Madonna turns 60: 6 things you might not know about the queen of pop
Madonna is on her birthday.
The queen of pop was born on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, although she soon moved to New York to succeed in the world of music.
Singer, songwriter, actress, choreographer, producer, and businesswoman, Madonna Louise Ciccone has had a 35-year artistic career and practically everything has been written about her.
On the occasion of her anniversary, we recover some of the less known or less prominent facets of the artist.
1. Winner of the Golden Globe
Madonna's talents as an actress are not usually her most praised talent, despite having starred in more than 20 films.
Many of them received fatal reviews and went on to swell the lists of the worst films of their corresponding year.
However, there are some exceptions.
She even went on to win a Golden Globe (the awards given by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association) for best actress in a comedy or musical for her role in "Evita."
It was in 1997 and won over renowned actresses such as Frances McDormand, Glenn Close, Debbie Reynolds and Barbra Streisand.
2. Love for Latin
From very early in her career, Madonna did not hide her admiration and affinity for Latin, something that was reflected for the first time in her song "La isla bonita" (1986) that some experts suggest could be a declaration of love for Puerto Rico. or the Puerto Rican presence in New York City.
Her next album, Like a Prayer, also featured Latin sounds and for the American Life album cover, Madonna was inspired by Che Guevara.
The video clips of the songs Deeper and Deeper (Erotica, 1992), Take a Bow (Bedtime Stories, 1994) and You'll See (Something to Remember, 1995) contain multiple references to Spanish culture. In the last two, the Spanish bullfighter Emilio Muñoz appears.
Without forgetting the aforementioned film "Evita" where Madonna played the role of Argentine politician Eva Perón.
In her personal life, Madonna has also approached the Latin world. Her first daughter, Lourdes MarÃa, was born from her romantic relationship with Cuban coach Carlos León. She was also a partner of the Brazilian model Jesús Luz.
On one occasion, when discussing "La isla bonita" and her long-standing collaboration with producer Patrick Leonard, Madonna said: "In almost everything I do with it, if it's fast paced, there is a Latin feel. It's very strange. We both thought we were Latino in a previous life. "
3. Victim of brontophobia
Among Madonna's hobbies, it is noted that she sets countless conditions when she goes on tour, from the size of the flowers she wants in her room to the number of phone lines she demands to have at her disposal.
It is also said that her team thoroughly cleans the stage after each concert of the singer in order not to leave traces of her DNA.
But what we are going to tell you is not a mania but a fear.
Madonna suffers from brontophobia, an anxiety disorder that is based on an intense fear of storms, thunder and lightning.
4. Snub the Walk of Fame
If you want to keep someone busy (and ruin part of their vacation), ask a friend who is visiting Los Angeles to send you a photo of Madonna's star on the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame.
It will spin up and down, but it won't find it.
Oddly enough, Madonna doesn't have a star on the streets that have hundreds of famous names on their sidewalks, from Marilyn Monroe to Selena Quintanilla to so many others.
It is said that in 1990, the body that manages the award of the stars invited the singer to leave her mark on the streets of the entertainment capital, but Madonna showed no interest.
Time passed and the invitation expired.
5. Really excommunicated?
Madonna's relations with the hierarchy of the Catholic Church have not been the most cordial.
The provocative style of her early years on hits like Like a Virgin (1984) and Papa Don't Preach (1986) culminated in the hit Like a Prayer (1989).
The commotion was caused by the video that accompanies the song, in which there are burning crosses, Gospel singers who move with enthusiasm within a small parish and a Madonna who maintains a more than sensual relationship with a saint.
The scandal was not minor and companies like Pepsi stopped promoting the singer.
From religious instances, a boycott of the artist was also called and it was requested that concerts of her Blond Ambition Tour (1989) be suspended due to religious references and scenes of high sexual content.
Madonna's behavior did not change. In 2006, as part of the Confessions World Tour, the singer appeared on a cross with a crown of thorns.
Cardinal Ersilio Tonino, in statements approved by the then Pope Benedict XVI, said: "This time the limits have gone too far. This concert is a blasphemous challenge to the faith and a desecration of the cross. It should be excommunicated."
The Vatican has not officially ruled on whether or not that decision was made in the end, but Madonna herself recently said that she has been excommunicated three times.
She did it in the popular Carpool Karaoke space, by the British James Corden, to whom she confessed that as a young man she wanted to be a nun. "I like her uniform, it's kind of perverse, I imagine everything happens under the habit."
6. Survivor of '58
Madonna has outlived the other two American pop-funk music idols of the '80s: Michael Jackson and Prince.
Interestingly, all three artists were born in 1958.
The contemporaneity of these three stars led to one of the most successful eras for pop music.
It has also survived the other great pop diva of that era, Whitney Houston, who while not belonging to the "vintage of 58", coincided with all of them at the top of the charts.
The recipe? "I'm pretty boring," the singer told James Corden, whom she confided in that she doesn't smoke, don't drink and don't party.
A "boredom" that has made him arrive in full capacity and active at 60 years of age.
