Madonna had a Famous Haitian Boyfriend - Did you know?

Jean-Michel Basquiat was a famous Haitian-American artist and ex-boyfriend of famous American singer Madonna.

Madonna had a three-month affair with Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Madonna and Jean-Michel Basquiat met in New York's Lucky Strike nightclub in the autumn of 1982. They were introduced by video-maker Ed Steinberg, who was working with Madonna on her debut single, Everybody.

Soon after meeting Jean-Michel Basquiat, Madonna moved into his Crosby Street loft and the pair were photographed there by Jean-Michel Basquiat's friend Stephen Torton (Thank you, Stephen, for the correction :)

It was at this time that Madonna was featured in a fashion spread in The Village Voice, the article that started her obsession with keeping all her press clippings. Picking up the paper, Jean-Michel Basquiat's former girlfriend Suzanne Mallouk recognized the coat the singer was wearing as one she had left behind in Jean-Michel Basquiat's loft.

Of all Madonna's relationships, this is the oddest because it never seemed to be about power. On the face of it, there was little to connect the pair. Basquiat painted all night and slept all day, keeping what Madonna called "vampire hours". She, on the other hand, rose early, ate health food and never stopped hustling during daylight hours, keen to capitalize on the success of Everybody, which had just crashed into the dance charts.

In 1996, American singer Madonna wrote a short essay on Jean-Michel Basquiat for The Guardian prior to a show of his work at London's Serpentine Gallery.

"He was one of the few people I was truly envious of," she wrote. "But he didn't know how good he was and he was plagued with insecurities. He used to say he was jealous of me because music is more accessible and it reached more people. He loathed the idea that art was appreciated by an elite group When I heard that Jean-Michel had died, I was not surprised. He was too fragile for this world."

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