"Like a Prayer" is a song by American singer Madonna from her fourth studio album, Like a Prayer (1989). It was released as the album's lead single on March 3, 1989, by Sire Records. Written and produced by both Madonna and Patrick Leonard, the song heralded an artistic and personal approach to songwriting for Madonna, who believed that she needed to cater more to her adult audience.
"Like a Prayer" is a pop rock, dance-pop, and gospel song that also incorporates elements of funk. It features background vocals from a choir and also a rock guitar. The lyrics contain liturgical words, but they have been interpreted by some people to have dual meanings of sexual innuendo and religion. "Like a Prayer" was acclaimed by music critics upon release and was a global commercial success, topping the charts of twenty countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. In the United States, it became Madonna's seventh number-one hit on the Billboard Hot 100, topping the chart for three consecutive weeks. Rolling Stone listed "Like a Prayer" among "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".
The accompanying music video for "Like a Prayer", directed by Mary Lambert, shows Madonna witnessing a white woman being sexually assaulted and subsequently killed by a group of white men. While a black man is wrongfully arrested for the crime, Madonna hides in a church for safety, seeking strength to go forth as a witness, which she eventually does. The video depicts a church and Catholic imagery such as stigmata. It also features burning crosses and Madonna kissing a black saint. The Vatican condemned the video, while family and religious groups protested against its broadcast. They boycotted products by soft drink manufacturer Pepsi, who had used the song in their commercial. Pepsi canceled their sponsorship contract with Madonna, but allowed her to retain the $5 million fee.
"Like a Prayer" has been featured on six of Madonna's concert tours, most recently on The Celebration Tour. The song has been covered by numerous artists. Along with the parent album, "Like a Prayer" was a turning point in Madonna's career, with critics starting to acknowledge her as an artist rather than a mere pop star. "Like a Prayer" was included on Madonna's greatest hits compilation albums The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009) and Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones (2022).
Background and inspiration Madonna had not recorded any music throughout most of 1988. Following the critical and commercial failure of back-to-back big-budget films, Shanghai Surprise (1986) and Who's That Girl (1987), she acted in the Broadway production of Speed-the-Plow. However, the unfavorable reviews once again caused her discomfort. Following a tumultuous marriage to Sean Penn, the couple filed for divorce in January 1989. Madonna had also turned 30, the age at which her mother had died, and thus the singer experienced more emotional turmoil. The song functioned as a form of creative coping with the early death of her mother and as a lasting tribute to her memory. Madonna commented in the March 1989 issue of Rolling Stone that her Catholic upbringing struck a feeling of guilt in her all the time: "Once you're a Catholic, you're always a Catholic—in terms of your feelings of guilt and remorse and whether you've sinned or not. Sometimes I'm wracked with guilt when I needn't be, and that, to me, is left over from my Catholic upbringing. Because in Catholicism you are born a sinner and you are a sinner all of your life. No matter how you try to get away from it, the sin is within you all the time." Madonna also understood that as she was growing up, so was her core audience. Feeling the need to attempt something different, she wanted the sound of her new album to dictate what could be popular in the music world. Madonna had certain personal matters on her mind that she thought could be the musical direction of the album. For the title track, the singer chose topics that until then had been personal meditations never shared with the general public. She perused her personal journals and diaries, and began considering options. Madonna recalled, "What was it I wanted to say? I wanted the album to speak to things on my mind. It was a complex time in my life."
Development
As Madonna considered her alternatives, Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray were experimenting with instrumentals and musical ideas for her consideration. Both producers wanted to bring their unique style to the project and composed music for the title track. Eventually, Madonna felt that the music presented to her by Leonard was more interesting, and she started to work with him. Once Madonna had conceptualized the way she would interpose her ideas with the music, she wrote "Like a Prayer" in about three hours, and it became the first song developed for the record. Madonna has described "Like a Prayer" as the song of a passionate young girl "so in love with God that it is almost as though He were the male figure in her life".
Madonna's further inspiration for the song came from the Catholic belief of transubstantiation. She introduced liturgical words in the song, but changed the context so that the lyrics had dual meaning. In addition to superficial pop lyrics about sexuality and religion on the surface, "Like a Prayer" contained a secondary meaning beneath to provoke reaction from her listeners. Leonard explained that he was not comfortable with the lyrics and the sexual innuendos present in it. He gave the example of the first verse for "Like a Prayer" which goes "When you call my name, It's like a little prayer, I'm down on my knees, I wanna take you there". Leonard saw that this could also refer to someone performing fellatio; aghast, he requested that Madonna change the line, but she was adamant about keeping it.
