Madonna was fast-tracked into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame this year. Mads gets the nod in her very first year of eligibility, as an artist must have released music 25 years earlier to be considered; Madonna dropping her first single Everybody in 1982.

Madonna is the highest profile star to make this year’s coveted list, and also the most successful, with a net worth upwards of $325 million. Fellow 2008 inductees include Midwest rocker John Mellencamp, Canadian singer-songwriter and literary lion Leonard Cohen, British invasion pop stars The Dave Clark Five, and California surf rock instrumentalists The Ventures. Nominees that didn’t make the cut include Donna Summer, Chic, Afrika Bambaataa and The Beastie Boys.

A small faction of music industry types come up with the nominees, then 600 industry heads vote on the final entrants. The new inductees will be honored at a ceremony on March 10, 2008, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, New York.