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Bedtime Stories

Bedtime Stories

There are two albums called Bedtime Stories:
- Bedtime Stories by Madonna
- Bedtime Stories by Darediablo

Album (Music)

An album is a collection of related audio tracks, released together commercially in an audio format to the public. The term "record album" originated from the fact that 78 RPM gramophone or phonograph disc records were kept together in a book resembling a photo album. Later, "album" came to refer to a single long-playing 33⅓ RPM 12-inch record of songs or music, since one disc contained as much music as an old-style album of records. The standard industry format for popular music was an album of 12 songs, originally the number related to payment of composer royalties. Now that the vinyl record is archaic, the term "album" is applied to any collection sound recording, including CD, MiniDisc, and cassette. Even a set of tracks released at the same time for distribution on an online music download site is sometimes referred to as an album. Due to the large capacity of new media, the matter of how long an album should be is open to debate. One author suggested at least eight tracks, but there are albums of fewer tracks. According to the rules of the British Charts, a recording counts as an album if either it has at least four tracks or lasts more than 20 minutes. Sometimes shorter albums are referred to as EPs, an abbreviation of extended play. The term "mini-album" may also be used. Returning to the older meaning of the term, there are now albums of compact discs: collections of CDs in a single package. If such a collection is packaged in a box, it is known as a box set.

Madonna (entertainer)

Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone; Veronica is her chosen confirmation name; on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan) is an American multi-Grammy Award winning pop and rock artist and composer, Golden Globe winning actress and bestselling author. Making her debut in the early 1980s, she has become the most successful female solo artist of all time (according to Guinness World Records). According to her label, Warner Bros., she has sold over 200 million albums, worldwide. [http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=97678] Madonna currently resides in Wiltshire, England with her husband, film director Guy Ritchie and her two children.

Biography

Childhood & Beginning

Madonna was born to an Italian-American Chrysler engineer, Silvio "Tony" P. Ciccone, and Madonna Louise Fortin (from a French Canadian family in Bay City, Michigan) and identifies herself as an Italian American. She was raised in a Catholic family of eight children in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Rochester Hills. Her mother died at the age of thirty, of breast cancer, on December 1 1963, when Madonna was only five. The singer has frequently discussed the enormous impact her mother's death had on her life and career. Following his wife's death, Silvio brought in a housekeeper, Joan Gustafson. He later married her and had two children. Silvio required all of his children to take music lessons. After a few months of piano lessons, Madonna convinced her father to allow her to take ballet classes instead, and she proved to be a gifted dancer. Madonna attended Rochester Adams High School, where she was a straight-A student and excelled at sports. She was a member of the cheerleading squad, honing her dance skill. After graduating from high school in 1976, Madonna received a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan. At the encouragement of her ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn, Madonna left college at the end of her second year and moved to New York City to pursue a dance career. She studied with modern dance legend Martha Graham, as well as a Graham disciple, Pearl Lang. Madonna later performed with several modern dance companies, including Alvin Ailey and the Walter Nicks dancers. After performing as a dancer for French disco star Patrick Hernandez on his 1979 world tour, Madonna abandoned her fledgeling dance career to pursue music. She formed several bands, including "Breakfast Club" and "Emmy". She also wrote a number of songs that brought her local fame in New York dance clubs, particularly Danceteria.

1980s

The First Album

Danceteria In 1982 the singer inked a deal with Sire Records. Her demo song, "Ain't No Big Deal", was written by her frequent collaborator, Stephen Bray, but was shelved for several years because it had recently been recorded and released by the Epic Records group Barracuda. Madonna's first single was "Everybody", produced by Mark Kamins, which peaked at #3 on the Billboard Dance chart. It gained heavy rotation on R&B radio stations, leading many to assume that Madonna was an African American artist. When "Everybody" was released as a single, Madonna's picture did not appear on the single cover sleeve, because Sire did not want to risk losing the black audience (Madonna's core audience at that point) by advertising that Madonna was white. "Burning Up", Madonna's second single like "Everbody" failed to break into the Billboard Hot 100, but this time "Burning Up" even failed to chart in the Bubbling Under chart. The song did manage to peak at number 3 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Club Play Chart, staying on the chart for 16 weeks. In 1983, her self-titled first album, Madonna, was released, and its first single, "Holiday", was Madonna's first top 20 hit single in several countries. Other hits on Madonna included "Borderline" and "Lucky Star". The album was produced by Reggie Lucas and with contributions from John 'Jellybean' Benitez, with whom Madonna had had a brief romance. Although the album sold only moderately at first, thanks to heavy rotation on a brand new cable channel called MTV, Madonna gained nationwide exposure and the album peaked at number eight on the Billboard chart, and went platinum five times. MTV aggressively marketed Madonna's image as a playful and sexy combination of punk and pop culture, and she soon became a fixture on the network. Her bleached blonde hair (with brown roots), sexy lace gloves, lingerie on the outside and "Boy Toy" belt buckle became popular in malls and schoolyards across America. In many ways, she defined pop fashion of the era.

