Madonna is an Icon – Part Three
Here are more entries we got in for the Madonna Like An Icon contest. Five entries will be picked by our team and will receive a copy of Cherish: Madonna Like An Icon, the book by David Foy, courtesy of Ivy Publishing. The book has just been released in the US on April 30th:
• Qraig
My name is Qraig de Groot and I have been a fan of Madonna since basically day one. I even wrote an entire blog about my love and admiration for her. I wanted to try and turn it into a book, but you know how that goes. 🙂 Anyway, here’s a link if you’re interested: https://likeiburgeoned.wordpress.com
But anyway, below is my first blog entry that I feel perfectly sums up how I discovered Madonna and why she is such an Icon to me. Hope you enjoy reading it.
BURNING UP
Surrounded by a bumper crop of bright yellow dandelions during a late spring morning in 1983, I sat on the edge of my front lawn listening to the radio. Fiddling with its giant dial tuner, a mishmash of music droned from one tiny speaker.
A few months past twelve and completing the last weeks of sixth grade, come September I’d be moving up to junior high. The thought sent fear and dread, jumbled with just a tinge of thrill, through my pre-pubescent body. But at that moment, I was still a big man on the elementary school campus.
My class recently voted me “Mr. Congeniality” and I was narrating the sixth grade play I helped write with Michelle, my best friend since age three. We posed the question, “What will the sixth grade class of School 4 in Clifton be up to in twenty years?” Michelle fancied herself to be a top-notch teacher while I saw myself as a rich, world famous Dalmatian breeder.
Back in my Dalmatian lacking life, I randomly scanned through radio stations, stopping for a moment at an aging disco tune, a current Top 40 hit, or an arena rock anthem. Nothing seemed to hold my interest for long. A catchy dance song caught my ear and I paused to enjoy the tail end. An unfamiliar tune followed. My fingers were ready to start turning the dial again. But before I could, she began to sing about being on fire.
I immediately snapped to attention and let go of the tuner. The simple lyrics over this strange rock infused disco beat were electrifying.
I leapt to my feet. The song now had my full attention as the singer chirped on about quenching desires, pounding hearts and being down on her knees!
“Oh, do you wanna see me down on my knees
Or bending over backwards now, would you be pleased”
Nothing had ever jumped off the radio before and basically beat me into submission. Goosebumps ravaged my skin as the singer’s voice penetrated every single pleasure spot on my body. A mind-blowing chill went up my spine. I turned the volume up as loud as it would go. As the song endedway too soon for my likingthe announcer revealed what it was.
The song was Burning Up. The singer was Madonna. And she was about to change the soundtrack of my life.
Since then, Madonna has always been by my side. She got me through those first few awkward days of junior high and stayed with me during my painfully insecure high school years. When I went away to college, I cried to Madonna about my loneliness. Then, four years later I danced with her and my friends on graduation night.
Madonna was there for my first sexual experience with a woman then with a man. It was her who gave me the confidence to reveal who I truly was. She always encouraged me to express myself.
She adventurously moved with me from New Jersey to San Francisco then tentatively to Los Angeles and finally dejectedly back to the East Coast. Madonna cheered me along while I ran my first marathon and comforted me when my father died. Madonna taught me how to fall in love.
With Madonna’s guidance, I burgeoned from a timid boy into a confident man.
Since that first moment I heard her sing Burning Up, Madonna has been a predominant figure in my life. And she’s made it all worthwhile.
You know you got me burning up, baby
Burning up for your love
• Mariam
Why is Madonna an Icon to me?
She stands for an open mind. She stands for respect. She stands for the freedom of speech. She is an image, a work of art, embodying the characteristic traits that would lead to a better world. She has a voice. She speaks up. Her face, moreover her whole appearance, is distinct. Once you have allowed her into your world, she most probably will never leave your mind.
• VictorMadonna is an Icon to me because since I heard her beautiful voice for the first time when I was nine years old and got hypnotized by it, I’ve never stopped listening. But the great thing is the way she used that voice to speak up her mind throughout her carreer, defend her points and fight prejudice. I couldn’t be more proud of what she’s said and done; and I’m even prouder of being a fan of such courageous, ground-breaking woman. To me, having this innate power to touch people through art the way she touched me, and also legions of fans, is the purest definition of Icon.
• Juan
Madonna is a trailblazer in the music industry and a true Icon in every sense of the word.
Why she is such an Icon to me is almost beyond what mere words can describe. She is with me when I want to dance and be silly. She is the shoulder I cry on when I am sad and low. And she is the rock that I rely on to pick myself up. In a way, she is more than just an artist to me, she has been my friend and confidant in good times and bad times.
I look up to her because she is a tour de force and is a true example of a survivor. Her strength and passion have never led her astray into darkness like many wounded female artists who end up in so much trouble and lose their way. I find this truly remarkable about her as a woman and as an artist in a male dominated industry. Most new Female artists try to be like her or be her as if she could ever be replaced. Through it all she still manages to come out on top and show them all why she is on top. There’s only one Madonna and this makes her my #1 Icon.
