(Credits: Far Out / Madonna)
Sun 28 December 2025 21:30, UK
Like many pop legends, Madonna’s transition into singing was a mere “question of circumstance”. And one that wasn’t without its challenges, either.
If you’re a woman in music – especially one who shot to fame like Madonna – you’ve got no choice but to grow thick skin. It’s the kind of industry that makes you prove yourself over and over, and even then, respect doesn’t always come easy. Just ask anyone who’s tried to follow in her footsteps. After a while, the constant battle to be taken seriously wears you down.
In 2016, Madonna made this as clear as day when she accepted the ‘Woman of the Year’ accolade at the Billboard Music Awards. In her speech, she was blunt and funny, but most importantly, she was honest about how hard it’s been for her to get to where she is.
“I stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer,” she said.
Continuing, “You for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant misogyny, sexism, constant bullying and relentless abuse,” adding that all her hardships are what made her realise that the only “safety” is “self-belief” because there were rules for if you were a girl, but no rules if you were a boy.
These were also reasons why Madonna looked up to the usual suspects, the female figures who defied the system despite the odds being against them, like Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde, and Aretha Franklin. But it’s also why her “real muse” was David Bowie – because he embodied both, playing into different gender expectations and showing others that you could act as though there were no rules, even though there were many.
Of course, Madonna wouldn’t have it as easy as that. To this day, she’s still disregarded for various reasons, most of them misogynistic or because she doesn’t fit the so-called ideal for a female singer. But Madonna’s resilience also comes from years of humiliation and being overlooked in many respects, starting before she was even a singer, as a dancer in New York.
Madonna had dropped out of university to pursue a dancing career – another brutal industry – and tried to audition for anything she could get, which, after a while, pushed her to pursue musical theatre opportunities. And of course, this meant singing, too, and so often she’d do whatever she could to try and get noticed, even if it meant taking on the bigger, more challenging songs in the process.
As she recalled to Rolling Stone, “[Singing] was just a question of circumstance. Because I was a dancer, I started going to auditions for musical theatre, which forced me to sing. Most of the people auditioning were much more professional than I was — they brought sheet music, and they’d give it to the piano player, and I would just wing it and sing songs I knew from the radio, like an Aretha Franklin song or some other ridiculous embarrassment.”
Despite the understandable struggle when it comes to facing certain choices she made when she was younger, this was the kind of confidence and fearlessness that got Madonna to where she is today. It takes a lot to put yourself out there in an industry as brutal as music, and yet, Madonna continues to shine despite the constant weight of industry bias and sexism.
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