Becoming Madonna
Michael Ogden / United Kingdom & United States / 2024 / 90 min
Pop lovers unite! The story of ‘the material girl's stratospheric leap to fame is told in riveting fashion through unseen and unheard archive clips and interviews.
Before Britney Spears, Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift, there was only one. The very prototype of the white female pop singer: Madonna. From Midwestern girl next door to New York dancer. From singing drummer in the punk band Breakfast Club to the ultimate pop star.
The story of Madonna is full of surprises and wild anecdotes interwoven with newly rediscovered evocative archive footage. The result is a journey through Madonna’s early, formative career. From the late ’70s fledgling attempts at music, through ’80s pop hits like ‘Holiday’ and ‘Material Girl’, to the sexually liberating Blonde Ambition tour of the ’90s and the controversial photo book ‘Sex’.
The film also delves deeper, including Madonna’s instinctive ability to appropriate a gay aesthetic and repurpose it for her own heterosexual spectacle – and then repay the debt by becoming a public advocate for increased HIV/AIDS research. A must-see for all pop lovers.