Madonna Louise Ciccone (/tʃɪˈkoʊni/; Italian: [tʃikˈkoːne]; born August 16, 1958) mononymously known as Madonna, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for maintaining her autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions, which have generated some controversy. Often referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she is cited as an influence by numerous other artists around the world.
Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an auxiliary label of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, Madonna has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Into the Groove", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".
Lourdes (pronunciation: [luʀd]; Lorda in Occitan, pron. ['lurðɔ]) is a small market town lying in the foothills of the Pyrenees. It is part of the Hautes-Pyrénées department in the Midi-Pyrénées region in south-western France. Prior to the apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1858, the most prominent feature of the town was the fortified castle that rises up from a rocky escarpment at its centre.
In 1858 Lourdes rose to prominence in France and abroad due to the Marian apparitions seen by the peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous, who was later canonized. Shortly thereafter the city became one of the world's most important sites of pilgrimage and religious tourism. Today Lourdes hosts around six million visitors every year from all corners of the world. This constant stream of pilgrims and tourists transformed quiet Lourdes into the second most important center of tourism in France, second only to Paris, and the third most important site of international Catholic pilgrimage after Rome and the Holy Land. As of 2011, of French cities only Paris had more hotel capacity.
Lourdes and María de Lourdes are given names.
Notable people bearing these names include:
Lourdes Cecilia Fernández (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈlourðes seˈsilja ferˈnandes]; born 2 April 1981) is an Argentine singer-songwriter, composer and actress. She is the best known as a member of Argentine girl group Bandana and as a frontman of Lourdes, a band that carries her name.
As a student, Fernández was a member of two bands, Terikitungo and Seres Humanos. She was a student of Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. As a player of piano and electronic keyboards, Fernández became composing music on a computer program, which helped her to create more modern sound. In 2001, she went on an audition for talents show Popstars, which selected five girls for a girl group — Ivonne Guzmán, Valeria Gastaldi, Virginia Da Cunha, Lissa Vera and Fernández. As their emergence coincided with a period of nationwide economic depression, one of the series judges commented "this was an opportunity to shine at a very downbeat moment for Argentina". During the Popstars, Fernández was known as "la peti" ("shorty"), which was commented by judge Afo Verde that "appearance didn't matter to us, what each girl conveyed was most important". The band was named Bandana.
Madonna Louise Ciccone (/tʃɪˈkoʊni/; Italian: [tʃikˈkoːne]; born August 16, 1958) mononymously known as Madonna, is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. She achieved popularity by pushing the boundaries of lyrical content in mainstream popular music and imagery in her music videos, which became a fixture on MTV. Madonna is known for reinventing both her music and image, and for maintaining her autonomy within the recording industry. Music critics have acclaimed her musical productions, which have generated some controversy. Often referred to as the "Queen of Pop", she is cited as an influence by numerous other artists around the world.
Born in Bay City, Michigan, Madonna moved to New York City in 1977 to pursue a career in modern dance. After performing in the music groups Breakfast Club and Emmy, she signed with Sire Records (an auxiliary label of Warner Bros. Records) in 1982 and released her self-titled debut album the following year. She followed it with a series of commercially successful albums, including the Grammy Award winners Ray of Light (1998) and Confessions on a Dance Floor (2005). Throughout her career, Madonna has written and produced most of her songs, with many of them reaching number one on the record charts, including "Like a Virgin", "Into the Groove", "Papa Don't Preach", "Like a Prayer", "Vogue", "Frozen", "Music", "Hung Up", and "4 Minutes".
WorldNews.com | 19 Sep 2018
WorldNews.com | 19 Sep 2018
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