![\"Madonna](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Madonna-Musician-2025-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
(Credits: Far Out \/ Madonna)<\/p>\n
Sun 28 December 2025 21:30, UK <\/p>\n
Like many pop legends, Madonna<\/a>\u2019s transition into singing was a mere \u201cquestion of circumstance\u201d. And one that wasn\u2019t without its challenges, either.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re a woman in music \u2013 especially one who shot to fame like Madonna \u2013 you\u2019ve got no choice but to grow thick skin. It\u2019s the kind of industry that makes you prove yourself over and over, and even then, respect doesn\u2019t always come easy. Just ask anyone who\u2019s tried to follow in her footsteps. After a while, the constant battle to be taken seriously wears you down.<\/p>\n In 2016, Madonna made this as clear as day when she accepted the \u2018Woman of the Year\u2019 accolade at the Billboard Music Awards. In her speech, she was blunt and funny, but most importantly, she was honest about how hard it\u2019s been for her to get to where she is. <\/p>\n \u201cI stand before you as a doormat. Oh, I mean, as a female entertainer,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Continuing, \u201cYou for acknowledging my ability to continue my career for 34 years in the face of blatant misogyny, sexism, constant bullying and relentless abuse,\u201d adding that all her hardships are what made her realise that the only \u201csafety\u201d is \u201cself-belief\u201d because there were rules for if you were a girl, but no rules if you were a boy.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s also why her \u201creal muse\u201d was David Bowie \u2013 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. <\/p>\n Of course, Madonna wouldn\u2019t have it as easy as that. To this day, she\u2019s still disregarded for various reasons, most of them misogynistic or because she doesn\u2019t fit the so-called ideal for a female singer. But Madonna\u2019s resilience also comes from years of humiliation and being overlooked in many respects<\/a>, starting before she was even a singer, as a dancer in New York. <\/p>\n Madonna had dropped out of university to pursue a dancing career \u2013 another brutal industry \u2013 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\u2019d do whatever she could to try and get noticed, even if it meant taking on the bigger, more challenging songs in the process.<\/p>\n