Like a Virgin

punk In 1984 Madonna released Like a Virgin. The album, produced by the legendary Nile Rodgers, had a distinctive soul and funk flavor, with hard, loud drums and plenty of bass guitar, yet remained pop-friendly and accessible. The title track has been a worldwide hit and topped the U.S. charts for six weeks. Madonna's performance at the First Annual MTV Video Music Awards in 1984 at the age of 26 is considered to be the first controversial incident since then in a career that would see many more. She took the stage to sing "Like A Virgin" wearing a combination bustier/wedding gown, which included her trademark "Boy Toy" belt. During the performance, she rolled around on the floor, revealing lacy stockings and garters, and made a number of sexually suggestive moves. While such a performance would probably not raise eyebrows today, it was shocking to a mid-1980s audience. However, Madonna seemed to thrive on the controversy, and it only served to increase her popularity. The record spawned three other hits, all of which went to Billboard's Top Five. Like a Virgin was the first time Madonna used what became a continuing career strategy: a change of image. Where Madonna had been mostly synthesizers and dance beats, featuring a "street urchin" version of the singer, the image projected in Like a Virgin was lacy and sensual, with Madonna portraying Lolita-like sexual decadence. In 1985, she made a brief appearance in the film Vision Quest playing a club singer, with the song she performed, "Crazy for You", becoming her second number-one hit. It garnered her the first of many Grammy nominations, and the song's video, combining clips from the movie with Madonna singing, was in heavy rotation on MTV for months. Later that same year, she received commercial and critical success for her starring role in Susan Seidelman's film Desperately Seeking Susan. This era of Madonna's career also saw the advent of the "Madonna Wannabe". Across America, teenage girls went to great lengths to emulate their idol, dressing in spandex, miniskirts, torn t-shirts, and lacy bras, with armfuls of black rubber bangles, teased, bow-tied hair and a stressed mole above the lip. Madonna has remarked in interviews that it was startling to see girls dressing like her all over the country, because her "look" was based mainly on recycled streetwear during her lean years, using old hosiery to tie up her hair and cutting up old shirts. Also in 1985, Madonna launched her first full-scale live performance tour, called "The Virgin Tour". Every stop on the tour sold out; tickets for the opening night performance in Seattle were gone in thirty-three minutes. Around this time, a number of black and white nude photos of Madonna surfaced, published in both Penthouse and Playboy magazines. The photos were taken during the late 1970s, when she posed for art photographers in New York City as a way to make money. 1985 proved to be a pivotal year both professionally and personally for Madonna. Along with enjoying the commercial success of the Like A Virgin album and tour and her film appearances, she also met and fell in love with actor Sean Penn. On her twenty-seventh birthday, August 16 1985, Penn and Madonna were married in an outdoor ceremony in Malibu, California. They divorced four years later due to Sean's abusive nature and Madonna's self proclaimed self absorption.

True Blue

Malibu, California In 1986, Madonna released her third album, True Blue. The album was co-produced by Patrick Leonard and Madonna's longtime friend Stephen Bray. It included the hits, "Open Your Heart", "True Blue", "Live to Tell", "La Isla Bonita", and "Papa Don't Preach". True Blue was described by Rolling Stone as her "blue collar album", while other critics felt the songs were reminiscent of the 1950s. One of the hit songs, "Papa Don't Preach", caused some cultural debate and controversy. In the song, a girl is confessing to her father that she is pregnant. Madonna portrayed a variety of characters in the music videos that accompanied the True Blue album. In the video for "Open Your Heart", Madonna played a stripper who befriends a young boy. In "La Isla Bonita", she played a Spanish woman, which was one of the first indications of Madonna's fondness for the Hispanic culture. Madonna appeared with husband, Sean Penn, in the 1986 film Shanghai Surprise, which was unanimously panned by critics. The couple soon earned a reputation for hostility towards the media, thanks to Penn's frequently violent outbursts against the paparazzi. The paparazzi often referred to the couple as the "Poison Penns". In 1987 Madonna starred in the film Who's That Girl, which was minor worldwide success but flopped in the U.S.. Nevertheless, the soundtrack spawned three hits: the title track, "Causing a Commotion", and "The Look of Love". She also appeared as Hortense in a film called Bloodhounds of Broadway, which was harshly dismissed by many reviewers. Madonna embarked on the "Who's That Girl World Tour", beginning her long association with backing vocalists and dancers Donna DeLory and Niki Haris. The tour marked her first run-in with the Vatican; the Pope urged fans not to attend her performances in Italy. The fans were not affected, however, and the tour went on as scheduled. That year she also released a successful remix album entitled You Can Dance. On September 14 1989 she divorced husband Sean Penn, citing spousal abuse.

Like a Prayer

1989 In 1989, at the age of 31, Madonna released the album Like a Prayer. The album released five singles, including top ten hits "Like a Prayer", " Express Yourself", "Cherish" and "Keep It Together", as well as the top 40 hit "Oh Father". Like a Prayer is often cited by critics as the best album of her career. The music video for Like a Prayer featured many Catholic symbols, such as stigmata, and was denounced by the Vatican for its "blasphemous" mixture of eroticism, Catholic symbolism, and its implied story about racism. (In addition to a scene where police mistake an innocent black man for a murderer, the video features Madonna dancing in a field of burning crosses, a symbol of the KKK's historic terrorism against African Americans.) Madonna had signed a deal with Pepsi, according to which the song "Like a Prayer" would be debuted as a Pepsi commercial in which Madonna would appear. When Madonna's own music video version of the song debuted on MTV, Pepsi pulled theirs off the air and cancelled all plans for future commercials with Madonna. Though the contract with Pepsi called for three future commercials, Madonna got to keep her five-million-dollar endorsement fee without fulfilling her contractual obligations.