Recording
Madonna wanted to have gospel music as part of "Like a Prayer", with virtually no instrumentation, only the sound of an organ and her singing. She started experimenting using just her vocals, prior to the bridge being composed. After the full song was finalized, Madonna and Leonard decided to record it alongside a choir around September 1988. Both of them met with Andraé Crouch and vocalist Roberto Noriega, and signed their choir to provide background vocals. Crouch scrutinized the lyrics as he wanted to "find out what the intention of the song might be. We're very particular in choosing what we work with, and we liked what we heard". At Jonny Yuma Recording, he got his choir together and explained to them what they needed to do during the recording session. He had listened to the demo of "Like a Prayer" in his automobile, and directed the choir accordingly. The choir was recorded separately, and Leonard wanted it to be added during post-production.
Recording took more time than usual since Madonna and Leonard fought "tooth and nail" in the studio. According to Lucy O'Brien, Madonna wanted to prove that her second chance as a record producer (following her previous album True Blue) was not a fluke. Leonard started working on the chord changes for the verses and the chorus. He had hired guitarist Bruce Gaitsch and bass guitar player Guy Pratt to work on the song. Pratt had in turn hired some additional drummers. On the day of the recording, the drummers canceled, which irritated Madonna, and she started shouting and swearing profusely at Leonard and Pratt. Pratt then hired the Englishman Chester Kamen, along with Americans David Williams and Dann Huff. He commented that the choice was deliberate since he was a fan of British rock music, and wanted that kind of attitude and quirkiness of the musicians in "Like a Prayer", as well as the other songs of the record. Pratt was not fired, but later he realized that Madonna did not forgive him; she would call him late at night for his opinion, and urgently ask him to come to the recording studio, only to be dismissed.
Madonna had her own opinion of how the different musical instruments should be played to achieve the sound that she envisioned. Pratt recalled that after the middle chorus was recorded, she notified the musicians of some changes in the production. "Jonathan, do less of the high-hat in the middle eight, and more of a fill towards the end. Guy, I want duck eggs [semibreves] on the end, and Chester, bring in your guitar on the second verse", she instructed. The team checked the instructions once more, and did a final recording with vocals and one with the strings. Gaitsch heard Madonna telling Leonard that no further recording was to be done for the song. Leonard then gave the recording to Bill Bottrell for the mixing process. But the producer felt that the bongos and the Latin Percussion would sound really mismatched if Crouch's choir was added, so he removed them. For the introduction, Leonard used some guitar recordings by Prince, who had been asked by Madonna to contribute to the song. He recalled in 2014 that no other music by Prince was used on the release, but some effects around the choruses might have been his. Shep Pettibone and Bill Bottrell remixed the 12-inch versions of the song with more of Prince’s guitar playing featured.
Composition and lyrics "Like a Prayer" is a pop rock, dance-pop, and gospel song that also incorporates elements of funk. According to the sheet music published in Musicnotes.com, the song follows a time signature of common time, and is composed in the key of D minor, with a moderate tempo of 120 beats per minute. Madonna's vocal range spans from A3 to F5. "Like a Prayer" starts with a Dm–C/D–Gm/D–Dm chord progression in the intro. The original album version features bass guitar by Guy Pratt doubled by an analog Minimoog bass synthesizer, while the 7-inch edit version has a different bass part played by Randy Jackson. "Like a Prayer" was also remixed by Shep Pettibone for the 12-inch single release; a re-edited version of Pettibone's remix is featured on Madonna's first greatest hits album, The Immaculate Collection (1990).
The song begins with the sound of a heavy rock guitar that is suddenly cut off after a few seconds, and replaced with the choir and the sound of an organ. Madonna sings the opening lines accompanied by light percussion, as drums start during the first verse. The percussion and the choir sound are added interchangeably between the verses and the bridge, until the second chorus. At this point, the guitars start flickering from left to right, accompanied by a bassline. Rikky Rooksby, author of The Complete Guide to the Music of Madonna, commented that "Like a Prayer" was the most complex song that Madonna had ever attempted at that point. He believed that the complexity builds up more after the second chorus, when the choir fully supports Madonna's vocals and she re-utters the opening lines, but this time accompanied by a synthesizer and drum beats. While singing "Just like a prayer, Your voice can take me there, Just like a muse to me, You are a mystery", an R&B-influenced voice backs Madonna. The song ends with a final repetition of the chorus and the choir gradually fading out.