Like a Prayer (song) that multiple times in history, black men have been punished for kissing or desiring white women. Grant believed this was where the racial equality message of the video came across as most poignant. On the contrary, when the curtain falls and the scene shifts to a smiling Madonna among the burning crosses, professor Maury Dean felt that another explanation was inevitable. Madonna portrays a successful heroine and thus the whole video becomes about female empowerment. 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
Like a Prayer (song) really like to thank Pepsi for causing so much controversy." "Like a Prayer" also topped video countdowns and critic lists. It was number one on MTV's countdown of "100 Videos That Broke The Rules" in 2005, and for the 25th anniversary of MTV, viewers voted it as the "Most Groundbreaking Music Video of All Time". In addition, the clip was ranked at number 20 on "Rolling Stone"s "The 100 Top Music Videos" and at number two on VH1's 100 Greatest Videos. Fuse TV named "Like a Prayer" one of its 10 "Videos That Rocked The World". In a 2011 poll