Be like Sasha Fierce. Be like Miley Cyrus. Be like Rihanna. Be like Lady Gaga. Be like Rita Ora and Sia. Be like Madonna. I cannot be like them, except to the extent that they are already being like me.
I’m like Madonna: I keep reinventing myself.
A beautiful woman can be painted as a totem only; not as a woman, but as a Madonna, a queen, a sphinx.
I love Bob Marley so much. Honestly, all of Madonna’s discography. She has so many amazing, fun songs. Or Cyndi Lauper. The thing is, at the same time, I also love listening to Lana Del Rey all the time, the saddest thing you can do to yourself.
I once had dinner with Madonna and I wasn’t nervous but within about a minute I found myself talking about underwear.
When I was very little, I was into Michael Jackson. At six or seven, it was Madonna, but she’s not what she used to be. I’ve been into everything from Edith Piaf to Joe Strummer to the Velvet Underground to Suicide to A Tribe Called Quest to African music.
I always like Madonna; any Madonna song is good for me. Old school Janet Jackson is always good. I usually go old school. It’s very rare that I pick a song from nowadays.
I’m a good Catholic girl in the way that Madonna is. In the sense that I’m not that good at all.
A part of ‘Happy New Year’ is inspired by western pop culture, the pop music videos of Michael Jackson, Madonna and Duran Duran in the ’80s.
I’ve walked down the street with Madonna, and I’ve walked down the street with Colin Firth, and it was a little bit more… with Madonna they were a little rougher, but they were all there for Colin. It was amazing. Women adore him. They swoon.
People like Prince or Madonna, they’re kind of superhuman. You can’t imagine them burning their toast, and there’s something really exciting about that.
The first tape I got was Madonna’s ‘Immaculate Collection.’ I’m inspired by the way she started from nothing and didn’t have a big musical talent, but had a big dream.
When you’re an established name, you know that a children’s book will have a pretty good chance of getting picked up. Like Madonna. It’s not that I had this great idea. Actually, in my case, it was a great idea.
Madonna would not have done a 360 deal with us just because of our touring capability. We had to prove to her and others that we have been working on and built a very good execution capacity at Artist Nation.
It is women who have traditionally, historically been given non-human roles, perceived as simply the daughters of Eve, perceived as either Madonna or whore. And I think that it is the sexual revolution that plays one part in female emancipation.
As a kid, I watched every Madonna documentary and tour. I was obsessed with her – and with any pop star of the ’80s.
I would work with someone humble like that guy Peter Andre than Madonna.
It’s strange: I love pop music, and I really can enjoy it, but I didn’t feel like the characters within pop music – like when Madonna sings ‘Crazy For You’, for instance, I don’t feel like I would ever be the character she takes on in that song. I would never feel… I don’t have that confidence in me.
From my years on ‘Will & Grace,’ you’d think I’m Madonna.
If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.
Madonna is the ultimate pop star of all time, hands down. She wrote the playbook for it. There is no female pop star – and probably few men today, for that matter – who are not indebted to her in one way or another for her contributions to the industry.
As a major contemporary composer, Madonna should not let the eye dictate to the ear.
I was born in the ’80s, so I don’t really remember it very strongly, but the music is so iconic. And so those artists – Madonna, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston – you still hear those songs all the time. And there’s such a distinctive style – the clothes, the shoulder pads, the big hair, the perm.
I met Madonna when I was 22, and I danced with her until I was 28. When I met her, I was a tomboy! Every time I see her, she really inspired me about one thing or another, so she’s quite important and significant person in my life.
Madonna taught me more philosophy than Ayn Rand.
One thing about me is that I’m very much like the Black Madonna. I love to reinvent myself and that’s because I am a very free person.
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is a joke – the fact that Madonna is in before Rush and Kiss. Those two bands have influenced so many groups and people other than in metal.
You can think what you like of Madonna – about her political choices and her PR – but you have to respect her courage not to let the critics stop her exploring her potential.