1990s

I'm Breathless

MTV In 1990, at the age of 32, she starred as Breathless Mahoney in Dick Tracy alongside Warren Beatty, whom she also briefly dated. She earned some good reviews for the role, though critics pointed out that it continued her tradition of performing well when portraying characters quite similar to herself (in this case, a demanding and powerful vamp). I'm Breathless: Music from and Inspired by the Film 'Dick Tracy' spawned the huge number-one hit, "Vogue", which popularized a dance trend in which people struck poses like fashion models in magazines (such as Vogue, hence the term "voguing"). Widely considered one of her best songs, "Vogue" (also directed by David Fincher) would routinely be ranked as one of the top four music videos of all time by MTV during the early 1990s.

The Immaculate Collection

David Fincher She also released her first greatest hits album, The Immaculate Collection, towards the end of 1990. The album was dedicated to the "Pope", her "divine inspiration". She included fifteen of her biggest hits and two new songs, both top-ten hits. Despite the radio success of the single release of "Justify My Love", the sexual content of both the song's lyrics and its ground-breaking video proved to be too much for MTV, and network executives decided they could not air it. Madonna's record company then decided to sell the video on VHS as a "video single", the first one ever released. The video sold over 400,000 copies, and the CD single sold over one million. In 1991, Madonna starred in her first documentary film, In Bed with Madonna, which chronicled her "Blonde Ambition Tour"; the title was changed to Truth or Dare for its U.S. release. In it, her personality and private life were explored in intimate detail: the star came across as extremely ambitious, demanding, forthright, sexy, and highly intelligent. It also showed her softer side as she confronted family members and visited the grave of her mother. The documentary grossed fifteen million in the U.S. and another twenty million overseas. In 1992, Madonna appeared in the Penny Marshall film, A League of Their Own, which revolved around a women's baseball team. Her performance was heralded by critics as an impressive return to the form she'd hinted at in Desperately Seeking Susan. She wrote and performed the film's theme song, the number-one hit "This Used to Be My Playground". It became a worldwide hit and Madonna's tenth Hot 100 number one single.

Erotica

Hot 100 The erotic book Sex, photographed by Steven Meisel, was released October 21, 1992 and sold for $49.95 each. Adult in nature, it featured Madonna as the centerpiece of photographs along with other pop music artists of the time depicting various sexual fantasies and acts (including lesbianism, and sadomasochism). It became an instant bestseller. In the wake of publicity generated by the book, Madonna, at the age of 34, released her next album, Erotica, in the same year. She co-wrote and produced this record mostly with the legendary Shep Pettibone. Almost a companion piece to the book, it featured bold sexual anthems that made no attempt to disguise their star's appetite for erotic fantasy and role-playing. The album spawned a number of top ten hits, including "Erotica", which became the highest-debuting (number three) single in the history of the Hot 100 Airplay Chart. It was a huge hit, but the controversal erotic video only aired a total of three times on MTV. Body of Evidence was regarded by many commentators as an exercise in soft-core pornography, with Madonna portraying a woman accused of killing her lover by means of sexual intercourse. The film was R-rated and contained copious nudity and graphic sex scenes. Dangerous Game was similar in plot and content. Madonna would later comment that this entire period of her life was designed to give the world every single morsel of what they seemed to be demanding in their invasion of her private life. She hoped that once it was all out in the open, people could settle down and focus on her work.

Bedtime Stories

R-rated In 1994, at the age of 36, Madonna released Bedtime Stories. It included "Secret", produced by Dallas Austin (Who was experiencing incredible popularity with TLC and their song "Creep"), and the number one smash "Take a Bow", penned by singer Babyface, who also sang vocals. "Take a Bow" has been a average worldwide hit but topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for seven consecutive weeks, breaking her previous record of six weeks with "Like a Virgin", and would later assist her in her winning the lead role in Evita. The album was nominated for a Grammy in the same year, and Madonna sang "Take a Bow" at the American Music Awards. In an attempt to improve her acting credentials, Madonna opted over the next few years to take small roles in independent films. She appeared as a singing telegram girl in Blue in the Face (1995) and as a witch in Four Rooms (1995). She played the part of a phone sex company owner in Spike Lee's flop Girl 6 in 1996. Madonna released a greatest ballads album in 1996: Something to Remember. She began to wear fashionable designer dresses and softened her (by now medium length) hair to honey blonde. This may have helped her to secure the coveted role of Eva Perón in the 1996 film adaptation of Evita.

Evita

Evita In 1996, Madonna is Eva Peron in Alan Parker's motion picture Evita. The film marked the first time that Madonna was heralded as an actress in a leading role. She delivered a Golden Globe winning performance and was critically praised. The Evita soundtrack went on to become Madonna's twelfth platinum album, thanks to the singles "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" and "You Must Love Me", the latter receiving an Oscar for best original song in a film. While "You Must Love Me" was a moderate hit on radio and MTV, it was actually a dance remix of "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" that cemented the soundtrack's mainstream pop success. The remix became a worldwide top ten hit in early 1997.

