Madonna- Like a prayer

Like a prayer- was taken from the album with the same name

The track was released on March 3rd 1989. It's pop rock which is the genre Madonna predominantly sang throughout her career. The music video was directed by Mary Lambert



Through this video there is an evident narrative, which goes along the lines of, Madonna beng the protagonist, and shows some sort of a journey through/ with christianity.

We see this in many ways

Firstly, in the opening of the video we see a burning cross, this straight away leads us to the crucifixion of jesus. However it could be viewed as anti-religious as the cross is burning, but later in the video we can see she is pro religion.

Secondly, we can see a Church, with a light emerging from it, which could be viewed as it guiding her towards it, which brings in forms of pro religion.

Thirdly, we see her flying through the air, with lyrics referring to dreams. This shot believes us to think about heaven and suggests that's where she may be.

Fourthly, we see a black character, who we are believed to think is Jesus, which presents a non-racist view. However many white christians could take this to be offensive so brings controversy around the video.

Finally, we see an all black gospel choir, again leading back to religion, supporting the view that Madonna is actually in support of religion

All of this evidence links back to a link to the video to religion. However the video gives a purposeful controversial image of religion with all the religious figures in the video being black, the black Jesus would cause much controversy as christianity portrays Jesus as a white male.

Leading on from this there is another side to the video, which shows Madonna as a white female victim getting assaulted by a group of white males. However then a black man comes along and saves her and is portrayed to us as the hero. But then the police arrive and take the black man away assuming he is the criminal, again highlighting or linking in with racism within the video.

The video also shows evidence of Stigmata. Firstly with the crosses which relate back to Jesus and the crucifixion. It also shows her cut hand, again relating to stigmata and the injuries that Jesus incurred. Similarly to this she is also stabbed in the side, as was Jesus with a spear when he was being crucified.

At the end of the video we are showed all the characters, in a form of a stage ending. Which could lead us to believe that the whole thing was just all a performance.

There are also other meaning that we could associate with the burning crosses throughout the video. Not only is the video focussed on religion, but it also relates to racism, and the burning crosses arguably could be related to the KKK.

Finally both the lyrics and the video give of the impression that the whole thing could just be a dream, and everything happening is just her imagination.

This video provides the audience both a provided and oppositional reading, it allows you to interpret it how you want to. The clothing Madonna is wearing is also very revealing so you could argue she is trying to pose as a fashion icon, and is also sexualised throughout the video, which is supported by 'black Jesus' kissing her

and also through out the whole video there are direct links to Roman Catholicism and also arguably eqal rights and supports the negative views on racsim