Music / Film & TV
Madonna
born 1958 · singer, songwriter, producer, actress
The “Queen of Pop,” raised in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Rochester Hills, a Rochester Adams High School graduate who left Michigan for New York in 1978.
- Born
Bay City, Michigan
age 68- Birth name
- Madonna Louise Ciccone
- Also known as
- Queen of Pop
- Detroit years
- 1960s–1978
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Madonna Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan, and grew up in the Detroit suburbs of Pontiac and Avon Township, today's Rochester Hills. Her father, an engineer in the auto and defense industries, first sent her to piano lessons, but she persuaded him to let her study ballet instead. At Rochester Adams High School she was a straight-A student and a cheerleader, and after graduating early, in January 1976, she won a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In Michigan she also dated drummer Stephen Bray, who later became a key songwriting partner. In 1978 she left for New York to pursue dance, and within six years she had become one of the biggest stars in the world with Like a Virgin (1984), followed by True Blue, Like a Prayer and Ray of Light. She has often called Detroit her hometown, and in 2014 she donated to organizations helping the city after its bankruptcy.
Highlights
- Raised in Pontiac and Rochester Hills
- Graduated from Rochester Adams High School in January 1976
- Dance scholarship to the University of Michigan
- Seven Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, 2008
- Donated to Detroit causes after the city's 2013 bankruptcy
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Studied here · 1972–1976
Rochester Adams High School
Public high school in Rochester Hills where she was a straight-A student and cheerleader, graduating in January 1976.
Studied here · 1976–1978
University of Michigan (Ann Arbor campus)
She studied dance here on a scholarship before leaving for New York in 1978.