Like a Prayer

…as close to art as pop music gets.
— Rolling Stone.

Like a Prayer is Madonna’s fourth studio album. Her most confessional and introspective until then, she described it as a collection of songs

about my mother, my father, and bonds with my family.

Also, the album booklet says:

This album is dedicated to my mother, who taught me how to pray.

Universally acclaimed by the critics and a commercial success, Like a Prayer was an artistic turning point in Madonna’s career; it sold over 15 million copies at the time and reached the top position at Billboard 200, as well as other album charts all over the world. Six singles were released from it: “Like a Prayer”, “Express Yourself”, “Cherish”, “Oh Father”, “Dear Jessie” and “Keep It Together”.

About the songs in the album, Madonna said:

Like a Prayer is about the influence of Catholicism in my life and the passion it provokes in me. In these songs I’m dealing with specific issues that mean a lot to me. They’re about an assimilation of experiences I had in my life and my relationships. I’ve taken more risks with this album than I ever have before, and I think that growth shows.

The producer, Patrick Leonard, commented on the process of working with Madonna:

She’d start writing lyrics and oftentimes there was an implied melody. She would start with that and deviate from it. Or if there was nothing but a chord change, she’d make up a melody. But, a lot of the time in my writing there’s a melody implied or I even have something in mind. But she certainly doesn’t need that. […] She would write the lyrics in an hour, the same amount of time it took me to write the music, and then she’d sing it. We’d do some harmonies, she’d sing some harmony parts, and usually by three or four in the afternoon, she was gone.

If her previous albums had established Madonna as a commercial phenomenon, Like a Prayer and its maturity consolidated her as an artist. Now seen as an efficient businesswoman, Madonna created the legendary Blond Ambition Tour to promote the album. Revolutionary, it was the tour that literally reinvented pop concerts, establishing a new way of performing.