Ray of Light

1997 In 1998 Madonna began studying Kabbalah, a mystical interpretation of the Torah. She took Yoga lessons and pursued a vigorous exercise regime that brought her body to a peak of toned fitness. She became pregnant by her then lover, personal trainer Carlos Leon, and gave birth to her daughter, Lourdes Maria Ciccone Leon (Lola), on October 14 1996. In 1998, at the age of 40, she released Ray of Light, an album co-produced by European electronic music performer William Orbit. The release was Madonna's most critically-acclaimed recording since Like a Prayer, and her biggest hit in nearly ten years, selling more than seventeen million copies worldwide. It spawned three U.S. top-ten singles, with "Frozen" going to number two. Madonna also received three Grammy awards for Ray of Light. Her only previous Grammy was for "The Blonde Ambition Tour", which won the Best Longform video award in 1992. Other singles were "The Power of Good-Bye", "Ray of Light" and the fan favorite "Nothing Really Matters" in which the video Madonna was dressed up as a Geisha. The video for "Ray Of Light" was directed by Scandinavian director Jonas Ackerlund and won Madonna a couple of MTV Video Music Awards in 1998 - including Video Of The Year. After Ray of Light, Madonna contributed the top twenty airplay hit "Beautiful Stranger" to the soundtrack of the Austin Powers: the Spy Who Shagged Me film in 1999. In 2000, Madonna focused next on her pet project, a film called The Next Best Thing. Critics and audiences alike panned the film, which marked yet another disappointment in Madonna's ill-fated film career. The soundtrack spawned the worldwide (excluding the U.S.) number one hit, "American Pie", a dance cover version of the Don McLean classic.

2000s

Music

Don McLean In 2000, at the age of 42, Madonna released the album Music. A bona fide commercial and critical hit, it saw Madonna abandon her earlier sexual and religious themes for throwaway lyrics and the "party" spirit of dance, pop, and house. Music was produced partly by Orbit and partly by French techno musician Mirwais Ahmadzai. It spawned her twelfth number one single, "Music", plus the hits "Don't Tell Me" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl". Madonna was pregnant with her second child, Rocco, during the shooting of the "Music" video, parts of which contain animation. The controversial "What It Feels Like for a Girl" video was directed by Madonna's husband, film director Guy Ritchie. Madonna married Ritchie on 22 December 2000 at Skibo Castle in Scotland.

GHV2

Scotland She released her second Greatest Hits album, GHV2, in 2001; unlike her previous greatest hits compilation, GHV2 featured a selection of her hits from the 1992–2001 period, but did not contain any new songs. In June 2001, she appeared in Star, a short commercial film directed for BMW by Ritchie, and then began working on Swept Away. The film, released in 2002, was critically panned and went on to become yet another in a string of acting flops. In 2001 Madonna went on her "Drowned World Tour". It was completely sold out and was Madonna's first world tour since 1993's "The Girlie Show Tour". In 2002, Madonna performed the theme song to the James Bond film Die Another Day, a worldwide top-ten hit (number eight on the Billboard Hot 100). She also had the opportunity to have a cameo in the film as a fencing instructor named Verity. The song was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song.

American Life

Golden Globe Her reputation appeared to take a turn for the worse in the U.S.A., however, when the critical drubbing she received for Swept Away was followed by an disputed reception for her 2003 album, American Life. Its electronic-acoustic sound and the political/spiritual nature of its lyrics divided fans. In yet another move that followed her pattern of creating "controversy" in the wake of an album's release, she filmed a music video for "American Life", which included a scene of her tossing a lighter shaped like a hand grenade into the lap of a President George W. Bush lookalike. Perhaps mindful of the protests and boycotts in the U.S.A. that had greeted the Dixie Chicks after they made some anti-war comments (though she publicly denied it in an interview with Matt Lauer), the video was revoked on the day it premiered; it was later replaced by a video simply featuring Madonna performing the song in military garb in front of changing flags of the world. The album was an average worldwide success (except the U.S.A.) where the subsequent singles "Hollywood" and "Love Profusion" continued to place Madonna on the charts. Madonna is famous for her appearances at the MTV Video Music Awards, which celebrate the the top music videos of the year. The 2003 MTV Video Music Awards featured Madonna kissing her brides, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, on stage. (See main article Madonna Kiss) In 2004, Madonna embarked on her greatest hits tour, the "Re-Invention World Tour", during which she played fifty-six dates across the world. The tour became the highest-grossing tour of 2004, earning 125 million dollars according to Billboard magazine, and once again confirmed the longevity of Madonna's popularity. After a brief battle with Warner Brothers Records (with whom she shared record label Maverick), Madonna sold her shares in the label and announced that she is no longer involved in its dealings. In the same month, Madonna announced that she had adopted the name Esther, a tribute to the legendary Jewish Queen of ancient Persia. This decision and much of the artistic imagery used in her recent work have been driven by Madonna's intense study of Kabbalah at the controversial Kabbalah Centre in London, and her abandonment of Catholicism. On December 26 2004, after a tsunami hit India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Indonesia among other countries, NBC organized an aid concert called Tsunami Aid: A Concert of Hope, to which celebrities such as Madonna, Diana Ross, Maroon 5, and Elton John, among others, donated their voices. It was televised on January 15 2005; Madonna sang a cover of John Lennon's song "Imagine". On July 2 2005, Madonna participated in the British Live 8 concert from Hyde Park, London. Madonna performed her hit songs "Like a Prayer", "Ray of Light", and "Music". Before performing, she greeted Birhan Woldu, a young woman who had almost died in the Ethiopian famine in the 1980s, on stage. Woldu's unexpected appearance on stage, followed immediately by Madonna's performance of "Like a Prayer" (hand-in-hand with Woldu), was hailed worldwide as one of the highlights of the event. However, her explicit langauge was met with complaints.
Confessions on a Dance Floor
1980s On August 16 2005 – the day of her forty-seventh birthday – she slipped off her horse while riding with friends at her English country home, Ashcombe House, and was taken to a hospital with five cracked ribs, a broken collar bone, a misaligned fibula, a mild case of angina, and a broken hand. She was released later that day. On November 15 2005, Madonna released the new album Confessions on a Dance Floor which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200, selling 350,606 copies in its first week. It debuted at #1 in over 25 different countries, and shipped over 4 million copies that first week alone according to Warner Bros. Music. According to a press release, "On her highly anticipated new Warner Bros. Records release, Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna brilliantly re-invents dance music for our time. A stunning creative leap into the dazzling dimension of 'future disco', these dozen new originals simultaneously capture the spontaneous thrill of the iconic superstar’s early hits." Confessions was co-produced by Madonna, Stuart Price and a host of others including Mirwais Ahmadzai and the Swedish Bloodshy & Avant. The first single, "Hung Up" peaked at number one in more than 25 countries including United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Spain, France, The Netherlands, Italy, Israel, Finland, and Sweden - becoming one of Madonna's biggest hits worldwide. The album continued the worldwide success of the single and peaked at number one in nearly 30 countries including the U.S.A., UK, Germany, France, Japan, Canada. Madonna opened the MTV Europe Music Awards on November 3 2005, performing "Hung Up" live for the first time. Performances at shows in Mannheim (Germany), Paris, and London's KOKO followed. She also appeared at clubs in New York and London to promote the album. On the 18th of November 2005 she performed "Hung Up" as part of the annual charity telethon BBC Children in Need, registered charity devoted to helping poor, troubled and disabled children in the UK. This program went on to be a big success, raising around £18 million ($30 million). As of November 18, 2005 the song "Frozen" is banned from Belgian radio and television. A judge ruled that Madonna's song was plagarized from another song by composer Salvatore Acquaviva, who was born in Mouscron, Belgium. The opening theme of "Frozen" was said to be similar to the theme from the Belgian song. She also filmed her documentary titled I'm Going To Tell You A Secret during her Re-Invention world tour showcasing Madonna behind the scenes. On October 21, 2005 the documentary made its TV debut on MTV. Also in 2005, Madonna appeared, along with such luminaries as Little Richard, Iggy Pop, Bootsy Collins, and The Roots' ?uestlove, in a TV commercial for the Motorola ROKR phone.
Current Projects

