Biography
Madonna Louise Ciccone was born on August 16, 1958, in Bay City, Michigan, to devout Catholic parents.[7] She left home for New York at seventeen to pursue dance and music, and became one of the best-selling pop artists of all time.
Her mother died of breast cancer when she was five, a loss that surfaces repeatedly in her work, most directly on the 1989 album Like a Prayer.[3] By 1989 she was thirty, newly divorced from the actor Sean Penn, and moving from pop provocateur toward more personal songwriting.[1][3]
Her Catholic upbringing, which she has described as a lasting source of both guilt and inspiration, drives the religious imagery of "Like a Prayer." That imagery brought a Vatican condemnation and the cancellation of a Pepsi endorsement worth a reported five million dollars.[1][5]
References
- Like a Prayer (song) - Wikipedia — Recording history, Madonna's statements, Prince and Leonard's roles, video details, chart performance and critical reception.
- Madonna's Like a Prayer album anniversary - Albumism — Anniversary retrospective covering her mother's death, her Catholic upbringing and track-by-track themes.
- The Madonna video that made Pepsi pull a multimillion-dollar ad - American Songwriter — Account of the Pepsi deal and its cancellation after the video's release.
- Madonna - Biography.com — Birth details, family background and Catholic upbringing.