tomasjohn

Before the debut album, she had many bands and demos which have leaked over the years, but here is one demo that fans never knew about or heard until she shared it on her Instagram during the writing sessions with Diablo for her yet to be produced Biopic:
 
 

Madonna met John “Jellybean” Benitez, who worked as a DJ at the Funhouse club in lower Manhattan in 1983. They started dating and worked on her self-titled debut album, released in 1983. When Benitez started to put together his own debut EP, he asked Madonna to write a song for him, and within two days, she penned “Sidewalk Talk”.
 

Maybe is better the Lucky star cover from "Fame" TV series
 

First TV appearances of Madonna on Italian TV:
1983 Everybody and Holiday
 
Possibly related to the promotion of the Italian double single Holiday/Everybody
 

An early (I think first with MTV) where Madonna talks about how she came to be in the music business, the success of her debut album, and her eagerness to release her follow up album:
 

An Article in Record Mirror from February 1983:

A very early interview originally published in Record Mirror dated February 26, 1983. Madonna was on to promote her debut single ‘Everybody’ and spoke about macho hunks, being a very sexual person, going to Paris and upcoming single ‘Burning Up.’ This article has been added to the press section of The First Album page.
A few excerpts from the interview:
‘I’m a very sexual person but I want my brain to be appreciated as well.’ says Madonna. “I look good on stage, very good but I don’t wear costumes that I’m going to fall out of. That would be rather cheap.”
‘I see myself as an entertainer to make people forget about the horrors of the world. I’m an escape route. I wrote ‘Everybody’ because we all need a lover and everybody wants to be loved.’
‘Madonna’s album will be out soon and her next single will be ‘Burning Up.’ “It’s about somebody being totally consumed with desire.” she sighs. “You know that feeling you get when you ache for somebody. Oh yes it’s happened to me and I hope a lot of people have ached for me. 

A short article from ROLLING STONE magazine in Sept. 29, 1983, regarding Madonna's debut album:

Madonna
by Don Shewey
Madonna, who crashed onto the dance charts last year with “Everybody,” has a voice that takes some getting used to. At first, it doesn’t sound like much at all. Then you notice its one distinguishing feature, a girlish hiccup that the singer uses over and over until it’s irritating as hell. Finally, you get hooked, and you start looking forward to that silly little catch in her voice. It helps that she writes good tunes — catchy and bare to the bone. It helps even more that her album is pristinely produced by Reggie Lucas. Electric keyboards have the clarity of finger chimes. The bass slaps the backbeat like shoes on pavement. Mind you, it’s simple stuff: “I’m burnin’ up/Burnin’ up for your love,” or “Holiday/Celebrate.” But it’s clever at times, too. “Physical Attraction” is practically a capsule history of high-school proms, with its sly references to the Association’s “Cherish” and Olivia Newton-John’s “Physical.”
There are lots of blue-eyed soul belters with more generous voices and more intricate songs — Teena Marie comes quickly to mind. Still, without overstepping the modest ambitions of minimal funk, Madonna issues an irresistible invitation to the dance.

A Naughty Brownie.  An interview in 1984, when Lucky Star is about to be released.  She speaks of Vision Quest which didn't come until later and only feature two songs by her.  This of course was all before the release of her sophomore album "Like A Virgin" which was supposed to be released by the summer of '84, but due to her debut album receiving more attention and success, LAV was pushed back to a later date in 1984: 
 

This photo was used as the Irish-only 7″ pressing that is considered among her fans to be the Holy Grail of the iconic singer’s back catalogue. The release is almost identical to the 12″ version in every way, right down to having the same B-side track, I Know It.
 

Madonna in 1983, talking about the death of Michael Stewart at what many claim to be Police brutality:
 
 

Borderline Live in Los Angeles.  Why was this song cut from the Video home release?  Maybe to keep to a an hour time limit, but wow?  Her first top 10 hit, excluded from this at a time, when she was far more famous in the U.S. for all these songs.
 

thanks for this thread! 

In July 1985, Madonna performed at Live Aid.  One of the songs she performed was her classic hit song, "Holiday":
 

Edo Bertoglio - 'Lucky Star' Album Shoot Hellmuth Building on 18th Street in New York in April 1983 part 4.
 

