# Musical Musings: Five of the Best Madonna

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-zealand-net-radio-7869194/musical-musings-five-of-the-best-madonna
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-zealand-net-radio-7869194/musical-musings-five-of-the-best-madonna.md
Podcast: [New Zealand Net Radio](https://stenobird.com/podcast/new-zealand-net-radio-7869194)
Published: 2026-09-14T02:54:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.nznetradio.net.nz/podcast/#ep-112
Audio file: https://www.nznetradio.net.nz/podcast-audio/Musical-Musings-Five-of-the-Best-Madonna-2026-09-14-1454-licensed.m4a
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/new-zealand-net-radio-7869194/episodes/musical-musings-five-of-the-best-madonna
Duration seconds: 3593

## Resource

Armando Venditti has now been in the Five of the Best chair six times, and the list of what he’s brought us reads like a straight line: Saga, Queen, The Tea Party, Rush, Pink Floyd. This week he arrives from Edmonton and says the word “Madonna,” and I don’t mind admitting I had to read the email twice. Madonna Louise Ciccone was born in Bay City, Michigan in 1958, studied dance at the University of Michigan and then with the Alvin Ailey company in New York, spent a stretch in Paris in a disco revue, and played drums and guitar in a couple of going-nowhere rock bands before Sire Records signed her in 1982. What followed is the most relentlessly documented career in pop: the best-selling female recording artist there has ever been, the highest-grossing solo touring artist of all time, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the first time of asking, and — at sixty-eight, this month — the most-nominated artist at this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, eleven of them, ahead of everybody. The last time she topped that nomination list was 1990. It was for “Vogue.” Armando has chosen five great tracks for us – three invitations to the dance floor (one per decade) and two lullabies written on consecutive days in 1988. And not one scandal anywhere in the pile. Join us and let Armando make the case for Madonna the songwriter. Broadcast 14 September 2026

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## Transcript

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