VIDEO by Mary
Lambert
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Like A Prayer The Immaculate Never Been Kissed
1989 Collection [Soundtrack]
1990
1999
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After taking a year-long
break in 1988, Madonna returned to the music scene in ’89
with the album critics wasted
no time in declaring Madonna’s most frankly personal
even confessional. Like A Prayer “takes you there” in a
head-on confrontation with
Catholicism and offered a
re-embracing of Madonna’s R&B roots.
The song stands next to “Vogue”
as one of only two Madonna singles that has topped all
five major U.S. charts, and is also one of her four platinum singles
in the United
States.
The song’s influence on
society, popular culture, the critics, and Madonna’s own career
is astounding, making “Like A
Prayer” one of Madonna’s most important and successful
singles worldwide. Written by Madonna herself and Patrick
Leonard, the song is a
brilliant combination of
various musical genres including pop, rock, dance, R&B, and
even gospel.
In the video, Madonna courts
with controversy unlike ever before, while also exploring
many profoundly significant
societal issues. Helmed by long time
collaborator Mary
Lambert, the video shows
Madonna in a church, watching as a black, Jesus-like statue
comes to life and begins to
weep. Soon, she begins to kiss the
African-American Jesus
and the two actually make
love on an altar. Later in the video,
Madonna witnesses as a
group of white men brutally
murder a white woman in a dark alley.
She continues to
watch as the same man who
plays the black Jesus comes to the aid
of the woman, just
as the police arrive. The black man, assumed responsible for the
murder by the white
policemen, is immediately
arrested without question. Meanwhile,
although Madonna
certainly isn’t the only
person to ever speak out against racial injustices, she is the only
person with the guts to dance
in front of a field of burning crosses to prove her point.
As the video concludes, Madonna saves the day by
rescuing the innocent man from the
racial prejudice that has
caused him unjust imprisonment.
The video, combining about as many taboos as possible, ---racism,
interracial love, the link between religion and
sexuality, and even the religious significance of Madonna’s own name---
had everything it took to not only cause
conservatives of all walks of
life to shun the Material Girl yet once again, but to also turn the Vatican on its head.
With a field of burning crosses, spontaneous stigmata, and a church-house
sexual rendezvous with a black Jesus,
the video was enough to outrage even the Pope, who later requested a
private meeting with Madonna. In
response
to his request, Madonna inadvertently stated that if the Pope wanted to
see her he could buy a ticket like everyone
else! Then, as an act of
deliberate scorn, she dedicated The Immaculate Collection, her 1990
greatest hits
compilation, to the Pope, who she accredited in the liner notes of the
CD as being her “divine inspiration”.
Proclaimed by critics as being the closet thing to true art as pop music
can get, the Like A Prayer album remains
one of Madonna’s finest masterpieces to date. The song itself, but one of several genuinely
impressive tracks to
be
found on the album, stands as one of her most prolific creations. At the 1989 MTV Video Music Awards,
“Like A Prayer” won the viewer’s
choice award and, oddly enough, was even named by a People Magazine
year-
end poll as both the best and worst video of 1989.
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