At 60, is Madonna rising from her ashes?
New model to the baby boomer generation, Madonna is celebrating her 60th birthday this Thursday, August 16, after having reigned over the music industry for 30 years. Provocative and ready to do anything to embody the cult of youth, would the queen of pop sign her comeback?
Lascivious pose, black capeline, cascade of blonde hair, nightie and garter belt… Forty years after the start of her career, Madonna, who is celebrating her 60th birthday this Thursday, August 16, appears without complexes on the front page of Vogue Italia dated September . The queen of pop has published on her Instagram account a series of photos immortalized by the duo of photographers Mert & Marcus - the same who had signed her clip Girl Gone Wild in 2012. Proof that in 2018, the Madonna displays a Sixty flourished and without complex.
Would the queen of provocation finally have her revenge? Because the interpreter of Like A Virgin has come a long way. Between repeated controversies, commercial fiascos and the quest for eternal youth, the popstar has suffered a flood of uninterrupted criticism for several years. In March 2016, it was the subject of a vitriolic study. Jeetendr Sehdev, professor of marketing at the University of Southern California, then delivers a final verdict: Madonna has become "toxic" to young audiences. At the time, the researcher asked no less than 1,000 young adults about their perception of the singer, reports The Independent. Result: "Madonna's desperate attempts to gain attention have tainted her legacy." Worse yet, "his desire to stay close to a younger audience cost his franchise a billion dollars."
Fifteen times less influential than singer Adele among the younger generation, Madonna has also seen her popularity decline by 23% with her early admirers, the study reveals. Not to mention the disappointments generated in 2015 by the Rebel Heart tour, and the many media setbacks suffered by the singer.
Queen of pop and fashion icon for three decades
Yet there was a time when Madonna Louise Ciccone (real name) ruled the entire music industry. Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, it was at the age of 20 that the young woman took her first steps as a dancer on the New York scene. A year later in 1979, she was a backing vocalist for the French artist Patrick Hernandez, in full glory with Born To Be Alive. Tired of living in the shadow of her peers, it was in October 1982 that Madonna exploded with the release of Everybody, her first single. The title is performed for the first time at Danceteria, a New York nightclub. Success in nightclubs upon its release, it ranks number 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance / Club Play Chart.
In 1984, the machine was launched. Madonna climbs to pole position on the American charts with Like A Virgin, the first track from her second album of the same name. A few months later with Material Girl (from the same album) Madonna becomes a pop icon. Coast to heart, she then had a passionate romance with rising Hollywood star Sean Penn, whom she married on a beach in Malibu in 1985.
At 26, Madonna has a fortune of $ 50 million, making her one of the youngest multi-millionaires in the world. In 1987 with the Who's That Girl Tour, she embarked on a first world tour of 38 dates crossing Japan, the United States and Europe. On August 29, in front of 130,000 spectators at the Parc de Sceaux, she caused a sensation by throwing her panties to the public. With 38 dates, her tour brought in no less than $ 25 million and the singer won all the votes. With one exception. Deemed too provocative, it was boycotted by Pope John Paul II in person. Sassy, glamorous and innovative, Madonna is also becoming a fashion icon. For the Madonna, Jean Paul Gaultier imagines the iconic conical bra that will never leave her. The cult piece will even be its most faithful ally on the steps of the Cannes Film Festival in 1991. The whole world then celebrates the "Queen of Pop", which appears on the cover of Time magazine, US Vogue, or even Vanity. British and American Fair. Separated from Sean Penn since December 1987, Madonna married director Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes) in 2000, before divorcing in 2008.
From top to flop
Madonna has not made the top 40 or the Hot 100 since March 3, 2012
Forty years after the start of her career, Madonna seems to have fallen from her pedestal. "The one who did not hesitate to insult the Catholic Church, who thwarted the barriers of sexuality and popularized Voguing, now belongs to the 500 celebrities considered the least" honest "," authentic ", and" cool "" of our time, argues The Independent. And for good reason: under fire from critics, the Madonna has been skidding for twenty years.
