Music
To most, Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’ was a fun slice of dance music. On the other hand, her father found it mortifying.
To most, Madonna‘s Like a Virgin was a fun slice of dance music. On the other hand, her father found it mortifying. He wasn’t any happier when pictures of his daughter appeared in Playboy. The “Express Yourself” singer once released a ballad about her father, and the picture it paints is not flattering.
Madonna’s father didn’t want to talk about ‘Like a Virgin’
During a 1991 interview with Rolling Stone, Madonna was asked about how her father, Silvio Anthony “Tony” Ciccone, reacted to a risque performance from her film Madonna: Truth or Dare. She avoided the question. “I don’t know if he’s seen all the other things I’ve done,” she said. “I’m sure when the nude pictures in Playboy and the album Like a Virgin came out he went through a period of extreme shock.” While tame today, nude pictures and Like a Virgin were provocative in the 1980s.
Madonna revealed her father hadn’t said anything about Like a Virgin or the Playboy photos. She was then asked if that was a good thing. “I’m not sure,” she replied. “I haven’t decided.”
‘Like a Virgin’ wasn’t the only thing the singer’s father didn’t want to discuss
The Material Girl revealed her father did not treat her like the Queen of Pop. “When I go home, my father absolutely does not acknowledge that I’m famous, or a star, or a celebrity, or that I’ve made it in any way,” she explained. “He doesn’t talk about it so I can fit in and not feel the scorn of my brothers and sisters. I’m not sure that I like that.”
The “Erotica” singer revealed her dad was very traditional when it came to sex. “I’ve never really talked about sex with my father,” she recalled. “My parents were virgins when they got married. My mother was very religious, too. I think my father realized I was having sex once I married Sean [Penn]. Before then, I don’t think he did. I never brought any guys around because my parents lived in Michigan, and I lived in New York at the time.”
Madonna wrote a haunting song about her father
One of the more revealing tunes in Madonna’s discography is a pop ballad called “Oh Father” from Madonna’s album Like a Prayer. In that song, she sings that her father does not approve of her lifestyle and that she’s glad to be away from him so he cannot hurt her anymore. The Queen of Pop also portrays her dad as someone who was probably hurting too. “Oh Father” is part of the same album as “Keep It Together,” a track about the importance of family ties, so Madonna expressed some mixed emotions.
Another member of the family expressed a complementary perspective on Madonna’s father. Madonna’s brother is a dancer named Christopher Ciccone. In his 2008 book Life with My Sister Madonna, Ciccone described his father as deeply influenced by Midwestern American culture. Ciccone said his father rarely talked about the family’s deceased matriarch. Ciccone also described his father as a man if few words with little interest in small talk.
Like a Virgin is one of the defining albums of the 1980s even if Madonna’s father may not have been the biggest fan of it.
