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Elsie Mae Fortin 1911-2011
You can also read this article at Madonna Radio Elsie Mae Fortin, maternal grandmother of Madonna, has died aged 99. She was born in Standish, Michigan, on June 19, 1911, to French-Canadian, Catholic...
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I Am Because We Are
Wishing Madonna Ciccone a happy 53rd birthday… Madonna and Malawi: ‘I Am Because We Are’ “People have asked, “Why did you choose Malawi?” I always answer, “I didn’t. Malawi chose me.” Madonna’s...
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‘Madonna and Me’
My review of Madonna & Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop, a new anthology from Soft Skull Press, is published today at For Books’ SakeFiled under: Books, Madonna, Music, Non-Fiction Tagged:...
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MDNA
The title of Madonna’s twelfth studio album was announced, tentatively, by the artist herself on television. ‘MDNA’ is, of course, an abbreviation of her own name, taking us back to that eponymous...
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Madonna in Paris
Wishing Madonna a happy birthday… Madonna in Paris In the second month of her MDNA World Tour, and at short notice, Madonna staged a unique ‘showcase’ gig for fans at the Olympia Hall in Paris, also...
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Mark Kamins 1955-2013
Photo by Michael McKenzie, 1984 Mark Kamins, the legendary club DJ – who produced Madonna’s first single, and helped her to win a record deal – has died aged 56. He was born on April 13, 1955. “I’ve...
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Madonna by Madonna, at 30
Madonna’s first album – simply titled Madonna – was released on July 27th, 1983. Thirty years later, its influence continues to grow. You can read my review, from the archives, over here. Related...
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‘Like a Prayer’ at 25
Madonna’s fourth studio album, Like a Prayer, was released on March 21, 1989. I was three months away from my 17th birthday when I bought it on vinyl from Our Price Records on Ilford High Street, and...
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‘Like a Virgin’ at 30
Madonna’s career-defining second album, Like a Virgin, was released 30 years ago today, on November 12, 1984. From the archives, read my (now fully expanded) review – here…Filed under: Madonna, Music...
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2014: A Year in Music
My favourite album this year was Lana Del Rey’s dark, brooding Ultraviolence, and my song of the summer was ‘West Coast’. A close second was Lykke Li’s epic tearjerker, I Never Learn. You can watch...
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2015: A Year in Music
Madonna’s Rebel Heart arrived in March, though it leaked months before. Her 13th studio album is a hot mess, with some twenty-five tracks in all: some brilliant, others bizarre, but always...
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2015: A Year in Books
Reading Clarice Lispector for the first time is like falling in love. Each of her stories is a rare jewel. Shocking, funny and wildly imaginative, this collection is a landmark, reclaiming her as one...
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Art Decades 7: Bowie, Madonna and More
Ever since the death of David Bowie in January, there has been an outpouring of public grief. Not corporate-led, but a genuine groundswell of feeling from generations of fans to whom Bowie was not...
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‘True Blue’ at 30
Madonna’s third album, True Blue, was released on June 30, 1986. Recorded during the honeymoon period of her stormy marriage to Sean Penn, and revealing a sleeker, more sophisticated style, True Blue...
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Art Decades 8: Prince, Madonna and More
“Most people are born dead/But I was born alive,” Prince Rogers Nelson sang on one of his final cuts, ‘Way Back Home.’ In Art Decades: Volume 8 I pay tribute to Prince and explore his volatile...
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Liz Smith 1923-2017
Liz Smith, the veteran gossip columnist known as the ‘doyenne of dish’, has died aged 94. She was born Mary Elizabeth Smith in Fort Worth, and graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in...
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Madonna’s ‘Erotica’ At 25
In 1991, Madonna’s fame was at its height. Truth or Dare, her behind-the-scenes documentary filmed during the Blond Ambition tour a year earlier, caused a sensation with its revealing take on the...
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When Avicii Met Madonna
In March 2012, Madonna made a surprise appearance at the Ultra Music Festival in Miami alongside the twenty-three year-old Swedish DJ/producer Avicii. She had enlisted him to remix her latest single,...
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Reggie Lucas 1953-2018
Reginald Grant Lucas was born in Queens, New York in 1953, the son of a doctor and a teacher. “Although no one in the family was a musician or singer,” he recalled, “music was an important and natural...
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‘You May Be My Lucky Star…’
From the age of eleven, my Saturdays would often include a trip to the record department at Boots to buy a 7-inch single. One of these was ‘Lucky Star’ by Madonna. Along with ‘Holiday’, it was one of...
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