Madonna

A Rebel Life - The Definitive Biography

By: Mary Gabriel

Narrated by: Elise Arsenault

In this exceptional biography, Pulitzer Prize finalist Mary Gabriel chronicles the meteoric rise and enduring influence of the greatest female pop icon of the modern era: Madonna.

With her arrival on the music scene in the early 1980s, Madonna generated nothing short of an explosion - as great as that of Elvis or the Beatles - taking the nation by storm with her liberated politics and breathtaking talent.

But Madonna was more than just a pop star. Everywhere, fans gravitated to her as an emblem of a new age, one in which feminism could shed the buttoned-down demeanour of the 1970s and feel relevant to a new generation. Amid the scourge of AIDS, she brought queer identities into the mainstream, fiercely defending a person's right to love whomever - and be whoever - they wanted. Despite fierce criticism, she never separated her music from her political activism. And as an artist, she never stopped experimenting. Madonna existed to push past boundaries by creating provocative, visionary music, videos, films and live performances that changed culture globally.

Deftly tracing Madonna's story from her Michigan roots to her rise to super-stardom, master biographer Mary Gabriel captures the dramatic life and achievements of one of the greatest artists of our time.

©2023 Mary Gabriel (P)2023 Hachette Book Group

Critic reviews

"Mary Gabriel has dared to write a biography of a woman with whom the entire world is on a first-name basis. Here, she reveals Madonna as a rock-and-roll suffragette, managing the stress test of her personal life and using the power of music to bring about social change. Exquisitely detailed in her storytelling, Gabriel convinces us that we all still vogue in the House of Madonna" (Brad Gooch, author of CITY POET: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF FRANK O'HARA)

"Mary Gabriel's astonishing book with its pointillist detail feels fresh, surprising, vital, and necessary. It's thrilling to be reminded of how brave Madonna has been-to a fault! It doesn't matter where it springs from, because the results are the same: a singular, towering career that changed the culture (Jonathan Van Meter, author of THE LAST GOOD TIME)

"Mary Gabriel eloquently tells the engrossing story of how Madonna combined music, dance, art, fashion, theater and pop stardom to develop a completely contemporary way to be an artist. It chronicles how her embrace of the artistic vanguard transformed popular culture (Jeffrey Deitch, author of ART IN THE STREETS)

The most controversial thing she has ever done is to stick around.

Saw a few posts on the social media about this book but didn’t expect much, because I’m a life-long die hard Madonna fan and I genuinely thought I would get nothing out of it. However, I find it interesting to hear or read someone’s perspective on Madonna as an artist all the time and GOD this book is amazing!
It builds the whole picture around the facts we already know, completing the puzzle and gives so much details about why Madonna is the way she is.
It’s not a fan book, it’s an observation. However, I don’t know how could you resist becoming a fan after seeing how much meaning is behind everything she does.
Mary Gabriel did an impressive job! Highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Madonna or the pop culture in general, because this woman paved the way for everyone.
A Rebel Life is worth every minute of listening, I wish there was more!