Starting with the commercial fiascos. In 2009, the single Revolver inherited the 130th place in the English charts, a few weeks after its release. In 2015, journalist Hugh McIntyre called the album Rebel Heart a "commercial flop" on the Forbes site. "In fact, Madonna hasn't made it into the top 40 or the Hot 100 since March 3, 2012, when her single Give Me All Your Luvin ran out of steam," he wrote at the time.
Difficult for a "veteran" artist to hit hard without falling into commercial music, explained Neil McCormik in 2012 in an article in the Telegraph. The journalist points out that in 30 years, the biggest success of Mick Jagger in the charts was his appearance in the clip Moves Like Jagger, of Maroon Five and Christina Aguilera. Madonna's biggest challenge is therefore to compose between the faithful who want to see her play her greatest hits and new audiences to conquer.
But the popstar struggles to forget the multiple controversies that have punctuated his concerts. In 2012, Madonna created a sensation at the Miami Ultra Music Festival. The object of the scandal? The singer, 54 at the time, asks an enthusiastic crowd Have you seen Molly? (“Have you seen ecstasy?”). That same year in Paris, she only performed 45 minutes at the Olympia ... because of her 45 minutes late. Outraged spectators shout "Pay back, pay back!" "And others" Death to the queen! ".
Media setbacks and eternal youth
Even more than his media escapades, the star's eternal quest for youth ended up annoying his loyal following. In 2010, Madonna created Material Girls, a clothing brand for teenage girls, and launched her chain of Hard Candy Fitness Centers. On social networks, she takes pleasure in highlighting her vertiginous cleavage, especially in a pink dress signed Moschino, or even her generous butt in a Versace outfit.
"It's not that a 50-year-old woman can't be on the dance floor," music critic Helen Brown wrote in 2012 in an article on MDNA. But a woman who visibly puts so much of the energy of despair into sounding like a teenager and singing like one misses the very essence of pop, of parties… of life. " To which the diva retorted in the columns of The Cut: "It's an outdated, patriarchal idea that a woman should stop being funny, curious, adventurous, beautiful, or sexy after the age of 40." However, social networks and the press are not necessarily tender with the star, lingering on her hands - one of the few parts of the body that can betray her age - or pinning her when she has kissed a full mouth one Drake grimacing, and twice as young as her, at the Coachella festival in 2015.
And in January 2015, the popstar was forced to apologize publicly after the Instagram posts of montages of civil rights activists like Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Bob Marley, their faces surrounded by black threads. An unsubtle reference to the cover of his latest album Rebel Heart. A month later, she compared France to Nazi Germany at the microphone of Europe 1. Everything in elegance. Known for her strong political opinions, the popstar was talked about again in January 2017 by saying that she "thought a lot about blowing up the White House" after the election of Donald Trump. Five months later, Madonna is erected to the rank of "queen of the flop" by Google, which when Internet users type these words systematically redirects them to ... the singer's Wikipedia page.
Finally, always more megalomaniac, last June on Instagram she did not hesitate to photoshop one of Jay-Z and Beyoncé's clips at the Louvre to place her own portrait.
An intact myth
Convinced "of raising the next Ronaldo" as she puts it in the columns of Vogue Italia, Madonna complains that she "has no more life" since following her son Rocco, 13, in his sporting activities. The latter joined the training center of the Benfica football club in Lisbon. Besides Rocco, the singer has five other children: Lourdes Leon, 21, David Ciccone Ritchie and Mercy James, 12, and twins Estere and Stella Ciccone, 5.
The Madonna version 2018 therefore moves to the Portuguese capital, "to flee the America of Donald Trump", multiplies the strange videos - we see her dancing in charlotte in the Mercy James pediatric center, in Malawi - and is the subject of accusations of sexual harassment made by model Amanda Cazalet. Is the Queen of Pop about to lose her crown? Nothing is less sure. His 2012 Super Bowl halftime performance remains the ninth most-watched concert in history to this day. The BBC has planned to pay tribute on Thursday to the singer's career, as well as to her colleagues Michael Jackson and Prince. Director Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story) could have her play her own role in the Pose series. In July 2018, The Telegraph listed "Eight Ways Madonna Changed the World." The popstar may have had some serious setbacks in recent years. But the Madonna myth is not about to collapse.
