Happy birthday to Madonna’s Like a Prayer which came out 30 years ago this week (March 1989).
The singer went on to maintain her pop star dominance well past the 1980s which saw her soar to the top ten with hits like True Blue, La Isla Bonita and Get Into The Groove.
Like A Prayer was a hit, becoming her seventh Hot 100 No.1 (reigning for three weeks), and demonstrated that Madonna was capable of moving her sound beyond commercial pop. The Gospel funk-pop song with bold lyrics caused controversy though. As the video piqued people’s interest, Madonna stood by it, telling the New York Times that “Art should be controversial, and that’s all there is to it.”
Like A Prayer was the first single to be taken from Madonna’s fourth studio album of the same name. She had been concentrating on the Who’s That Girl world tour, her film career, and even made her Broadway debut, starring in David Mamet’s play Speed-the-Plow in 1988. Plus, she was going through the breakdown of her marriage to actor Sean Penn.
Also in 1989, Madonna starred in a Pepsi commercial that was pulled because of controversy over the Like A Prayer music video which featured burning crosses and showed Madonna kissing a black actor portraying a saint. She was reportedly paid $5m for the ad.
WATCH and RE-LIVE:
