One's small, tacky and comes in lots of different outfits - the other's Barbie. As Madonna and the world's favourite doll both hit their half century, we reveal the weird similarities between two hard-nosed material girls.

Happy birthday: Madonna and the world's favourite doll hit half a century this year



BARBIE

HEIGHT 111/ 2in



BUST 43/ 4in

WAIST 3in



HIPS 31/ 4in

DATE OF BIRTH Barbie was registered at the US Patent Office in June 1958

PLACE OF BIRTH The fictitious Willows, Wisconsin

NATURAL HAIR COLOUR The first Barbie came as blonde or brunette, but, like Madonna, Barbie is a blonde at heart whatever the colour of her roots

EYES Blue. From 1958-1971 she adopted demure sideways glance, but now Barbie looks you straight in the eye. That's empowerment for you.







MADONNA



HEIGHT 5ft 4in



BUST 36in

WAIST 24in



HIPS 34in

DATE OF BIRTH 16 August, 1958

PLACE OF BIRTH Bay City, Michigan

WEIGHT Generally, about 8st 8lb, although she drops to 7st 12lb when she's on tour

NATURAL HAIR COLOUR Brown

EYES Blue





FACT! If Barbie was life-size she'd measure 36-18-33, stand 5ft 9in and weigh 7st 12lb - 35lb underweight for a woman that height







BEGINNINGS

BARBARA MILLICENT ROBERTS was named after the daughter of American creator Ruth Handler (her other child, a son, was called Ken).

PARENTS George and Margaret, according to a series of novels published by Random House in the 1960s about Barbie and her family.

SIBLINGS Skipper, Tutti, Todd, Stacie, Kelly, Krissy - although there's a Desperate Housewivesstyle mystery surrounding the disappearances of Tutti, Todd and Stacie.

EDUCATION: Willows High School and Manhattan International High School.

FIRST OFFICIAL APPEARANCE American International Toy Fair, New York, 9 March 1959.





MADONNA LOUISE CICCONE



PARENTS Silvio, a design engineer for General Motors, and Madonna Louise, a housewife (died of cancer in 1963).

SIBLINGS Anthony, Martin, Paula, Christopher, Melanie (Madonna is the third child), plus half-siblings Jennifer and Mario from her father's second marriage to Joan Gustafson.

EDUCATION Rochester Adams High School, then the University of Michigan, where she won a dance scholarship.

FIRST OFFICIAL APPEARANCE Made her debut at Danceteria, New York, in 1982, performing her first single Everybody.

Gentlemen prefer blondes: Madonna recreates Marilyn Monroe's iconic scene



INFLUENCES

BARBIE



She may be pink, but Barbie's origins are a lot darker. Her creator, Ruth Handler, the wife of Mattel Toys' co-founder, modelled her on a German doll bought on a European holiday in 1956. The 'Bild Lilli' toy, based on a newspaper cartoon strip, was a 'sultry, gold-digging prostitute'. Lilli was originally sold to adults, but she became popular with children, who enjoyed dressing her up. Handler thought it important to a girl's self-esteem that she play with an adult doll with breasts, distinguishing the toy from the baby dolls favoured by children until then - but not all parents approved of Barbie's magnificent cleavage, which was remodelled several times.

MADONNA



In her early career, she borrowed influences from cinematic icons - the blonde bombshell look of Marilyn Monroe (as in her Material Girl video), the gamine charm of Jean Seberg in the movie Breathless (as in the video for Cherish) and the glamour of Marlene Dietrich (Vogue). Musically, she lists The Carpenters and Nancy Sinatra as early influences. Her greatest strength, however, is her knack of tapping into whatever trend is about to become mainstream before it reaches tipping point.

Let them eat cake: Madonna takes inspiration from another blonde diva, Marie-Antoinette



STYLE

BARBIE



Like Madonna, Barbie has more than a few designer pieces in her wardrobe, including outfits by Oscar de la Renta, Vera Wang and Yves Saint Laurent. Early on in her career she was already on the reinvention path: in 1963, Fashion Queen Barbie debuted with three wigs, and, by 1970, way ahead of Madonna, along came a bendy, supple Barbie, complete with flexible elbows, knees and ankles and swivelling waist, arms, hands and legs. And, like Madonna, Barbie has reinterpreted the style of Hollywood icons, including Vivien Leigh, Audrey Hepburn and Monroe. By 1987, Barbie's concert tour outfits bore a striking similarity to Madonna's.





