Madonna Like an Icon The Definitive Biography

Madonna Ciccone is the highest earning femail singer of all time, one of our greatest living pop icons and possibly the most famous woman on Earth.

Now, in 'Madonna Like an Icon', Lucy O'Brien tells the complex story of an artist who has reinvented herself time and time again, and continues to top the charts almost thirty years after the release of her first single. Complete with detailed analysis of Madonna's music, and revealing interviews with those who've known and worked with her - from musicians and producers to dancers and directors - we follow Madonna from her difficult childhood, to those frenetic early years in New York, through the shocks and scandals of hte 1990s Sex era, to her twenty-first-century incarnation as an English lady of the Manor, and the controversial Malawian adoption saga.

Providing fascinating insight into Madonna's life, her relationships, and what motivates her as a woman and as an artist, here at last is the definitive biography of one of the biggest stars in the world.

The first in-depth study of one of the world's most famous women.

Madonna is the biggest female pop star in the world yet there is no serious biography of her, and no biography at all by a woman. Existing books are either gossipy style manuals or rehashes of press cuttings and they all end in 2001 with Madonna's marriage to Guy Ritchie. Yet her story hardly ends there, as evinced by her two record breaking world tours since then...

Lucy O'Brien's extensive and well-researched biography will look at Madonna the artist, giving detailed analysis of her music, complete with revealing interviews with musicians and producers. It will focus on her cultural impact and the way she uses cinema, photography, visual art, theatre and dance in her work. It will take an in-depth look at how - and, more to the point, why - Madonna has reinvented herself through her twenties, thirties, forties and will no doubt do so again in her fifties. It will also look at the wider context and include interviews with similarly crusading female artists like Tori Amos, Laurie Anderson, Jeanette Winterson and Tracey Emin.

This will be, quite simply, the definitive Madonna biography.

Lucy O'Brien was a founding member of the feminist punk rock band The Catholic Girls and wrote for the NME before writing for The Guardian, The Independent, Q and Mojo. Her reputation as an authority on female artists was established with her first book DUSTY - a best-selling biography of British soul legend Dusty Springfield, which was instrumental in the rediscovery and reappraisal of Springfield's work, and SHE-BOP - a definitive history of women in rock and pop music.

Review: A captivating look into the extraordinary life of biggest female icon in our lifetime - Madonna.

Random House Australia
Author: Lucy O'Brien
ISBN: 9780593059609 / 0593059603
RRP: $39.95