Madonna: A Rebel Life
by Mary Gabriel
Buy on AmazonIn this riveting biography, award-winning author Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female pop icon of the modern era: Madonna. With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion--as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles--taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent. Within two years of her 1983 debut album, a flagship Macy's store in Manhattan held a Madonna lookalike contest featuring Andy Warhol as a judge, and opened a department called "Madonna-land." But Madonna was more than just a pop star.…
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"The pop megastar Madonna turned 65 this year, not long after she became the first female artist to earn a Billboard Top 10 album across five separate decades. (Five. Decades.) Whether you adore her or despise what she represents, she’s certainly earned a scholarly biography – and it’s finally arrived in the form of Mary Gabriel’s seriously hefty, earnest book. (It’s 858 pages! 858!) If you have a major Madonna fan in your life, this is the perfect deep dive into an endlessly complicated celebrity. Gabriel traverses Madonna’s many public personas, including Material Girl, Lady of the Manor and beatific mother of many, with grace and skill – and reflects on what she means as a pop culture doyenne."
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