Madonna Louise Ciccone Ritchie (born August 16, 1958), known artistically as Madonna, is an American pop singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Raised in Detroit, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City for a career in ballet. After performing as member of the pop musical groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her self-titled debut album in 1983. She rose to success after producing three consecutive number-one studio albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1980s.

Madonna is well-known for her works that explore religious symbolism and sexual themes.  In 1992, she founded an entertainment company, Maverick, whose first publication is a book of erotic photographs (Sex). She also released a studio album (Erotica) and starred in a film (Body of Evidence) with erotic themes. These works generated negative critical publicity, opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, and a fall in commercial sales in the early to mid 1990s compared to her success in the 80s. Nevertheless, she continued to earn considerable chart success with several releases during this perod; albums such as The Immaculate Collection, Erotica, Bedtime Stories and Evita, all achieved multi-platinum sales.  Madonna's fortunes were revived in 1998, when the release of her album Ray of Light garnered critical acclaim. She subsequently made four more consecutive number-one studio albums.

Besides her music career, Madonna has acted in 22 films. Although several of them failed critically and commercially, she earned a Golden Globe Award for her role in the 1996 film Evita. Divorced from actor Sean Penn, Madonna is married to film director Guy Ritchie. She has two biological children and successfully adopted a Malawian boy, David Banda, in 2008 despite media allegations of violating adoption laws.

Madonna has been critically regarded as "one of the greatest pop acts of all time" and dubbed "The Queen of Pop" by the media.  She is ranked by the Recording Industry Association of America as the best-selling female rock artist of the twentieth century and the second top-selling female artist in the United States with 63 million certified albums. Guinness World Records list her as the world's most successful female recording artist of all time and the top-earning female singer in the world with an estimated net worth of over US$400 million, having sold over 200 million albums worldwide. On March 10, 2008, she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame