Like A Prayer (song) - Live Performances

Live Performances

The first live performance of "Like a Prayer" was on the 1990 Blond Ambition World Tour. Madonna started the performance by uttering the word "God" suddenly, as everything became silent. Then she started singing "Like a Prayer", donning a dress that looked like a cross between a Mediterranean widow's attire and evocative clergyman's robes. A bed, which was present during the previous performance, was replaced by hundreds of burning candles. At the beginning of the song, Madonna knelt down in front of the stage, as the backup singers cried 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.

In 2003, Madonna released her ninth studio album, American Life. While doing a set of short promotional performances for the album, Madonna sang "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 asked to sing along with her, filling in the part of the choir. Backup vocalist Siedah Garrett sang the vocals during the intermediate verses, while 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 - backed up by Lisa Fischer - 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. Roger Friedman from Fox News Channel praised her performance, describing her voice as "rich, supple and perfect". Conversely, Chicago Tribune's Jill Lawless found Madonna's delivery to be uninspiring and "cathartic".

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. Madonna's line "feels like home" was replaced by the same line from Meck’s song. In the rave segment, 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. The performance ended with the line "We all come from the Light and to it shall we return", as a circular screen covered Madonna to give way to the next song, "Ray of Light". Helen Brown from The Daily Telegraph declared the performance as one of the highlights of the tour, while Joey Guerra from Houston Chronicle compared the sequences of 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."