To celebrate 30 years since Like a Prayer, producers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray discuss the creation of her controversial opus Lucy O’Brien Sat 30 Mar 2019 11.54 GMT Shares 2,610 Comments 199 Who’s that girl? Madonna in 1989. Photograph: Araldo Di Crollolanza/Rex M arch 1989, I open a large record envelope and a waft of patchouli oil hits my nostrils. Inside is the new Madonna album. The cover art features hippy beads and her crotch in jeans. This image is a nod to her mother, a devout Catholic of French-Canadian stock, who covered up their Sacred Heart statue when a woman came round the house wearing zip-up jeans. “In Catholicism you are born a sinner … the sin is within you the whole time,” Madonna said at the time. Dedicated to the memory of her mother, Like a Prayer explores the impact of her Catholic girlhood, disappointment in love and transformation of self. Compared to the sugar-sweet True Blue, this is a