Throwback Thursday: Madonna – “Like a Prayer”
We missed TBT last week, so you know what that means: We get two picks this week.
The music gods must’ve been having a laugh when they took not one but TWO icons from us on another icon’s birthday, but it is a reality with which we must now live. Yesterday was Madonna’s 65th birthday, so how about one from her catalog?
In February of 1989, the Queen of Pop released “Like a Prayer” as the lead single from her fourth album (of the same). The song’s meaning has been source of debate. Is Madonna singing about prayer or giving head? One line-by-line read of the song’s lyrics should clear that up.
It’s about secks, y’all.
The slightly ambiguous lyrics combined with the gospel-esque production leaves just enough room for plausible deniability. If Madonna went around calling herself a genius because of this one song, I’d allow it.
Madge might’ve gotten away with the song as is, but the video is where she got people mad. With strong racial themes, including burning crosses and a wrongly arrested Black man, it was all a little too much for 1989 audiences. Not to mention, she cast Leon Robinson as a Black saint, who she ends up making out with. Most people assumed he was supposed to be Jesus (the horror!), and Christian groups around the world were losing it. Even Pope John Paul II got involved, calling on people to boycott Pepsi, which had an endorsement deal with Madonna at the time — in fact, “Like a Prayer” was first heard in a Pepsi commercial.
The “Live a Prayer” video was banned by most TV stations (with MTV being a notable exception) and Pepsi eventually caved, ending the partnership with Madonna. However, she got to keep $5 million she had been.
“Like a Prayer” would become Madonna’s seventh No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the charts across the globe. All in all, she won.
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