Madonna will visit NZ and play for the first time at Vector Arena. Photo / Supplied
Madonna will visit NZ and play for the first time at Vector Arena. Photo / Supplied
Madonna is finally headed to New Zealand for the first time and we thought it might be good to remind you why she has been - and remains - one of pop's biggest and most intriguing figures.
It's all her fault
There's no doubt Madonna's influence has been both broad and enduring. She was the first Queen of Pop, breaking into an industry that was dominated by men with impressive force. She also changed the role of women with her fearless attitude towards sharing opinions, and introducing new ideas of feminism and sexuality.
She broke taboos, created controversy, was stylistically adventurous, and throughout it all, exerted remarkable control over her own career. Wikipedia lists over 150 artists who have named her as an influence (Katy Perry, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, and Britney Spears among them, as well as Adam Lambert and Justin Timberlake), and the reason the world's music charts are now dominated by solo female artists is certainly, in major part, down to Madonna.
She's not just a successful pop musician, who continues to try her hand at all sorts of genres, but a cultural icon whose creative output will be referenced for decades to come.
She went viral before the internet existed
Remember the furore that her "touched for the very first time" lyrics from hit single Like A Virgin sparked in 1984? How about the videos for Like A Prayer or Justify My Love, clips that were big on religious imagery? What about Madonna's best-selling 1992 coffee table porn anthology Sex that critics branded "hardcore pornography"?
Or her 1994 interview with David Letterman where she swore, called him names and handed over her underwear.
It's fair to say most of Madonna's controversies have been expertly contrived.
But her biggest ones were all done before Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. In short, she went viral before "going viral" was possible. And that's no mean feat.
Video did not kill this radio star
From choosing to work with directors like David Fincher on the kaleidoscopic video for Vogue, and the elaborate Express Yourself, which drew on Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Marlene Dietrich, Madonna really pushed the boat out with her videos.
From lion-taming to peep shows, Marilyn Monroe to the S&M fest of Justify Your Love she's played with all sorts of high and low concepts, and even won a Grammy for the urban time-lapse of Ray Of Light.
She also pioneered the notion of making your live stage show look like your music videos, taking costume and set design cues from various music video singles, and pouring them on stage through her cone-shaped bras, religious iconography, cowgirl get-up, and all kinds of leather underwear.
She sure got around
From directors to rappers, actors, politicians and one-hit wonders, Madonna's love life has remained a source of amazement. She's been married twice, first to Sean Penn from 1985 to 1987, then to British director Guy Ritchie, a relationship that spawned one child, Rocco Ritchie, and one appalling movie, the Guy Ritchie-directed Swept Away. In total, she has four children: Lourdes (her father is fitness instructor Carlos Leon), 18, Rocco, 14, and adopted children Mercy James, 9 and David Banda, 9. But it's Madonna's rotating cast of famous boyfriends that really keeps the gossip mags busy.
Vanilla Ice. Photo / Getty Images
Her list includes musicians Vanilla Ice, Mark McGrath and Tupac, magician David Blaine, artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, actor Warren Beatty, politician John Kennedy jnr, basketballer Dennis Rodman and, most recently, 27-year-old Dutch dancer Timor Steffens. She's also reportedly dated two women: model Jenny Shimizu and nightclub owner Ingrid Casares - but these remain rumours. And she's also pashed Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and, more recently, Drake at Coachella in front of 70,000 people. But the less said about that, the better.
She stayed on top of the pop game
Let's forget about her most recent album, Rebel Heart, and remember the good times, because Madonna has had a lot of them. Her biggest asset is one that many a pop star has tried to mimic: yes, she has the ability to reinvent herself with every album, but she also aligns herself with emerging talent and producers on the rise. She worked with Nile Rodgers on her 1984 album Like A Virgin way before Daft Punk made him cool (again).
On 1998's Ray of Light she and dance music guru William Orbit crafted a synth-pop classic that earned four Grammy awards and sparked a resurgence in rave music.
And 2008's Hard Candy attracted a certified dream team that included The Neptunes, Timbaland, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West. They've all done pretty well since then. Just saying.
We bought lots of her records
She's sold an estimated 300 million albums worldwide and she's the biggest selling female artists of all time. Here, in the past 30 years she's had five New Zealand number one singles - Into The Groove (1985), Like a Prayer (1989), Vogue (1990), Music (2000). and Don't Tell Me (2001).
Those are just the ones which reached the top spot. Madonna holds the record - 53 - for entries into the New Zealand top 40 single charts. Her albums Like a Virgin (1984), True Blue (1986) and Ray of Light (1998) topped the NZ charts too.
She gets knocked down ...
Madonna's worst reviews have long been for her movie performances. She's had a couple of good films - her scene stealing turn in 1985's Desperately Seeking Susan set up the possibility she might have screen career too. But what did she do when no one liked her films? She kept making them, even directing and writing a few in recent years. No one went to see them either. Didn't seem to worry her.
And after 30 years of "wardrobe malfunctions" - "oh, darn, it appears my frock has fallen off and I appear to be singing in my pointy Gaultier underwear again. Deal with it" - she finally had a real one, falling backwards down stairs after tripping over her matador cape on stage at the Brit Awards this year.
She got up and kept singing. 'Cause she's tough. Matador? Well, she's been like a red rag to a bull for most of her career.
Who: Madonna Where: Vector Arena When: March 5 and 6 2016