- Madonna is lending her voice to the big budget (approximately eighty million dollars) 2006 animated film Arthur and the Minimoys. Madonna provides the voice of Princess Selenia. The film by Luc Besson is expected to be released in December 2006.
- Madonna is planning a world tour for 2006. Madonna about the tour: "I'm currently exploring the possibility. If I go on tour, it would be next summer. And it would be all out disco, with lots of disco balls. I would focus on dance music and the new record. I already did the older stuff on my Re-Invention tour." [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/feature/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001434975]
Personal Life

Italian influence
Though Madonna Ciccone is half French Canadian, more often the influence of her Italian American heritage has been reflected in her work. Perhaps this is because Madonna's French Canadian mother died when Madonna was five and Madonna was subsequently raised by her Italian American father. (It has been claimed that Madonna shares a common French Canadian ancestor with Celine Dion.) References to Madonna's Italian heritage have often been found in her work. In the video for "Truth or Dare", Madonna describes herself as "Italian American". She says, "I'm an Italian American and proud of it." In the video for Papa Don't Preach she wears a shirt that says, "Italians Do It Better". [http://www.members.shaw.ca/dsgambelluri/madonnapapadontpreachitaliansdoitbetterpic.jpg] Madonna has described her birth name -- Madonna Ciccone -- as being "very Italian". The video for her second concert tour, the "Who's That Girl?" tour, was filmed in Turin, Italy; the video is titled "Ciao Italia: Madonna Live from Italy". [http://eil.com/newgallery/Madonna-Ciao-Italia-81818.jpg] The video to her first #1 song, Like a Virgin, featured Madonna performing in Venice, Italy. [http://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=madonna+venice+like+a+virgin/v=2/SID=w/l=IVI/SIG=11rab8kqg/EXP=1132610837/
- -http%3A//www.wwnet.com/~etgary/virgin.JPG] Fellow Italian American pop singer Gwen Stefani has been quoted as saying that she and Madonna share a common relative. Stefani has claimed that her great aunt married a man from Detroit, Michigan (the area of Michigan that Madonna is from) with the last name "Ciccone."
Involvement with Kabbalah Centre
Since the late 1990s, Madonna has become a devotee of the Kabbalah Centre and a disciple of its controversial head Rabbi Philip Berg and his wife Karen. Madonna and husband Guy Ritchie attend Kabbalah classes and have been reported to have adopted a number of aspects of the movement and associated with Judaism. The media has reported that Madonna has taken-on the Biblical name of Esther, has donated millions of dollars to the Kabbalah Centre in London, no longer performs on Friday nights because it's the time when the Jewish Sabbath begins, wears a red string, has visited Israel with members of the Kabbalah Centre to celebrate some of the Jewish holidays, studies personally with her own private-tutor rabbi Eitan Yardeni whose wife Sarah Yardeni runs Madonna's favorite charitable project, "Spirituality for Kids", a subsidiary of the Kabbalah Centre [http://www.rickross.com/reference/kabbalah/kabbalah150.html]. Madonna reportedly donated 21 million dollars towards a new Kabbalah school for children. [http://www.rickross.com/reference/kabbalah/kabbalah88.html] Recently references to Kabbalah Centre beliefs and principles have appeared in her music, including the track "Nobody Knows Me" from American Life (I sleep much better at night / I feel closer to the Light / Now I'm gonna try / To Improve my life). Controversy again surrounded her well before the release of her most recent album Confessions on a Dance Floor when many Israeli rabbis condemned Madonna and the forthcoming song "Isaac" (tenth on its track listing) for they believed the song to be a tribute to Rabbi Isaac Luria, also known as Yitzhak Luria (1534-1572), one of the greatest Kabbalists of all time. Jewish law forbids using a holy rabbi's name for profit. In interviews, Madonna had called this song: "The Binding of Isaac" and rumors spread that it was based on the major episode in the life of the Hebrew patriarch Isaac. Despite continued accusations that the song is about Isaac Luria, Madonna has repeatedly denied such accusations, claiming she could not think of a title for the song and, thereforere, named it after Yitzhak (Isaac) Sinwani. In the song, Madonna sings with Sinwani, an Israeli singer, who is chanting a Yemenite Jewish song. Said Madonna: "The album isn't even out, so how could Jewish scholars in Israel know what my song is about? I don't know enough about Isaac Luria to write a song, though I've learned a bit in my studies." [http://www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-10-27-madonna_x.htm] Madonna has openly defended her Kabbalah studies by stating, for example: :I wouldn't say studying Kabbalah for eight years goes under the category or falls under the category of being a fad or a trend. Now there might be people who are interested in it because they think it's trendy, but I can assure you that studying Kabbalah is actually a very challenging thing to do. It requires a lot of work, a lot of reading, a lot of time, a lot of commitment and a lot of discipline. [http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment/12852004.htm]
Discography

