Madonna-like

English

Alternative forms

• Madonnalike, madonna-like, madonnalike

Etymology

Madonna +‎ -like

Adjective

Madonna-like (comparative more Madonna-like, superlative most Madonna-like)

1. Resembling or characteristic of the Virgin Mary.
   • 2008, James McGee, “Army Years, 1960-1964”, in A 20th Century Life: Travels Through the Years, Xlibris, →ISBN, page 226:

     My compartment was full and included a young woman of Madonna-like face (Jesus’ mother, not the singer) and wistful eyes—a sorrowful, haunting, beauty.

2. Resembling or characteristic of American singer-songwriter and actress Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone; born 1958).
   • 1986 December 27, Sharon Liveten, “Talent in Action”, in Billboard, volume 98, number 52, section “One To One”, page 37:

     Instead of letting her husky Madonna-like voice and the band’s accessible pop tunes carry the show, she [Louise Reny] worked the crowd like a Las Vegas comic, repeatedly asking fans to dance and clap.

   • 1991, “John Irving”, in Walton Beacham, David W. Lowe, Katharine McLucas, Charles W. Moseley, editors, Beacham’s Popular Fiction 1991 Update, volumes 1 (A–K), Washington, D.C.: Beacham Publishing, Inc., →ISBN, page 627:

     Hester (“the Molester”) progresses from an exploited and exploiting child to a hippie folk singer to a Madonna-like pop singer who inverts the Virgin Mary imagery of the novel [A Prayer for Owen Meany] and who, like all the strong Wheelwright women, always behaves on her own terms.

   • 2003, Skye Alexander, Frank Andrews, Frank Don, Rochelle Gordon, Wendy C. Hawks, Jean Mars, Sophia Mason, et al., Rochelle Gordon and Nadia Stiegltz, main editors, “1990s: The Narcissistic Nineties”, in Love Signs & You: The Ultimate Astrological Guide to Love, Sex, and Relationships, Atria Books, →ISBN, section “Hot Topics”, subsection “Britney Spears – Growing Up with Justin”, page 669:

     By the year 2000 Britney [Spears] was undergoing a Madonna-like reinvention that began with a flesh-colored outfit for MTV that made her appear nearly nude, and a skin-tight red catsuit for her video Oops!…I Did it Again.

   • 2007, Rob Kirkpatrick, “Snake Eyes”, in The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen (The Praeger Singer-Songwriter Collection; James E. Perone, editor), Westport, Conn., London: Praeger Publishers, →ISBN, page 119:

     To the cynic for whom everything is about money and nothing about sincerity, [Bruce] Springsteen’s evolving styles might be confused as Madonna-like attempts calculated for commercial appeal—except Springsteen’s directions have almost always gone against the grain.

   • 2012, Mick Hume, “Why Blame “the Meejah”?”, in There is No Such Thing As a Free Press …and We Need One More Than Ever, Imprint Academic, →ISBN, page 88:

     Typically Rolling Stone magazine’s feature asking “Who’s to Blame?” for “blocking progress on global warming” had the old stager Rupert Murdoch still sitting Madonna-like at Number One in its chart after all these years.

   • 2014, Richard Barrios, “People: From Jolson to Justin in Eighty-Five Years”, in Dangerous Rhythm: Why Movie Musicals Matter, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 89:

     While [Mariah] Carey possessed the kind of Madonna-like exhibitionist confidence that would make Kate Smith blanch, the end results were pretty comparable.

   • 2015, Tacy M. Byham, Richard S. Wellins, Your First Leadership Job: How Catalyst Leaders Bring Out the Best in Others, Wiley, →ISBN, page 239:

     Be Madonna-Like and Vogue […] I challenge you to channel your inner rock star—in this case, Madonna. One of the talents that Madonna (and performers of all types) master is to seize the stage with an air of confidence.

   • 2016, Clemens Risi, “Diva Poses by Anna Netrebko: On the Perception of the Extraordinary in the Twenty-First Century”, in Karen Henson, editor, Technology and the Diva: Sopranos, Opera, and Media from Romanticism to the Digital Age, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 158:

     And there is a great deal to be said about [Anna] Netrebko and [Edita] Gruberová after the 2000s, including the deep sense of loss one feels when a figure like Gruberová prepares to leave the stage, and the curiosity – mixed with skepticism – that I personally feel about Netrebko’s new career phase, which on the one hand seems like a genuine maturing and on the other has aspects of a more self-conscious, Madonna-like reinvention.

   • 2017, Chuck Klosterman, Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21^st Century, Penguin Books, published 2018, →ISBN:

     Besides appearing on TV, Miley Cyrus records and tours as Hannah Montana and succeeds with Madonna-like tenacity.

Usage notes

• Madonna-like is several times more common than Madonnalike in print, reaching the factor 14 in 2019. GPO manual recommends using a hyphen with words ending in like- when the first element is a proper name.

References