“No matter who you are, no matter what you did, no matter where you've come from, you can always change, become a better version of yourself.”
— Madonna Ciccone
Madonna shared these words in interviews throughout her career, drawing on her own transformation from Bay City to global icon. She emphasized them in her 2016 Billboard Woman of the Year speech.
In 1978, I arrived in New York with thirty-five dollars and ballet shoes. I was hungry, alone, and terrified. But I refused to let my starting point define my future. I have shed skins that no longer fit more times than I can count. Every fall taught me something. You are never locked into who you were yesterday. Change is your birthright.