Tours

Bibliography

Films

See also

- Unreleased Madonna songs
- Madonna's achievements and awards
- Madonna trivia
- Madonna on Letterman — Madonna's infamous 1994 appearance on The Late Show
- Madonna Kiss — Madonna's controversial performance at the MTV Video Music Awards 2003
- List of best-selling music artists
- Best-selling female singer
- List of number-one hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the Hot 100 (US)
- List of number-one dance hits (United States)
- List of artists who reached number one on the US Dance chart
External links

- [http://www.madonna.com Madonna.com Official site]
- [http://www.iconmadonna.com/ Official Madonna Fanclub]
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- [http://www.absolutemadonna.com/ Absolute Madonna]
- [http://www.eventzones.com/performers/music/madonna.asp Madonna Concerts]
- [http://www.madonnatribe.com/news/index.php/ Madonna Tribe]
- [http://www.madonnamedia.tk/ MadonnaMedia.tk]
- [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/feature/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001434975 Billboard Q&A with Madonna]
- [http://www.lyricsdir.com/madonna-lyrics.html Madonna Lyrics]
- [http://www.perche-quebec.com/intro_en.htm Madonna's ancestry]
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Bedtime Stories (Darediablo album)

Bedtime Stories is a musical album by the band Darediablo. It was released July 30, 2002 on the Orchard label. It was their last release on Orchard, and is roughly 40 minutes long. The song Shipping and Handling from this album was contributed to the television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. Track listing: # "Sigurd the Dragon Slayer" (2:25) # "I Know What Your Bass Did Last Summer" (0:28) # "Bedtime Stories" (3:15) # "Twinkie" (4:19) # "One-Way Ticket" (2:27) # "Gonna Make You Squirm Like a Baby Worm" (3:47) # "Steve" (4:30) # "Skipping Rocks" (6:48) # "Weasel" (5:26) # "Shipping and Handling" (6:10)

Band

- Jake Garcia - bass guitar, guitar
- Chad Royce - drums
- Matt Holford - keyboards

Other Personnel

- Tom Hutten - Mastering
- Darediablo - Producer
- Scott Mann - Producer, Mixing Category:2002 albums

Darediablo

Darediablo is an instrumental rock trio from New York City. They draw influences from such 1970s heavy metal bands as Black Sabbath and AC/DC, their bassist/guitarist often wearing an AC/DC T-Shirt. Their catalog of music have all been independent releases on Orchard starting in 2000, with their latest being released on Southern Records main label (2003).

History

Darediablo started in 2000 with the personnel as listed: Jake Garcia (bass guitar), Matthew Holford (Fender Rhodes, organ), and Peter Karp (drums). They later changed drummers after their Sky Cohete/Subaquatico double-EP, enlisting Chad Royce for Bedtime Stories, and Feeding Frenzy, as well as for live performances. Jake Garcia also started to play double-neck bass/guitar combo for live performances, and played guitar in addition to bass on Bedtime Stories. For Feeding Frenzy, he played only guitar. They contributed the song Shipping & Handling to the television show Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, for February 2004.

Self description

Darediablo started out as a kind of mish-mosh of hard rock, jazz, and stoner rock, but have managed to focus these sounds into a style that's particularly suited to the instruments: an undersized bass ("the Midget") played with nods to Jake's guitar heroes, a Fender Rhodes and Hammond Organ pumped through reams of effects and distortion, and a drummer with an innate sense of rock and rhythmic subtlety. We take it as a good sign that neither we nor any of our fans can describe our sound. We hear a lot of "kind of like MMW, but with a lot of AC/DC," and "like Pink Floyd, but with power chords." Whatever works for you, we say. Time Out New York has said, "darediablo is a smoking, sometimes atmospheric, bass-drum-organ trio that comes on like Medeski Martin & Wood with an MC5 fixation." That works, too. Our plan is to keep writing whatever kind of style this is, and playing it all over New York and the Northeast. You can also hear us in soundtracks, especially on ESPN. We were in five episodes of ESPN's "The Life" in its first season, and we sound the opening notes of the documentary "The Wild Onion," which aired in November 2001.

