"Like a Prayer" is a 1989 pop rock and dance-pop song by Madonna, written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard. It was the lead single from her fourth studio album, Like a Prayer, released on March 3, 1989 by Sire Records. Madonna wanted a gospel sound with almost no instrumentation, and Andraé Crouch and his choir sang the background vocals. She wrote the song in about three hours, and it was the first one developed for the album. The album version runs 5:41 and the single 5:19. The song topped the charts in many countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada, Italy and Spain. In the US it was Madonna's seventh Billboard Hot 100 number one, holding the top spot for three weeks. Critics acclaimed it on release, and Rolling Stone later placed it in its 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Mary Lambert directed the music video, which the Vatican condemned and which led Pepsi to cancel its sponsorship. The song appears on The Immaculate Collection (1990), Celebration (2009) and Finally Enough Love (2022), and a gospel treatment was performed on the 2004 Re-Invention tour.
