all about Madonna

Madonna turns the soil to lay the foundation of a multi-million dollar girls’ school she is building in Chinkota, outside Lilongewe in Malawi (October 26 2009)

US pop queen Madonna broke ground today on a girls academy she is building in Malawi, billed as a “gift” to the country where she has adopted two children.

The 51-year-old star cut a cake, planted a tree and turned the sod alongside her eldest daughter Lourdes, 13, at a colourful ceremony attended by about 500 locals on the outskirts of Malawi’s administrative capital Lilongwe.

According to a brochure for the Raising Malawi Girls Academy, the school will be a “leadership institution to prepare future women leaders” with 500 boarders including two impoverished girls from the country’s 28 districts.

It will “focus on mathematics and science which traditionally have failed in Malawi and elsewhere”, the brochure said.

Madonna’s school is modelled on a similar academy built by US television talk show host Oprah Winfrey.

In 2006, the chart-topping musician adopted a baby boy, David Banda, who is now three-years-old. She returned to Malawi this year to adopt a girl, Mercy James.

Madonna is also funding several charities in the small southern African country, including homes for children with AIDS.

source: afp

Madonna with kids at the Kabbalah centre in London (October 24 2009)

from raisingmalawi.org

My family and I are on our way to Malawi to attend the ground breaking ceremony for Raising Malawi Academy for Girls. The ceremony will take place on Monday, October 26 at 3:00 p.m. on the future site of the Academy.

Our vision for the school is to empower girls to become Malawi’s future leaders. Our goal is to teach them to challenge themselves, serve their local communities and develop their country. We created this vision in partnership with the local Malawian Ministry of Education, and other educational experts from Malawi, Sub-Sharan African and elsewhere around the world.

We are developing and using innovative educational approaches, cutting-edge architectural design methods, and other modern technologies, which we hope, will become a replicable model for girls secondary school education.

Research proves that young girls throughout the developing world are often left without opportunities to receive a comprehensive education and the benefits that education can provide.

It’s an honor for me to be able to help as many of these girls as I can achieve their dreams.

I’m also incredibly proud of all the projects Raising Malawi is involved in and I look forward to visiting a number of them during my visit.

An official for Madonna’s African charity says the star has arrived in Malawi to visit the girls school she is building in the impoverished country where she adopted two children.

The official who could not be named because he was not authorised to speak on the matter said Madonna arrived on Sunday at about 14:30 on Ethiopian Airlines.

The 51-year-old celebrity was accompanied by her four children, her daughters Lourdes and Mercy, and sons Rocco and David.

source: ap

13. (12) Reunited – Cliff Richard & The Shadows
14. (3) Celebration – Madonna 12470 (Total Sales: 187649)
15. (26) The E.N.D. – Black Eyed Peas

Madonna with kids at the Kabbalah centre in London (October 24 2009)

Media Traffic United World Album Chart – week 43 / 2009 – October 31
1. (2) Michael Bublé – Crazy Love – Reprise – 275.000
2. (1) Madonna – Celebration – Warner Bros. – 118.000 (Total Sales: 802k)
3. (-) OST – The Twilight Saga: New Moon – Chop Shop / Atlantic – 115.000
4. (14) Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D. – Interscope – 88.000
5. (4) Barbra Streisand – Love Is The Answer – Columbia – 87.000
6. (7) Jay-Z – Blueprint 3 – Roc Nation / Live Nation – 86.000
7. (-) Aqua Timez – The Best Of Aqua Timez – Sony Music – 83.000
8. (11) Muse – The Resistance – Helium 3 / Warner Bros. – 77.000
9. (-) Shakira – She Wolf / Loba – Epic – 65.000
10. (8) Mariah Carey – Memoirs Of An Imperfect Angel – Island – 63.000

Billboard Hot 200 US Albums – Week of October 31, 2009
…
37. (37) Hannah Montana: The Movie – Soundtrack
38. (20) Celebration – Madonna – 14.500 (Total Sales: 113k)
39. (40) Ready – Trey Songz
…

Billboard European Albums – Week of October 31, 2009
1. (1) Celebration – Madonna
2. (-) Shakira – She Wolf
3. (-) In This Light And On This Ev… – Editors
4. (3) The Resistance – Muse
5. (-) Alles Kann Besser Werden – Xavier Naidoo
6. (8) Get Lucky – Mark Knopfler
7. (-) So Wie Ich Bin – Helene Fischer
8. (2) Humanoid – Tokio Hotel
9. (6) The Boy Who Knew Too Much – Mika
10. (4) Love Is The Answer – Barbra Streisand

“I love Liz Smith because she has big balls, like me!”

Those were practically the very first words I ever heard, personally, out of Madonna’s mouth.

I was at the 1990 New York premiere of Madonna’s highly entertaining documentary, Truth of Dare. I wasn’t covering it, exactly. I was there being interviewed by ABC’s “Primetime Live.” They were doing a segment on me. So, this event was an example of one of my “glamorous nights out.” And of course I was being pressed to speak to Madonna. I’d been writing about her exhaustively since 1984, so everybody assumed we were friends. In fact, I’d never clapped eyes on her. I told the ABC people, “Look, this is her premiere, I don’t think she wants to be part of my publicity!”

Somehow Madonna was corralled into a corner where I stood with the film crew. We exchanged hellos. Then the producer asked Madonna what she thought of me. She answered with the quote above, and we parted, laughing. (It couldn’t really be used on the air.)

So I had finally met this already legendary creature of music, video, and controversy. She was in a brunette phase, and looked gorgeous under a heavy coat of makeup. She was wearing a glittering Versace bodysuit, legs bare, bosom up and out. Yet in the brief moments I spent with her, I
sensed her less a sexual provocateur and more like a little girl dressed up outrageously in Mama’s finery. She seemed nothing at all like her sometimes vulgar, deliberately inyour-face image. As the years went by, and I got to know her better, I found her a much more serious and far more vulnerable person than she ever lets on. But she has been determined, right from the start, to never beg her audience
(or the media) for sympathy.

Download Article in PDF here or read it at wowowow.com. Published in Quest Magazine.