Madonna Read Free

perfect embodiment of modern Main Street USA. Thus her creative success has been characterized by her genius for making the avant-garde acceptable to the general public. At the same time, while the vaudeville of her sexual politics, particularly her trademark conical bra and bold crotch-grabbing, owes much to the European tradition displayed in shows – admittedly, American shows – like Cabaret and the Ziegfeld Follies, Madonna’s knowing, winking suggestiveness and sly humor is in the mold of Mae West, the American film actress, who believed that a woman’s place was on top.
    Even the trajectory of her career – a cheerleader from the Midwest who came to the Big Apple to find fame and fortune and then tried to join the Hollywood elite to pursue her acting career – is as traditional as the Stars and Stripes. Her greatest disappointment is that while she considers herself more an actress than singer, her thespian skills have yet to be fully appreciated by the world of theater. Despite this, just how far Madonna has risen in the firmament of stars is demonstrated in the fact that, while she wanted a ‘Grace Kelly style’ for her first wedding, at her second she actually wore a tiara that had belonged to the late Princess. While her appeal lies in the fact that she can be presented as the ultimate girl-next-door, she truly is one in a million, a living archetype, an embodiment of the radical sexual and social changes in modern America over the last twenty years.
    While her place as a sexual revolutionary is assured, her dynamism, ambition and life-affirming philosophy would not be out of place in the corporate boardroom. Ironically, of all the many faces Madonna presents to the world – dancer, impresario, producer, singer, actress, entertainer and artist – the one she tries most assiduously to disguise is that of successful businesswoman. She is quoted as having once said, ‘Part of the reason I’m successful is because I’m a good businesswoman, but I don’t think it necessary for people to know that.’ ‘Get OUT’, she ordered director Alex Keshishian when his camera crew tried to film a business conference during the infamous Truth or Dare documentary (released as In Bed With Madonna outside the USA), which recorded her Blonde Ambition Tour in 1990.
    The girl who arrived in New York with a fistful of dollars is, and has been, a publisher, music mogul, TV executive, merchandising magnate and film producer and one of the richest women on the planet, estimated to be worth between $300 and $600 million. ‘She’s a great businesswoman,’ says Seymour Stein, the record company mogul who first signed her. ‘She’s very smart and she trusts her instincts, which are great.’
    Her success has certainly impressed the business community. While politicians, feminists and other moral commentators debated the graphic sexual content of her 1992 book, Sex , senior professors at Harvard Business School beat a path to her door. They wanted to know the secret of selling 1,500,000 copies of a $50 book in a matter of days. She considered, but eventually turned down, their invitation to address students and faculty. If she had given a lecture, as she originally intended, they would have learned that, once the hype and controversy of her artistic career is stripped away, Madonna is just like them, an embodiment of the drive, enterprise and can-do culture that has powered the American dream.
    She is every inch the conventional self-made tycoon: cautious in her investments, conservative in her spending, controlling every part of her multi-million dollar empire. ‘Sometimes,’ says Sir Tim Rice, the co-creator of the musical Evita, in which she played the lead role in the film version, ‘it was as if you were dealing with General Motors.’
    Indeed, Madonna is a classic capitalist, conforming to all the rules, never putting a foot wrong, running her life like clockwork. Like a typical cigar-chomping company chairman, she is