Discography

Albums

- Tunnel of Fire (2000)
- Sky Cohete/Subaquatico (2001)
- Bedtime Stories (2002)
- Feeding Frenzy (2003)
- Twenty Paces (2005)

External links

- [http://www.darediablo.com/index.php The Band's Website]
- [http://www.southern.com/southern/catalog/DARED Southern Records] - Catalog of the Band
- [http://www.southern.com/southern/tour/DARED Southern Records] - Future Tour Dates
- [http://www.rockslide.com/cgi-local/shop.pl/page=diablo.html Rockslide] - Catalog of live music for sale

Egon Friedell

Egon Friedell eigentlich Egon Friedmann (
- 21. Januar 1878 in Wien; † 16. März 1938 in Wien) war ein österreichischer Schriftsteller, Journalist, Schauspieler, Kabarettist und Theaterkritiker.

Leben

Friedell war das dritte Kind des jüdischen Seidentuchfabrikanten Moriz Friedmann und seiner Ehefrau Karoline (geborene Eisenberger). Die Ehe der Eltern wurde 1887 geschieden, und die Mutter verließ die Familie. Nach dem Tod seines Vaters (1891) lebte Friedell bei einer Tante in Frankfurt am Main. Dort ging Friedell zur Schule, wurde aber wegen ungebührlichen Benehmens nach zwei Jahren vom Unterricht ausgeschlossen. Schon in Frankfurt galt Friedell als unerträglicher Störenfried und Querdenker. Es folgten diverse Schulen in Österreich und Deutschland, bis Friedell im September 1899 im vierten Anlauf das Abitur in Heidelberg bestand. Schon 1897 hatte er sich als Gasthörer an der Universität Berlin für die Fächer Germanistik, Naturwissenschaften und Philosophie eingeschrieben. Nach dem Abitur wechselte er an die Universität Heidelberg, um bei dem Hegelianer und Philosophiehistoriker Kuno Fischer (1824-1907) zu studieren. 1897 konvertierte Friedell zum evangelisch-lutherischen Glauben. 1899 erhielt er das Erbe seines Vaters zugesprochen und konnte nun in Wien in finanzieller Unabhängigkeit leben. Von 1900 bis 1904 studierte Egon Friedell neun Semester Philosophie in Wien. Er promovierte 1904 mit einer Dissertation über das Thema Novalis als Philosoph (siehe Novalis), und wurde anschließend Kabarettist. 1905 veröffentlichte er in der Zeitschrift Die Fackel einen Artikel mit dem Titel Vorurteile, in dem es heißt: ::Das schlimmste Vorurteil, das wir aus unserer Jugendzeit mitnehmen, ist die Idee vom Ernst des Lebens. Die Kinder haben den ganz richtigen Instinkt: sie wissen, dass das Leben nicht ernst ist, und behandeln es als Spiel [...]. Ab 1908 folgten Solovorträge und Einakter. Seine erste literarische Arbeit war Der Petroleumkönig. Durch den Sketch Goethe, den er gemeinsam mit Alfred Polgar verfasste, wurde er im deutschsprachigen Raum bekannt. In der Folge wurde er künstlerischer Leiter des Kabaretts Fledermaus. ::Da stand nun Egon Friedell, Doktor der Philosophie, Hofnarr des Publikums und, wie die meisten Hofnarren, dem Gebieter weit überlegen. (Felix Salten). 1910 beauftragte der Verleger Samuel Fischer Friedell damit, eine Biographie über Peter Altenberg zu schreiben. Mit dem kulturanalytischen und -kritischen Buch, das unter dem Titel Ecce poeta erschien, war Fischer, der leichte Kost erwartet hatte, höchst unzufrieden. Das Buch wurde deswegen nicht weiter beworben und blieb ohne Erfolg; es markierte jedoch den Beginn des kulturgeschichtlichen Interesses Friedells. 1912 gastierte Friedell in Berlin. 1913 war er kurzzeitig als Schauspieler bei Max Reinhardt beschäftigt. Ab 1914 machten sich immer größere Alkohol- und Gewichtsprobleme bemerkbar, so dass Friedell sich in ein Sanatorium in der Nähe von München zu einer Entziehungskur begeben musste. Von dem beginnenden Ersten Weltkrieg war Friedell ebenso begeistert, wie die meisten seiner Zeitgenossen. 1916 ließ er seinen Familiennamen "Friedmann" amtlich in "Friedell" ändern, nachdem er zuvor des öfteren schon den Künstlernamen "Friedländer" benutzt hatte. 1916 schrieb Friedell die Judastragödie, 1922 erschien Steinbruch - Vermischte Meinungen und Sprüche. Von 1919 bis 1924 arbeitete Friedell als Journalist und Theaterkritiker bei verschiedenen Zeitschriften und Zeitungen, darunter auch beim Neuen Wiener Journal. Daneben nahm er ein Angebot von Max Reinhardt an und arbeitet bis 1927 als Dramaturg, Regisseur und Schauspieler am Deutschen Theater in Berlin und am Burgtheater in Wien. Ab 1927 nahm er wegen gesundheitlicher Probleme dann keine festen Stellen mehr an; stattdessen arbeitete er in Wien als Essayist, freier Schriftsteller und Übersetzer. In dieser Zeit arbeitete Friedell auch an dem dreibändigen Werk Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit, worin die Ereignisse vom späten Mittelalter bis zum Imperialismus in origineller, scharfsinniger und zum Teil anekdotischer Darstellung geschildert werden. Friedell lässt die Neuzeit mit der großen Pest von 1348 beginnen und schildert ihren Verlauf als eine Krankheitsgeschichte. 1925 erschien der erste Band bei Hermann Ullstein, dem der geschichtsschreibende Schauspieler Friedell jedoch suspekt war. Nach fünf weiteren Absagen publizierte der Münchner Verleger Heinrich Beck dann 1927 das Buch. Es wurde ein großer Erfolg und ermöglichte es Friedell, in der Folge als freier Schriftsteller zu arbeiten. Das Werk wurde bis heute in sieben Sprachen übersetzt. Nachdem 1933 die Nationalsozialisten die Macht in Deutschland ergriffen hatten, wurde von allen deutschen und österreichischen Verlagen die Veröffentlichung seiner Werke abgelehnt. 1935 schrieb Friedell über das Hitlerregime: ::Das Reich des Antichrist. Jede Regung von Noblesse, Frömmigkeit, Bildung, Vernunft wird von einer Rotte verkommener Hausknechte auf die gehässigste und ordinärste Weise verfolgt. 1936 erschien der erste Teil der Kulturgeschichte des Altertums im Helikon-Verlag in Zürich. Ende 1937 wurden Friedells Werke vom Nationalsozialistischen Regime mit der Begründung beschlagnahmt, sie passten nicht zum Geschichtsbild der NSDAP. Im Februar 1938 wurde Friedells Kulturgeschichte schließlich in Deutschland verboten. Nach dem in Österreich begrüßten "Anschluss" an das Dritte Reich schrieb Friedell am 11. März 1938 an Ödön von Horvath: "Jedenfalls bin ich immer in jedem Sinne reisefertig". Friedell dachte nun häufiger über die Anschaffung von Gift oder einer Pistole nach. Am 16. März 1938 erschienen gegen 22 Uhr zwei Männer der SA vor dem Haus von Egon Friedell, um den "Jud Friedell" abzuholen. Während sie mit seiner Haushälterin diskutierten, nahm sich Friedell das Leben, indem er aus dem Fenster sprang. Der Mensch, von dem Hilde Spiel sagte, "In ihm stand noch einmal die berauschende Fiktion vom universalen Menschen vor uns auf", wurde auf dem Wiener Zentralfriedhof beigesetzt.

