page_title: Like a Prayer (song)
section_title: Live performances
hierarchical_section_title: Like a Prayer (song) / Live performances
caption_attribution_description: DSCN1352
context_page_description: "Like a Prayer" is a song recorded by American singer Madonna for her fourth studio album of the same name. Sire Records released it as the album's lead single on March 3, 1989. Written and produced by Madonna and Patrick Leonard, the track heralded an artistic and personal approach to songwriting for Madonna, who believed that she needed to cater more to her adult audience. Thematically the song speaks about a passionate young girl in love with God, who becomes the only male figure in her life.
  "Like a Prayer" is a pop rock song and incorporates gospel music. It features background vocals from a choir and also a rock guitar. The lyrics contain liturgical words, but they have dual meanings of sexual innuendo and religion. "Like a Prayer" was acclaimed by critics, and was also a commercial success. It was Madonna's seventh number-one single on the United States' Billboard Hot 100, and topped the singles charts in many other countries, including Australia, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Rolling Stone listed "Like a Prayer" among The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
context_section_description: The first live performance of "Like a Prayer" was on the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. She sang it wearing a dress that looked like a cross between a Mediterranean widow's attire and a clergy's robe. Hundreds of burning candles surrounded her as she knelt down in front of the stage, the backup singers crying the words "Oh my God" several times. Madonna eventually removed a scarf from her head to display a huge crucifix hanging from her neck, and then rose and sang the full song, while her dancers gyrated around her. Two different performances were taped and released on video: the Blond Ambition: Japan Tour 90, taped in Yokohama, Japan, on April 27, 1990, and Blond Ambition World Tour Live, taped in Nice, France, on August 5, 1990. On his review of the latter release, Entertainment Weekly's Ty Burr praised the "gymnastic dance productions in songs such as 'Where's the Party' and 'Like a Prayer'", calling them "astonishing".
  In 2003, while doing a set of short promotional performances for her ninth studio album American Life, Madonna performed an acoustic version of "Like a Prayer" with the choir portion of the song being replaced by guitar sounds. The song was also included in the set list of the Re-Invention World Tour of 2004. Members of the audience were asked to sing along with her, filling in the part of the choir. Madonna was dressed in a black Stella McCartney suit while backup vocalist Siedah Garrett sang the vocals during the intermediate verses; the backdrops displayed a series of Hebrew letters, indicating the 72 names of God. Jim Farber from New York magazine complimented Madonna's vocals during the song. The performance was included on the 2006 live album of the tour, titled I'm Going to Tell You a Secret. Madonna sang a similar version of the song during the Live 8 benefit concert at Hyde Park, London in July 2005. She performed it alongside Birhan Woldu, an Ethiopian woman who, as a malnourished toddler, had appeared in some of the footage of the 1984–85 famine in Ethiopia.
  A dance version of the song, mixed with fragments of the dance track "Feels Like Home" by Meck, was performed in the 2008–09 Sticky & Sweet Tour as part of the rave segment. For the performance, Madonna appeared wearing a breastplate and a short wig. She danced energetically around the whole stage as backup singer Nicki Richards provided vocals during the intermediate solo. Screens displayed a message of equality of religions, as symbols and texts from different scriptures flashed by, including messages from the Bible, Qur'an, Torah and Talmud. Helen Brown from The Daily Telegraph declared the performance as one of the highlights of the tour, while Joey Guerra from Houston Chronicle compared Madonna rising on a platform with that of a superhero. The performance was included both in the CD and DVD of the live release of the tour, titled Sticky & Sweet Tour, filmed in Buenos Aires, Argentina from December 4–7, 2008. In January 2010, Madonna performed an acoustic version of the song live during the Hope For Haiti telethon. Jon Caramanica of The New York Times commented: "For 20 years, that song has been the symbol of one of the most tumultuous and controversial periods in Madonna's life. But for five minutes tonight, it was pure, put in service of something bigger than the singer."
  The track next appeared on the set list for Madonna's Super Bowl XLVI halftime show in 2012, as the closing song. Joined by a choir and singer Cee Lo Green, the singer wore a black robe and sang the song as the stadium was lit with white light. It was also added to the set list for The MDNA Tour the same year. Performed in an energetic gospel version, Madonna and 36 of her back-up singers played the role of a choir and wore long robes, as images of a gothic church and Hebrew letters appeared on the backdrops. Jim Harrington from The Oakland Tribune gave the overall concert a negative review but stated that "It wasn't until the last two songs—"Like a Prayer" and "Celebration"—that the whole deal finally clicked". Timothy Finn from The Kansas City Star was partic
caption: Madonna, flanked by a choir, performs "Like a Prayer" on The MDNA Tour in 2012
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