Who was Seymour Stein? Record Executive Who Signed Madonna Dead at 80

Seymour Stein was an American entrepreneur and music executive who co-founded Sire Records and was also the Vice President of Warner Bros. Records.

He was known for his most lucrative discovery happened in the early 1980s when he heard the demo tape of Madonna, who was then a less popular singer-dancer from a downtown New York club.

“I like Madonna’s voice, I like the feel, and I like the name, Madonna. I liked it all and played it again. She was all dolled up in cheap punky gear, the kind of club kid who looked absurdly out of place in a cardiac ward. She wasn’t even interested in hearing me explain how much I liked her demo. ‘The thing to do now.’ she said. is sign me to a record label,” he wrote in his memoir dubbed Siren Song which was published in 2018.

He died of cancer on Sunday, April 2, 2023. He was 80 years old when he died.