Madonna caps a year of change by turning 50

By Andrew McCathie Jul 28, 2008, 19:58 GMT

US singer Madonna at the festival palace for the gala screening of US director Steven Soderbergh\'s film \'Che\' running in competition at the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, 21 May 2008, in Cannes, France. EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO

Berlin - It seems to be happening to everyone at the moment: Prince, Michael Jackson, Sharon Stone, Alec Baldwin and Paddington Bear are all turning 50 this year with Madonna also blowing out her birthday cake candles next month.

Indeed, the Material Girl appears to be making the most of breaching that not so fashionable threshold of 50 by kicking off a world tour.

But then the birthday celebrations already appear to have been underway for sometime for the Michigan-born Queen of Pop, who started out her life as Louise Veronica Ciccone with early ambitions to be a dancer and to find the fastest exit out of smalltown America.

This year she parted company with her long-standing record company Warner Brothers to sign a ground-breaking deal with concert promoters Live Nation, her latest album, Hard Candy hit the number one spot in 37 countries and she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Now based in London, Madonna also produced a documentary about the plight of Aids orphans in Malawi as well as making her debut as a film director with the premiere of her movie Fifth and Wisdom at the Berlin Film Festival.

Madonna might not appear in Fifth and Wisdom, but the film's story about the dreams of ordinary people to find a way out of the drudgery of daily life appears to draw on her own struggle to reach the big time in the entertainment business.

But despite her success, Madonna says she still she struggles with trying to discover the difference between 'right and wrong and not to be tricked by illusions.'

After arriving in New York in the late 1970's with just 35 dollars in her pocket, Madonna battled her way to the top of one of the world's toughest games.

As a pop icon with worldwide record sales totalling more 200 million, the singer would appear to have achieved her dream. Forbes magazine recently named her the world's highest earning female musician.

But her role as a movie actor has not been quite as consistent as the string of top hits that propelled her megastardom and it had seemed that her hopes of branching into film had run out of steam after a couple of flops in the cinema.

Despite the popularity of 1980's Desperate Seeking Susan, in which Madonna starred, and winning a Golden Globe for her role in Evita, her movie days appeared to come to an end in 2002 after Swept Away.

Directed by her husband Tim Ritchie and starring Madonna, Swept Away was almost laughed out of cinemas by film critics.

But throughout her more than 25-year career, Madonna has appeared remarkably adept at reinventing herself.

For the moment, however, filmmaking is the one thing that Madonna says she is interested in pursuing.

'I would like to make more films,' she said. 'I love documentaries. I would like to make more, specifically focusing on children in other parts of the world.'

She was speaking after her documentary I Am Because We Are was shown at a special gala screening at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

The film, which was directed by her one-time gardener Nathan Rissman, came in the wake of the 2006 controversy Madonna found herself in after adopting a boy from Malawi.

The main characters Madonna has assembled for Fifth and Wisdom also appear to be drawn from the various strands of her own life.

Andriy, who takes an interest in philosophy and poetry, is happiest when out on the streets promoting his Ukrainian gypsy punk band with the hope of reaching world stardom.

'I think I secretly want to be a gypsy,' she told a press conference marking the movie's premiere. 'I like the idea of travelling around making music and letting life unfold.'

Then there are Juliette, who has ambitions to help the world's poor, and Holly, who wants nothing more than a career as a prima ballerina.

But some of Madonna's recent publicity does not seem to have been all welcome.

In the run-up to popping the birthday champagne, Madonna found herself facing another round of fresh rumours that her marriage was in trouble.

This was followed by media reports romantically linking her to New York Yankees baseball star Alex Rodriquez and the breakup of his marriage.

Then her younger brother Christopher produced a memoir claiming that his pop star sister did not love her husband as much as she loves her career and herself.

After celebrating her 50th birthday, Madonna is scheduled to launch another world tour in September.

But few should have any doubts that she is likely to be still on the road, pumping put new albums and seeking out career directions when she hits sixty.