commercial failure of back-to-back big-budget films, Shanghai Surprise (1986) and Who's That Girl (1987), she acted in the Broadway production Speed-the-Plow. However, the unfavorable reviews once again caused her discomfort. Her marriage to actor Sean Penn ended, leading to the couple filing for divorce in January 1989. Madonna had also turned 30, the age at which her mother had died, and thus the singer experienced more emotional turmoil. She commented in the March 1989 issue of Rolling Stone that her Catholic upbringing struck a feeling of guilt in her all the time: "Once you're a Catholic, you're always a Catholic—in terms of your feelings of guilt and remorse and whether you've sinned or not. Sometimes I'm wracked with guilt when I needn't be, and that, to me, is left over from my Catholic upbringing. Because in Catholicism you are born a sinner and you are a sinner all of your life. No matter how you try to get away from it, the sin is within you all the time." Madonna also understood that as she was growing up, so was her core audience. Feeling the need to attempt something different, she wanted the sound of her new album to dictate what could be popular in the music world. The singer had certain personal matters on her mind that she thought could be the musical direction of the album. For the title track, Madonna chose topics that until then had been personal meditations never shared with the general public. She perused her personal journals and diaries, and began considering options. She recalled, "What was it I wanted to say? I wanted the album to speak to things on my mind. It was a complex time in my life." Development As Madonna considered her alternatives, producers Patrick Leonard and Stephen Bray were experimenting with instrumental tracks and musical ideas for her consideration. Both producers wanted to bring their unique style to the project and composed music for the title track. Eventually, Madonna felt that the music presented to her by Leonard was more interesting, and she started to work with him. Once Madonna had conceptualized the way she would interpose her ideas with the music, she wrote "Like a Prayer" in about three hours, and became the first song developed for the album. The singer has described "Like a Prayer" as the song of a passionate young girl "so in love with