Like a Prayer is the fourth studio album by America singer-songwriter Madonna, released on March 21, 1989 by Sire Records. The RIAA certified it Gold, Platinum & Double Platinum on May 23rd 1989 & Quadruple Platinum on July 16th 1997, recognizing four million shipments in the U.S. - making it her seventh best-selling album there. Worldwide, it has sold more than fifteen million copies. Like a Prayer incorporates rock, dance, pop, soul, and funk elements into the album. Rolling Stone magazine hailed it "as close to art as pop music gets". It was recorded in 1988 with collaborators Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray, and also includes a duet with R&B pop singer Prince. It featured the first of several songs throughout her career in which she talked openly about her mother's death, Promise to Try; Madonna even dedicated the album to "my mother who taught me to pray". She also addresses the end of her marriage to actor Sean Penn in the song Till Death Do Us Part. Before the commercial release of the first single and title track, Pepsi decided to use the song as part of their soft drink commercial featuring Madonna. In addition to this, the company had also struck a deal to sponsor her 1990 Blond Ambition Tour. The commercial was aired twice before the release of the music video on MTV. Pepsi had no idea about the controversial content depicted in the video; Madonna witnesses a murder, kisses a black saint, displays stigmata after cutting her palms on a knife, and dances in a fie