MADONNA



Madonna prides herself on being a true chameleon. One minute she's a peroxide blonde dominatrix, the next a geisha cowgirl or demure lady of the manor in twinset and pearls. And designers love her for it. Those who have created looks for her include Jean-Paul Gaultier (conical bras), Dolce&Gabbana and Stella McCartney. These days she veers between raunch for promotional purposes and her yummy mummy guise out in public. M by Madonna, her clothes collection for H&M in 2007, divided fashionistas: some called it dull, while others lauded it as classic.

Rock chics: The material girls do 70s glam



FAMILY

BARBIE



HUSBANDS Barbie may have had a bridal dress designed by Vera Wang, but she is still single.

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Ken Carson. They began dating in 1961, when the Ken doll was introduced, and have had an on-off relationship ever since.

CHILDREN None.







MADONNA



HUSBANDS Sean Penn, married 1985 - divorced 1989. Guy Ritchie, married 2000.

SIGNIFICANT OTHERS Warren Beatty, 1989-1990. Carlos Leon, 1994-97. She also dated Englishman Andy Bird for 18 months before she met Guy Ritchie, and has been associated with basketball player Dennis Rodman, Prince and JFK Jr.

CHILDREN Lourdes Ciccone Leon, born 1996. Rocco Ritchie, born 2000. David Banda, born 2005, adoption finalised 2008.

Flower power: Madonna approaches fifty and opts for a more demure look



CAREER



BARBIE



From McDonald's cashier to US president, Barbie's career has been even more colourful than Madonna's. Yes, she's been a rock star and a fashion designer, but she's also succeeded as a doctor, dentist, nurse, surgeon and vet. She's been an army officer and an air force pilot, an astronaut and an air hostess. She's even qualified as a paleontologist. More than a billion Barbie dolls have been sold worldwide in more than 150 countries, generating sales of more than £90 million. But Barbie has her detractors: even in America, where there's a protest group named the Barbie Liberation Organization that challenges gender-stereotyping in the toy industry, and in Montpelier, Vermont, she has been banned because she represents two of the worst evils - commercialism and sexism. In 2003, Barbie's provocative clothing was found offensive to Islam in Saudi Arabia.

MADONNA



Singer, songwriter, record producer, actor, fashion designer and author, Madonna is the world's top-earning female singer, having sold more than 200 million albums worldwide. She sang the Oscar-winning You Must Love Me from the Evita soundtrack, has picked up seven Grammys and won a Best Actress Golden Globe for Evita. This year, Madge surpassed Elvis as the artist with the most US top ten hits ever, and she has had more UK number one singles than any other female solo artist. In 1989, Pepsi, who had entered into a £2.5 million multi-year endorsement with her, pulled the plug when her video for Like A Prayer caused outrage. She got to keep the cash. Although there is a 13ft-tall statue of Madonna in Pacentro, Italy, the town of her ancestors, the singer is something of a religious iconoclast and has clashed with the Pope, who has urged Italians to boycott her tours, as well as the Federation of Jewish Churches in Russia and rabbis in Israel.





FACT! Madonna has graced the cover of Vanity Fair magazine more than any other person. To date she has boasts ten covers to her name







THE FUTURE



BARBIE



She saw off Sindy in the 1970s and has reinvented herself more times than Madonna ever will, but, since 2001, she has faced serious competition from the Bratz range of dolls: in 2004 Bratz overtook Barbie in the UK, and, by 2005, sales of Barbie had dropped by 30 per cent in America and 20 per cent elsewhere. Is Barbie about to face her swan song?

MADONNA



Amid rumours that her marriage to Guy Ritchie is about to expire and she is moving back to the US, Madonna prepares not only for her 50th birthday but the Sticky & Sweet world tour to promote her latest disc, Hard Candy.

