Madonna

Madonna is the eponymous debut studio album by American singer Madonna. It was released on July 27, 1983, by Sire Records. After having established herself as a singer in downtown New York City, Madonna was signed by Sire president Seymour Stein, due to the club success of her debut single "Everybody". She became the sole writer for most of the album's songs, and chose Reggie Lucas as its primary producer. Unhappy with Lucas' production outputs, Madonna asked her then-boyfriend John "Jellybean" Benitez to complete the album; he remixed three songs and produced the album's first US Top 20 hit, "Holiday". The album has an upbeat synthetic post-disco sound, using new technology of the time, including the LM-2 drum machine, Moog bass and Oberheim OB-X synthesizer. Madonna sang in a bright, girlish timbre, with lyrics about love and relationships. To promote the album, Madonna performed one-off gigs in clubs and on television shows in the United States and United Kingdom throughout 1983 and 1984, followed by the 1985 Virgin Tour. Five singles were released, including the international Top 10 hits "Holiday", "Lucky Star" and "Borderline". Their accompanying music videos were released on the Madonna video compilation, which became the best-selling videocassette of 1985 in the United States. In the United States, the album peaked at number eight on the Billboard 200 and was certified five-times Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). It reached the Top 10 of the charts in Australia, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom, and has sold an estimated 10 million copies worldwide. Upon release, the album received generally positive reviews from music criticss, and was included in Rolling Stone "100 Best Debut Albums of All Time" list in 2013 and 2022, saying that "it succeeded in introducing the most important female voice in the history of modern music". The album has been credited for setting the standard of dance-pop for decades afterward, and for pointing the direction for numerous female artists of the 1980s. Background In 1979, Madonna was living in New York City and establishing her music career as a member of rock band the Breakfast Club with her boyfriend Dan Gilroy. In late 1980, she was joined by Stephen Bray, her boyfriend from Michigan, who became the drummer of the band. Shortly after, Madonna and Bray left the Breakfast Club and formed the band Emmy and the Emmys.