Madonna still stands as the undisputed No. 1 among women in the music business, with an estimated 335 million records sold. Most fans could recite her discography backward and forward. In the new documentary “Becoming Madonna,” which has been available to stream on ZDF Mediathek since August 9 and is set to air later this month on ZDFinfo as well as on 3sat in linear television, there are insights that even hardcore fans may not know.
Of course you can always sample a cross-section of the best music videos and her most spectacular live performances, but the 2024 UK-produced documentary “Becoming Madonna,” directed by Michael Ogden, deliberately chooses a different focus. As the title suggests, it centers on how Madonna rose to become the “Queen of Pop.” The ninety-minute English-language film, with a German voiceover, presents compelling clips from the years 1978 to 1992.
It begins with her move to New York, at the age of 20. She arrives with barely 30 dollars in her pocket, but she is unwavering in the belief that she will make her mark. After a few odd jobs, Madonna Louise Ciccone lands as the drummer in the band Breakfast Club, a role that quickly feels insufficient. She wants to sing herself and draw all the attention to herself—hence she is soon kicked out of the band.
Convinced she could go all the way
Fueled by radical self-belief, a hefty dose of creativity, and an even larger amount of courage, Madonna soon starts recording her own songs and becomes a rising star in the city’s clubs. In the documentary, viewers meet many of her early collaborators, including her first manager, the director of “Borderline,” and the producers of her first songs. In an interview, she is asked which musical box she fits into. She answers that she herself is the box—and that it is a completely new one. Bold declaration.
That very confidence, the belief that she could push herself to the limit, becomes her key. She convinces a few players in the show business world to invest in her. The rest is history. “Becoming Madonna” portrays a woman with an incredibly strong will, who deftly masks imperfections with coolness, irony, and wit. It covers her first real scandal at the very first MTV Video Music Awards in 1984, where she performs “Like a Virgin” in a wedding dress and sets a trend—causing heartbreak for many parents and delight for countless teenagers.
“As a creative person, I always dig deeper”
There begins her ascent, turning male dominance into a female version of power. Men may want women to take their clothes off, but she insists on deciding when and where that happens. The film features scenes from her tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn, moments from her Live Aid performance, the massive outcry surrounding the Blond Ambition tour, and the “Like a Prayer” music video, culminating in 1992 with the pinnacle of the scandal around her photo book “Sex.”
“As a creative person, I always dig deeper,” she says. She is everything and nothing of what she shows. Boundaries exist to be tested and redefined, and she does not accept the hypocritical double standards of a supposedly Christian society. Madonna continually demonstrates the interplay of songs, music videos, stage productions, outfits, and sharp, well-considered statements in interviews.
Direct link | English original trailer
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Madonna and the LGBTQ+ community
Not least, “Becoming Madonna” also delves into her activism. She owes a large part of her success to the queer scene. As one of the earliest to do so, she cast almost exclusively gay men as dancers for her tours—as a time when many gay men faced persecution. She organized a performance to raise AIDS awareness and sold books featuring drawings and essential medical information that would otherwise go unspoken. In the late 1980s, that was nearly heroic.
Madonna fans get new perspectives on many well-known stories and even some unseen material, while politically engaged viewers will come away with a renewed appreciation for the icon’s activist side. Ninety brisk minutes about a woman who often challenged norms, endured a great deal of hate, but who also continues to rightfully hold an extraordinary cult status that did not happen by accident.
