We’ve got you covered on Madonna Like A Prayer facts, from Pepsi to Pet Sematary, Bill Cosby to boob insurance.

1.    Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” music video, famed for its burning crosses and imagery which high-ranking Catholic officials deemed sacrilegious, was directed by Mary Lambert, who also directed the Stephen King film adaptation Pet Sematary in 1989.

2.    Despite never reaching number one in the ARIA Album Chart, Like A Prayer ended the year as the sixth best-selling album in Australia. Madonna was beaten by acts including Traveling Wilburys, 1927 and Fine Young Cannibals.

3.    The only Grammy nomination the Like A Prayer album received was for the “Oh Father” video in the Best Music Video, Short Form category in 1991. It was beaten by Paula Abdul’s “Opposites Attract”.

4.    Prince recorded his various contributions for the Like A Prayer album in November 1988 at Paisley Park studios. You can read more information about the Like A Prayer songs he appeared on here.

5.    One of the album’s most underrated tracks, “Spanish Eyes” includes a passage in Spanish. While the lyrics weren’t included in the original booklet accompanying the album, at 4.37 you can hear a male speak the phrase “Tus lagrimas de tristeza no me dejan olvidarte”. It translates to “Your tears of sadness will not let me forget you”.

6.    The Shep Pettibone remix of “Keep It Together” cheekily adds a line from “Into The Groove”, which the producer had previously remixed in 1987 for Madonna’s remix compilation You Can Dance. The track has been uploaded to digital streaming services this week for the first time on the Like A Prayer (30th Anniversary) compilation (see below).

7.    The ‘black Jesus’ of the “Like A Prayer” video was actually a character inspired by St Martin De Porres, a Peruvian lay brother of the Dominican Order practicing in the 17th century.

8.    The Like A Prayer album was dedicated to the singer’s deceased mother Madonna, “who taught me how to pray”.

9.    At the time of recording Like A Prayer, Madonna was still married to Hollywood actor Sean Penn. By the time she was touring the album as part of the Blond Ambition tour, she was in the middle of divorcing Penn and was dating Hollywood star Warren Beatty. On Madonna’s first date with Penn in 1985, the actor had taken her over to his friend Beatty’s house at the end of the evening.

10.    The fourth single released from Like A Prayer, the psychedelic Disney-esque “Dear Jessie”, was written about Madonna’s long-term collaborator Patrick Leonard’s young daughter after he brought her along to the recording studio after school.

11.    The B&W beach video for the album’s third single “Cherish” was directed by late photographer Herb Ritts, who also directed the beach canoodling of Chris Isaak’s video “Wicked Game” two years later.

12.    The acronym ‘MLVC’, which appears above the secular imagery used on the cover of some versions of the “Like A Prayer” single, stands for Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone. Veronica was the name Madonna took at her Catholic confirmation.

13.    Former Icehouse member and Pink Floyd bassist Guy Pratt played bass on title track “Like A Prayer”’s various mixes. “I’m on the house mix and I’m on the album version and on the version that was on the video,” he’s confirmed. “It’s me with an octave peddle and it’s the most insane bass I’ve ever played. The way it was mixed was great, since when it was on MTV I’m actually louder then her - you really can’t miss it.” 

14.    The track “Love Song” finds Madonna and Prince singing ‘Time goes by so slowly for those who wait… Those who run seem to have all the fun’. Madonna would re-use these lines on her return-to-form hit “Hung Up” from her 2005 album Confessions On A Dance Floor.

15.    David Fincher, the Hollywood director behind Fight Club, Gone Girl, The Social Network and Se7en, directed the “Express Yourself” video as an homage to the silent Fritz Lang film Metropolis. Its budget of US$5 million made it the most expensive video ever at the time of filming in 1989.

16.    The version of “Like A Prayer” featured on 1990 hits set The Immaculate Collection removes Prince’s guitar intro and instead begins with Madonna asking, “God?”. Prince’s guitar was reinstated on the follow-up hits collection Celebration in 2009.

17.    Junior Vasquez, a New York DJ who worked as an audio engineer on various Like A Prayer album remixes, later released the 1996 single “If Madonna Calls”. A cheeky diss track based around a message Madonna left on his answering machine, the song was playlisted on Triple J and made it to #24 on the UK Singles Chart. 

18.    In March 1989, a $5 million Pepsi TV campaign starring Madonna and using “Like A Prayer” as the audio bed was quickly pulled after the Catholic church’s vocal reaction to the song’s controversial music video. Madonna got to keep her Pepsi cheque.

19.    “Like A Prayer” was the number one selling single in Australia in 1989, pushing Roxette’s “The Look” to number two despite the Swedish single actually spending a week longer at number one.

20.    Session musician Randy Jackson played bass on the Like A Prayer album. He would later play a part in the early careers of Kelly Clarkson, Adam Lambert and Carrie Underwood as a judge on American Idol from 2002 until 2014.

21.    Cropped to only show her hands, jeans and stomach, in its original form, the Herb Ritts photograph used on the Like A Prayer cover features Madonna with straightened black hair and wearing a white embroidered shirt.

22.    Pepsi’s ad featuring “Like A Prayer”, titled ‘Make A Wish’, first aired on March 2, 1989 in the US during NBC’s The Cosby Show.

23.    The last words uttered on the album are Madonna shouting “Whaddya mean it’s not in the computer?”

24.    Jeri Heiden, the art director behind Like A Prayer’s cover design, was responsible for more than 400 album covers during her time at Warner Bros Records and A&M Recordings. Her work can be seen on albums by Sting, kd lang, P!nk, Stevie Nicks and plenty of other Madonna releases dating back to 1984’s “Borderline”.

25.    Following the release of Like A Prayer, Madonna tried to have her breasts insured for $12 million ($6 million per breast). Warren Beatty, her boyfriend at the time, allegedly found her attempts to secure the high-priced cover “hilarious”.

26.    One of the songs left off the final tracklisting for Like A Prayer was “Supernatural”. It was later released as a B-side on Like A Prayer’s third single “Cherish” as well as in remixed form on the 1992 AIDS charity compilation Red, Hot & Dance.

27.    During the US dates on 1990’s Blond Ambition tour in support of the Like A Prayer album, Madonna had her favourite foods flown in daily from Hong Kong.

28.    In Rolling Stone’s Readers Poll of 1989, Madonna won Worst Video for “Like A Prayer” and Worst Female Singer. 

29.    Depending on what version of Like A Prayer you own, the album’s 10th track has been called both “Pray For Spanish Eyes” and “Spanish Eyes” on various formats since release. 

30.    Leon Robinson, who played the black saint in the video for “Like A Prayer”, later appeared as the star of the John Candy film Cool Runnings. 

Listen to the new Like A Prayer (30th Anniversary) compilation on Spotify now.

Listen to Like A Prayer on Apple Music.