Madonna (born Madonna Louise Ciccone; August 16, 1958) is an American recording artist, actress and entrepreneur. Born in Bay City, Michigan, and raised in Rochester Hills, Michigan, she moved to New York City in 1977, for a career in modern dance. After performing as a member of the pop groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she released her debut album, Madonna, in 1983 on Sire Records.

A series of hit singles from her next studio albums, Like a Virgin (1984) and True Blue (1986), established her as a pop icon. She pushed the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Her recognition was further raised by the film Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) which was widely seen as a Madonna vehicle despite her not playing the lead. Utilizing religious imagery in her fourth studio album Like a Prayer (1989), Madonna was praised by critics for her diverse musical productions while at the same time religious conservatives and the Vatican criticized her. In 1992, Madonna founded the Maverick corporation as a joint venture with Time Warner. The same year, she incorporated sexually explicit material in her work, with the studio album Erotica, the coffee table book Sex and the erotic thriller film Body of Evidence, all of which received negative responses from conservatives and liberals alike.

1996 saw Madonna play the starring role in the film Evita for which she won a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. Her seventh studio album, Ray of Light (1998), became one of her most critically acclaimed, recognized for its lyrical depth. Four studio albums followed during the 2000s—Music (2000), American Life (2003), Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005) and Hard Candy (2008)—all of which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200. Departing from Warner Bros. Records, Madonna signed an unprecedented $120 million contract with Live Nation in 2007. The next year, she began her Sticky & Sweet Tour, which was extended till 2009, and went on to become the highest-grossing tour ever for a solo artist.

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, Madonna has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. She is ranked by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) as the best-selling female rock artist of the 20th century, and the second top-selling female artist in the United States behind Barbra Streisand, with 64 million certified albums. Guinness World Records listed her as the world's most successful female recording artist of all time. In 2008, Billboard magazine ranked Madonna at number two behind only The Beatles, on the "Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists", making her the most successful solo artist in the history of the chart. She was also inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Considered to be one of the most influential figures in contemporary music, Madonna is known for continually reinventing both her music and image, and for retaining a standard of autonomy within the recording industry.