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Madonna, queen of pop, single again


US megastar Madonna, who announced Wednesday that she and husband Guy Ritchie were divorcing, has perpetually reinvented herself while maintaining h
er status as iconic pop diva over a 25-year career.


She came from working-class origins in the northern state of Michigan to become the world's top-paid female singer, and married the British director in Scotland in December 2000, just after their son Rocco was born. In May this year they formally adopted the now three-year-old David Banda, a motherless child from the southern African state of Malawi. Madonna also has a daughter Lourdes, 12, with her former fitness trainer Carlos Leon. From kinky virgin to Christian devotee, cowgirl to disco queen, bisexual exhibitionist to anti-war activist and beyond, Madonna has inhabited countless risque and border-pushing images. Along the way it has made her a fortune, with almost 200 million dollars from a world tour in 2006, the top-earning tour by a female artist in history according to Forbes magazine. She was born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone on August 16, 1958, to a father of Italian origin and a mother of French-Canadian roots who died in 1963 of breast cancer when her daughter was just five. In 1977 the Catholic-educated young singer and dancer headed for New York City with 35 dollars in her pocket, scraping a living by everything from nude modelling, selling doughnuts, dancing, singing and playing in smalltime bands. Her first big single was "Everybody" in 1982, followed by more big hits "Lucky Star," Borderline," and "Holiday." The 1984 release of "Like A Virgin" propelled Madonna onto the international stage. It was followed up in 1986 with another discoanthem, "Material Girl." Other major 80s hits included the breathy 1989 pop paean "Like a Prayer," while she branched out into acting -- albeit with lesser success than her music career -- in "Desperately Seeking Susan" and "Who's That Girl?" But the early 1990s saw perhaps her most striking image decision: the pointy cone-shaped bras she donned on her "Blond Ambition" Tour in 1990.
She also released a racy book called "Sex," filled with photographs of sexual acts that was released to accompany her 1992 album "Erotica." A decade later she was writing books for children. "The English Roses" (2003), a tale of schoolchildren in London, topped the New York Times bestseller list. Her romantic life has seen its ups and downs, even before Wednesday's confirmation that she was splitting from 40-year-old Ritchie. She married for the first time in 1985, to actor Sean Penn, but they divorced four years later. She was also romantically linked to another leading actor, Warren Beatty, with whom she starred in the 1990 adventure "Dick Tracy." After marrying Ritchie she put down roots in Britain, buying at least five properties in London including a 14-million dollar house. In the late 1990s her music took off in a new direction, thumping to a new dance-flavored beat on her multi award-winning 1998 album "Ray of Light." The period also saw her take a spiritual step seen as a potential move away from her sex kitten image, embracing Kabbalah, an Orthodox Jewish sect with ancient roots but a trendy modern-day following in Hollywood. But the provocative instincts remained. In 2003 she grabbed the showbiz world's attention by clinching pop princess Britney Spears in a lingering kiss on stage at that year's MTV Music Video Awards. Her latest album "Hard Candy" came out in early 2008, her last collaboration with Warner before the entry into force of a global contract with American concert organizer Live Nation. In August, she both turned 50 and set out on a new world tour titled "Sticky and Sweet," which is still underway. Madonna danced, cavorted with singers and belted out classics like "Borderline" at her concert in the northeastern US city of Boston on Wednesday night, but made no mention of her split with Ritchie.

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