It was 1982. I was going into my sophomore year in high school.  Casey Kasem  was counting down America’s Top 40 every week. And a cool, edgy, girl named Madonna released her first single: Everybody. It didn’t hit the charts that year, but that would be the last time that any single released by this tiny Italian powerhouse wouldn’t.  It was a song and a moment that would change the course of – well – everything.

Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, on August 16, 1958, to Madonna and Tony Ciccone. When Madonna was five, her mother died of breast cancer at the age of 36, and her father later married Joan Gustafson, the family’s house keeper. In the later 70s, Madonna attended the University of Michigan on a dance scholarship and dropped out after two years. She moved to New York City to study dance with the Alvin Alley and Pearl Lang companies… >> For the rest of this Icon’s story written by editor/creative directory Michael DeVellis Order the Fall 2014 Issue here