544 Madonna The Nineties in America
the same time and featured many erotic photos of
Madonna. The book became an international best
seller and one of the most controversial books of the
decade. In 1993, the highly erotic filmBody of Evi-
dence, starring Madonna, was released and subse-
quently bombed at the box office.
In 1993, The Girlie Show Tour featured the singer
as a whip-wielding dominatrix surrounded by top-
less dancers. Her performance in Puerto Rico in-
cited controversy over her vulgar use of the Puerto
Rican flag, and her show was protested by Orthodox
Jews at her first performance in Israel.
Later Hits The 1996 filmEvita, based on the 1978
stage musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber with lyrics by
Tim Rice, was Madonna’s most critically successful
film. It stars Antonio Banderas as Ché, an Argentin-
ean everyman, and Madonna as Eva Perón, the char-
ismatic wife of Juan Perón (played by Jonathan
Pryce) who became the most powerful woman in
Argentina during her husband’s presidency. Ma-
donna, who took voice lessons to extend her range
for the movie, performs the music flawlessly and is
convincing as Evita, the poor, urban child who con-
verts herself into a nightclub singer, radio star, volup-
tuous mistress, and political leader.
The sound track of the film became Madonna’s
twelfth platinum album and included two songs that
became hit singles: “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina”
and “You Must Love Me,” which was written for the
film. The following year, “You Must Love Me” won an
Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best
Original Song. Madonna also won a Golden Globe
Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical for
her performance inEvita.
In 1998, Madonna released the albumRay of
Light, which indicated a new musical direction. It
blended introspective and personal lyrics about
motherhood and spirituality with electronic instru-
mentation, strings by Craig Armstrong, and Eastern
music. Many of the songs were written in collabora-
tion with British electronic musician William Orbit,
whose work Madonna admired.Ray of Lightwas re-
corded over four and a half months in 1997, the lon-
gest Madonna had ever worked on an album. Since
she had taken singing lessons forEvita, Madonna’s
voice was easy to record, and many of her vocal tracks
required only one take. The recording was plagued
with technical difficulties, however, as Orbit pre-
ferred to work with computers and synthetic sounds
rather than live musicians, and the computers fre-
quently broke down.
Madonna earned rave reviews forRay of Light,
which many reviewers considered her most success-
ful album to date. It won three Grammy Awards in
1999 for Best Dance Recording, Best Pop Album,
and Best Recording Package. The title track also
won a Grammy for Best Short Form Music Video.
Three years later,Rolling Stonereaders votedRay
of Lightas the twenty-ninth greatest album of all
time.Impact Madonna ranks among the best-selling fe-
male artists in pop music, having sold over 300 mil-
lion records. More than just a performer, Madonna
is a cultural icon who has pushed the boundaries of
religion and sexuality in her work, influencing pop-
ular culture and other artists.Further Reading
Guilbert, Georges-Claude.Madonna as Postmodern
Myth: How One Star’s Self-Construction Rewrites Sex,
Gender, Hollywood, and the American Dream.Jeffer-
son, N.C.: McFarland, 2002. An analysis of Ma-
donna’s influence on American culture, includ-
ing other artists and feminists. Appropriate for
cultural studies professors and students.
Paglia, Camille.Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays.
New York: Vintage Books, 1992. The first two
sections, “Madonna I: Animality and Artifice” and
“Madonna II: Venus of the Radio Waves,” offer
an incisive discussion of the cultural meaning
of Madonna’s excesses by an accomplished jour-
nalist.
Sexton, Adam, ed.Desperately Seeking Madonna: In
Search of the World’s Most Famous Woman.New York:
Delta, 1993. An anthology of cartoons, articles,
quotations, and poetry that the music journalist
Sexton has collected from such sources as theNa-
tional Review,Christianity and Crisis,Rolling Stone,
Ellen Goodman, Art Buchwald, Helen Gurley
Brown, and others. Illuminates the many sides of
Madonna.
Sheila Golburgh JohnsonSee also Academy Awards; Broadway musicals;
Censorship; Electronic music; Film in the United
States; Music; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Museum.