Has anybody heard of John or Jill or any other record he's been playing' - there was a time you know when you wouldn't have heard a Madonna.')
 * 03 January 1985 (TOTP): Like A Virgin
 * 07 March 1985 (TOTP): Material Girl


 * 25 December 1985 (TOTP): Into The Groove / Crazy For You

Covered
(The list below was compiled only from the Cover Versions page of this site. Please add more information if known.) Artist | Track | First Known Play
 * Ciccone Youth: Into the Groove(y) 13 July 1991
 * Drop Nineteens: Angel 22 November 1992 (BFBS)
 * Paska: Who's That Girl 1990 (Radio Mafia)
 * Teenage Fanclub: Like A Virgin 26 August 1991 (Radio Bremen)
 * We The Living: Mixed Up World ('Material Girl') 11 August 1987
 * Sally Yeh: 200 Degrees (200度) (Material Girl) 25 November 1986