Zitate

Kultur ist Reichtum an Problemen

Werke

- Der Petroleumkönig, 1908
- Goethe, 1908
- Ecce poeta, 1912
- Von Dante zu d'Annunzio, 1915
- Die Judastragödie, 1920
- Steinbruch, 1922
- Ist die Erde bewohnt?, 1931
- Kulturgeschichte der Neuzeit, 1927-31
- Kulturgeschichte Ägyptens und des alten Orients, 1936
- Kulturgeschichte Griechenlands, 1940
- Die Rückkehr der Zeitmaschine, 1946
- Kulturgeschichte des Altertums, 1949
- Das Altertum war nicht antik, 1950
- Kleine Porträtgalerie, 1953
- Abschaffung des Genies. Essays bis 1918, 1984
- Selbstanzeige. Essays ab 1918, 1985

Literatur

- Peter Haage: Der Partylöwe, der nur Bücher fraß. Egon Friedell und sein Kreis, Hamburg: Claassen 1971, 176 S., Ill.
- Klaus Peter Dencker: Der junge Friedell. Dokumente der Ausbildung zum genialen Dilettanten, Beck: München 1977, 71 S., zahlr. Ill.
- Heribert Illig: Schriftspieler - Schausteller. Die künstlerischen Aktivitäten Egon Friedells, Dissertation, Löcker: Wien 1987, 317 S. ISBN 3-85409-105-2
- Roland Innerhofer: Kulturgeschichte zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen. Egon Friedell, Wien: Böhlau 1990, 177 S.
- Heribert Illig : Karriere ist Armut an Ideen. In Sachen Innerhofer. Gräfelfing: Mantis Verlag 1993, 72 S. (belegt Innerhofers Plagiate von Illigs Friedell-Buch)
- Wolfgang Lorenz: Egon Friedell. Momente im Leben eines Ungewöhnlichen. Eine Biographie, Ed. Raetia: Bozen 1994, 376 S., Ill.
- Gernot Friedel: Egon Friedell - Abschiedsspielereien. Romanbiographie, Wien: Molden 2003, 240 S., zahlr. Ill. ISBN 3-85485-093-X

Film

- 2003: Ich spotte, auch wenn ich dafür bluten muss. Die zwei Seiten des Genies der Kulturgeschichte Egon Friedell, [Bildtonträger], Gespräch mit Heribert Illig. Düsseldorf: dctp in: (Deutsches Literaturarchiv, Marbach), 1 Videokassette (VHS, 25 Min.) farb.

Weblinks

-
-
- [http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/FriedellEgon/ DHM-Biografie]
- [http://www.aliaflanko.de/bogi/kabaret/kabare15.htm Goethe] Der Einakter im Volltext online Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon Friedell, Egon

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