Like a Prayer

Madonna had turned thirty, the age her mother was when she died, and the couple filed for divorce in January 1989. The songs drew on her Catholic upbringing, her troubled marriage, her mother's death and her relationship with her father. Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, who had worked with her on True Blue, each brought music. She and Leonard wrote Like a Prayer, Till Death Do Us Part, Promise to Try, Cherish, Dear Jessie and Spanish Eyes in about two weeks, and Bray's songs included Express Yourself and Keep It Together. Prince co-wrote and co-produced Love Song, which they finished by sending tapes back and forth, and played guitar, uncredited, on three songs.

Unlike her earlier records it was made with live musicians in the room, and Madonna said it was the first time she had been in the same room as the musicians. Leonard said it took three or four times as long as usual because she kept breaking down. It was her first studio album without her face on the cover, a close-up photograph by Herb Ritts. Early pressings were scented with patchouli oil and carried a fact sheet about HIV and AIDS.

It reached number one on the Billboard 200 on 22 April 1989 and stayed six weeks, the longest of any of her albums, and it topped the charts in 20 countries. It has sold 15 million copies worldwide. AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it her best and most consistent album, and Pitchfork's Maura Johnston wrote that it showed her growth as a pop artist. Rolling Stone placed it at number 331 on its 2020 list of the 500 greatest albums, and the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die includes it.