Still full of `Life'

MADONNA: AMERICAN LIFE IF THERE ever was an artiste who was made for a column like Milestones, it has to be the Material Girl herself, Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone.

Born with a very long name in Bay City, Michigan on Aug 16, 1958, her father Sylvio Ciccone was a design engineer for Chrysler/ General Motors, whilst her mother (also named Madonna) died of breast cancer when the young Material Girl was six.

This led to basically the world shattering for her, a fact that has been used as material for her songs in practically all of her output. She started her career as a ballerina, later taking the plunge into the music world at the age of 24 with her first single, the dance-club hit Everybody, in 1982; the rest, as they say, was history.

Though her eponymous debut album did fairly well, Madonna's notoriety was certainly enhanced by Like A Virgin; the Hit Me Baby, One More Time of the day, if your imagination can stretch that far. Of course, Maddie's efforts are not surprisingly of a much better quality than `Oops, I took off my clothes again' Spears.

It would be pointless to list out her hits, because there are so many that are still fan favourites after all this time (Papa Don't Preach is still the highlight of her output for me). Suffice to say, The Immaculate Collection is aptly named, and is consistently more listenable than the second compilation Greatest Hits Volume 2 (GHV2), though that collection is not too bad, either.

The woman who justly earned her title of Queen of Pop (at the same time that Michael Jackson earned his King of Pop moniker) does know how to give the crowd what it wants - or rather, what it thinks it wants. Her concerts are legendary spectacles of choreography, clich, controversy and colour, from the first show right up to the Drowned World Tour of last year.

Granted, the concerts are not personal - Kylie Minogue's Live In Sydney comes to mind - but what a show you get! As for her spotty acting career,...