So growing up I was always aware of Madonna I suppose. But my first actual memory of her was seeing Evita commercials and hearing her belt 'Don't Cry For Me Argentina' and THIS remix was huge on the radio at the time:
So I knew the big singles as they came out - Frozen, Ray Of Light, Beautiful Stranger, etc. But it wasn't until late 2003/early 2004 that the gears began to turn. I remember liking the song American Life and around this period I was on the cusp of really getting into artists and their albums and hearing what they had to offer (most of my all-time faves would be 'discovered' by me in the next five or six months).
So there was this website that had a lot of albums uploaded in slightly below average quality and all of her albums were there. I'd been kind of interested in this album Erotica, I don't remember where I came across information about it but I figured I'd see what was so polarizing. In what would become a lifelong theme, I was drawn first and foremost to the 'difficult' work that wasn't as well-received. So I listened to Erotica, I was puzzled by it, I was intrigued by it, I liked enough of the songs from the get-go (I now consider it along with Ray Of Light to be Madonna's greatest artistic achievement), so then I went to Bedtime Stories. I worked my way to the end and then all the way back to the beginning and listened up through Like A Prayer. Ray Of Light was an absolute testament from the Heavens and it ended up being one of the first albums I ever purchased. Over the course of a weekend Madonna basically became a top priority and here we are 13ish years later!
My Dad always talked about her and the 80's so I've always known about her, but I don't think I was fully introduced to her until I saw the Sorry music video
I'm not a stan but I guess I "discovered" her when I was really little. My mom is the biggest Madonna stan I know and has a bunch of Madonna things in her office. I listened to a lot of her music when I stayed home with my mom as a kid since she played her CDs.
My mom tried to get me into Madonna so much (she obviously knew I was gay) so she made me sit with this Madonna wax figure.
Madonna has always been a part of my life but I never associated a name to the music. Like I remember hearing songs as old as Ray of Light, Don't Tell Me, 2003 VMA version of Hollywood on Hitlist, Music etc and loving them but i did not associate them to one artist at all. I just loved the songs and mv..I was too young to care about who sang the song etc.. It was probably until 2008 that I searched her up and studied her thoroughly and noticed that she sang all those songs that I loved as a child!