I remember I read this harsh review about my show, and one of my friends told me that this was the exact same stuff people said about Madonna. And it’s like, she didn’t care. Madonna just came out and was herself. I respect that a lot.
I once asked the most fabulous couple I know, Madonna and Guy Ritchie, how they kept things fresh despite having been married for almost seven months. ‘It’s a job, Al,’ Guy told me. ‘We work at it every day.’
Don’t confuse fame with success. Madonna is one; Helen Keller is the other.
It started with ‘A League of Their Own.’ I mean, to me, if you played softball or baseball as a girl growing up, that is the staple movie, like, where girls are portrayed as athletes, and real, like, different, from Madonna, you know, to Geena Davis. I mean, I could quote that movie, every single line.
Madonna can still produce a catchy pop song, but she hasn’t expanded her artistic vocabulary since the 1990s. Her concerts are glitzy extravaganzas of special effects overkill. She leaves little space in them for emotional depth or unscripted rapport with the audience.
My introduction to the Madonna Inn came as a young boy when we would take summer vacations to a nearby town. My dad would take us into their gift shop bathroom, which was a huge waterfall that functioned as the men’s urinal. So as a kid, this was the most amazing thing I had ever seen.
The celebrity body I most admire is Madonna’s. She has the most incredible physique – and the woman’s in her 50s!
I loved Michael Jackson and Madonna. I styled my hair like Whitney Houston.
I was working on this bedroom, and from where I was, in the beating hot sun, I could see Madonna’s castle on the next ridge over. It was hilarious – there I was, this Maritime carpenter, staring at Madonna’s castle. So it’s been a windy road.
I’ve read every Madonna biography. I’ve also looked up every pop star to see how they first made it. The biggest thing I learnt was that you have to be pro-active. You can’t be scared.
I love fashion from the 1930s and ’40s – shoulder pads, high waists, things with structure. That is classy for me. Andrea Riseborough from the Madonna movie ‘W.E.’ had an amazing wardrobe.
The representation that I always go back to is a pop star – whether it’s Lady Gaga or Madonna, I love the way those women in pop music have always made an effort to create a specific vision.
Madonna is untouchable. She is absolutely lovely. On a personal level, she’s everything you would expect. She’s so down to earth.
It’s not like, I don’t know, if Madonna has a new record out, then everybody from Bangkok to Birmingham knows what its called and can buy it the same week. But our stuff is not in that mass market.
I admire Madonna because she always did whatever she felt like doing. She went through some controversial periods when people rejected her, but she kept on reinventing herself.
Some people will never take Madonna seriously – just as many never took Marilyn Monroe seriously. Novelty images – especially that of a sex symbol – are hard to erase.
Ultimately, I made my range wider because I wanted to suit each publication that I worked for. Talk about reinvention – I’m like the Madonna of photography.
I’ve always played all the old songs. I’d go and see Peter Gabriel or Madonna and be surprised if they didn’t play all the hits. People don’t want to come and hear the B-sides.
If Madonna asks anybody to go and hang out with them for a month, they’d all do it.
It would be thrilling if I could be boycotted or something. I think that’s part of the thrill Madonna gets, when you know you’ve hit a nerve. But that doesn’t scare me. To me what would be a lot scarier would be like appearing on an episode of ‘Full House’ or something.
Madonna had to break through; I knew she was going to make it big, because I could see how ambitious she was, in a very genuine and sweet way.
I find it fascinating how hip hop as a culture mirrors every mythology from the beginning of mythology. The concept of the single mother and child – the Madonna concept. Hip-hoppers were raised in that.
Obviously Madonna reinforces everything absurd and offensive.
If you go back to the ’80s, you had a whole plethora of artists, everyone from Madonna and Cyndi Lauper to Prince. God bless Lady Gaga for doing her thing, but she’s kind of a lone peacock now. If anything, we have a much more conservative kind of pop world. It’s not necessarily about individuality.
I love divas. Madonna, Mariah, Beyonce, Britney.
Buying my new house in the country wasn’t about showing off or being something I’m not, like Madonna when she turned into the country lass with her tweeds on.
