A renaissance woman in the truest sense of the term - singer, composer, producer, actor, executive, humanitarian and, most recently mother - there is nothing, it seems, that Madonna can not do.

But it isn't simply her extraordinary list of achievements that has earned Madonna her status as one of a handful of the most innovative, influential and inspiring artists of our time. It is more her passionate commitment to excellence, her complete involvement in every essential aspect of her art, her career and her life, and a stubborn refusal to do anything less than all the way.

Those same qualities are brought to bear in both the movie and the music of Evita. The lavish screen version of Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic musical, Evita, is a Cinergi/Robert Stigwood/Dirty Hands Production, produced by Robert Stigwood, Alan Parker and Andrew G. Vajna, directed by Alan Parker and released by Hollywood Pictures. EVITA - The Complete Motion Picture Music Soundtrack, released by Warner Bros. Records, features instantly definitive versions of the production's phenomenal score. Included is the brand new, fresh out-of-the-box smash single "You Must Love Me," written especially for the film by Webber and Rice, and in Madonna's hands, a suddenly indispensable addition to the well-known score. Simply put, Madonna has made Evita utterly and completely her own, and while there could never have been a doubt that she would give the performance of a lifetime, Madonna as Evita is, and will remain, a landmark in the career of an artist with a history of making history. It's a history written large, towering over the chronicles of popular culture and comprising a list of First, Best, Fastest and Longest that stands as a monument to one woman's exceptional ability and extraordinary ambition. From 1982, when a cocky, confident and coolly self-assured 24-year-old Detroit native first stepped on the stage to lip synch her debut single "Everybody," at New York's Danceteria, it was clear that something wholly original had landed in our midst.

That originality would go on to assert itself time and again, breaking every available radio, video, sales and box office record, and then going on to break more records, this time her own. Consider: since that auspicious debut fourteen years ago, Madonna has racked up no less than 19 Top 10 singles, eleven of those reaching No. 1, with her most recent chart-topper, 1994's "Take A Bow," lodged in the top spot for seven consecutive weeks and even besting the performance of her 1984 breakthrough "Like A Virgin" (which had a six-week run at No. 1). All told, Madonna's No. 1 and No. 2 singles have spent a total of forty weeks at the top of the charts - that's almost a solid year of uninterrupted hits. In one period in the late 80's, she racked up six straight Top 5 singles, neatly beating the Beatles old record for back-to-back chart-toppers, and it's a hit-making penchant that continues to this with the above mentioned "You Must Love Me" breaking out of the gate as one of the fastest-rising singles in Warner Bros. Records history.

But it hardly stops there - in fact, it doesn't even slow down to catch its breath. Of eleven Madonna albums, every one has reached Top 15, all but one has made it into the Top 10, and seven have attained Top 5 status. Of that eleven-album catalog (Evita will make it an even dozen), each one has sold over a million copies, two have sold over three million and five have sold over four million. Put it this way: best estimates have Madonna's international sales topping international sales topping 100 million units, which means one copy for every man, woman and child in New York City, Paris, London, Tokyo and Los Angeles, with a few left over for your home town.

Of course, as pivotal as recorded music is to the Incandescent One's unparalleled success, it only tells part of the story. Madonna has had more videos on MTV, and has had them played more often, than any other artist in that network's history. Set aside for a moment the mantel full of awards she has garnered for her groundbreaking contribution to the video art form: in a very real sense, the marriage of music and image that we know today is the work of this singular artist alone. After all, who came before her in recognizing the creative and commercial impact of the music video lexicon, and who has done more to expand its reach and maximize its impact?

As on the small screen, so too on the big, Madonna has established herself as an actor of real authenticity and risk-taking audacity, from her acting debut in Desperately Seeking Susan to her star turn in Dick Tracy, from her bravura documentary Truth Or Dare to her astonishing portrayal in Evita.

And, as on screen, so too on stage. Madonna's concerts are uniformly globe-stopping extravaganzas, bringing together music, theatrics, spectacle and sheer, dazzling charisma in events that have sold out stadiums around the world for almost two decades.

And who else has proven that glass ceilings are only there for the shattering, with her multi-media empire Maverick Entertainment, among a handful of the most successful start-up companies in entertainment history, thanks to the vision, guidance and guts of this quintessentially liberated woman?

But, of course, Madonna's place in history goes far beyond simple numbers, and far past statistics, no matter how impressive. It is, finally, her glorious music that matters to us most; her triumphant personal style that excites our admiration; her vision that inspires us, her courage that calls to us and her example that encourages us to dare and to dream.