Edo Bertoglio - 'Lucky Star' Album Shoot Hellmuth Building on 18th Street in New York in April 1983 part 3.
 

Edo Bertoglio - 'Lucky Star' Album Shoot Hellmuth Building on 18th Street in New York in April 1983 part 2.
 

Edo Bertoglio - 'Lucky Star' Album Shoot Hellmuth Building on 18th Street in New York in April 1983 part 1.
An original black and white studio photograph of Madonna taken by Edo Bertoglio, with yellow, green, and red-toned tinting on the hair and lips. The photograph was taken in the Hellmuth Building on 18th Street in New York in April 1983. The purpose of the shoot was for the cover of Madonna’s first album Lucky Star that was eventually changed to Madonna (Sire/Warner Bros., 1983).PROVENANCE From the Estate of Martin Burgoyne

1982 October- November Martin Burgoyne - Burning Up (Cover) Times Square NYC part 3.



 

 

1982 October- November Martin Burgoyne - Burning Up (Cover) Times Square NYC part 2.

1982 October- November Martin Burgoyne - Burning Up (Cover) Times Square NYC part 1.

From Sigma Sound tapes; "Burning Up" - Reggie Lucas Early Mix:
 

A short interview Madonna did in May 1983 for FlexiPop! when she was in London before her first huge hit:

 
MAD ON THE DANCE FLOOR
By Kris Needs
These days I wake up more and more feeling death's breath around the corner as I near the winter of my years. It's so hard being a drunken bum and working for Flexipop!. I should have been a ballet dancer.
This was the conclusion I came to after talking to the gorgeously perky Madonna, over here recently to say hello and do some club sets.
"The thing about dancing – what it taught me all those years – is it gives you an amazing sense of discipline in forcing yourself to do things that you know are good for you but you don't really want to do. It's self-preservation. A lot of people in the music industry wreck themselves. I know that my lifestyle is a lot different from a lot of other people because of the training I've had. It can be a real long life if you make it that way."
And a short one if you don't, I suppose [hack, wheeze, etc]. (This advice was obviously inspired by the alcohol-marinated apparition sitting before her who'd just been to a booze-sodden lig hosted by Noel Edmonds to launch this new invention called the CD.)
Not to worry, though. Madonna's first single – the Rusty Egan-remixed Everybody – is real hangover-repellent, made for the legs and those who find it taxes the old brain too much to lurch along and scoop up the latest hot funk item in over-priced import shops. Madonna performs to backing tapes with three handpicked black dancers she found in the New York clubs. She's quite aware of her power to turn legs to jelly but refuses to do it blatantly.
"I think it's really important to exude sexuality on stage, but I don't think I have to entice men. I don't think people have to be aroused sexually by what you wear. I get over that by way of being sexy just by the way I sing and move on stage.
"The way we dress is sort of playful-innocent: Bermuda shorts, ankle socks and shoes, crazy hats. I don't wanna wear something that I'm going to fall out of. I don't feel comfortable like that. But I'm really physical onstage, y'know? I move around a lot."
Madonna wants to take her music out of ghetto-elite typecasting. "I feel I'm trying to get rid of a lot of stereotype. I come out there and I'm white and look like a boy on stage. I refuse to act the way someone expects me to."
Though she said hello to the big, wide world in Detroit, Madonna was magnetised by New York City as soon as she got out of school; played in a few groups, studied ballet and started writing songs. Now she lives in the heart of the junkie cesspit called the Lower East Side.
"I live in a supposedly dangerous area, near 'Needle Park'. They're always selling stuff in the street outside my apartment building. I don't like it but I like living amongst all the squalor. It's good inspiration.
"Detroit is a more desolate, desperate place. At night everyone locks themselves away. There's always elements of danger in New York but people are always out on the street. I don't feel scared there at all."
Another record is set for release soon – a double A-side coupling two self-explanatory titles: Burning Up and Physical Attraction.
Later that day she turned in an energetic performance at the Camden Palace, leaving many in no doubt that this girl was no flash in the pan.
I'm gonna buy me some shorts.

Rare photos of Madonna in 1982.  Anyone have the background behind these three shots?

 

She'll sing "Holiday", but she's not there on holiday: Hip Hop France
(special thanks to @DanKfor this reconstructed 4K Video edit)