Born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone on August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan, the future mega-star showed an early interest in dance and eventually won a scholarship to the University of Michigan on the strength of her talent. Before completing her education, Madonna dropped out of college to move to New York, paving the way to a career in dance and pop.

She was quickly discovered by Sire Records and signed on to create her first three debut hits, Borderline, Lucky Star and Holiday. The new cable rock channel, MTV, quickly took began airing all three videos in rotation and...a star was born.

If bouncy pop tunes were the early star's stock and trade, then she quickly found a way to make headlines with the release of her semi-scandalous album Like A Virgin, the title song garnering her first No. 1 hit in 1984.