Pop star Madonna [Images] has been selected to enter the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The announcement from the Hall of Fame Foundation also named The Dave Clark Five, poet and folk-rocker Leonard Cohen, singer-songwriter John Mellencamp and 60s surfer band The Ventures for the honours.

The musicians will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in March during a ceremony in New York.

The nominees are chosen by a committee and are cut down to a final list of five by more than 600 music experts.

Artists become eligible for the honour 25 years after their first recording.

Madonna signed her first US record deal in 1982, and scored her first hit with Holiday in the UK two years later.

Mellencamp emerged from Bloomington, Ind., in the early 1980s with enduring, heartland rock tracks like Pink Houses, Rain on the Scarecrow and Jack & Diane.

Cohen has been producing folk-tinged rock since the late 1960s, with tracks like Suzanne.

The Ventures are best known for instrumental rock evergreens such as the theme from Hawaii Five-O, Walk Don't Run and Perfidia.

The Dave Clark Five become one of the most successful British "invasion" bands of the US during the 1960s.

Last year's inductees were REM, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Van Halen, the Ronettes and Patti Smith.

Once inducted, the artists are featured in the Museum's Hall of Fame exhibit, which includes a computerised jukebox containing every song of each inductee and a film played on three big screens recounting their careers and music.

Text: ANI | Dave Hogan/Getty Images