Like a Prayer (album) the songs "intertwine her search for faith with her search for her mother". The opening track is "Like a Prayer", which was also the first song developed for the album. Once Madonna had conceptualized the way she would interpose her ideas with the music, she wrote the song in about three hours. She described "Like a Prayer" as the song of a passionate young girl "so in love with God that it is almost as though He were the male figure in her life." It's a pop rock song with elements of gospel music. A choir provides background vocals that
Like a Prayer (album) on it. On July, 1989, it was certified Platinum by the Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique (SNEP) for shipments of 300,000 copies, and once again on 2001, for shipments of 600,000 copies. In the Netherlands, "Like a Prayer" entered the MegaCharts at number four during the week of April 4, 1990. It eventually reached the top position, staying a total of thirty-two weeks on the chart. In Germany, "Like a Prayer" topped the Media Control albums chart for one month, and was later certified there times gold by the Bundesverband Musikindustrie (BVMI) for having shipped over 750,000 copies. The album