The Rocky Relationship Between Prince and Madonna and the Story Behind the Only Song They Co-Wrote and Recorded Together

When Madonna was working on her 1989 album Like a Prayer, Prince played guitar on several tracks. Though uncredited, Prince played the intro of “Like a Prayer,” along with “Keep It Together,” and “Act of Contrition.” Prince was also featured on the funkier “Love Song,” a track he also co-wrote and co-produced with Madonna.

In between recording around Los Angeles, Madonna also made her way to Prince’s Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota, between December 1987 and early 1988, where they worked on the track together.

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Je suis prête. Vous êtes prêt aussi?

A sexier love song, the track opens in French, with Madonna saying Je suis prête. Vous êtes prêt aussi? (I am ready. Are you ready too?) before both share verses and choruses throughout the hypnotic track.

Are you wasting my time?
Are you just being kind?
Oh, no, baby
My love isn’t blind
Are you wasting my time?
Are you just being kind?
Don’t give me one of your lines

Say what you mean, mean what you say
Don’t go and throw our love away
God, strike me dead if I did you wrong
This is not a love song

Are you just being kind?
Am I losing my mind? (Losing your mind)
Oh, no, baby

After Like a Prayer, Madonna and Prince’s relationship became rocky and competitive while both were signed to Warner Records. In 1994, Madonna even called Prince, whom she dated briefly in 1985, a “little troll” for not eating during a dinner date. “He was just sipping tea, very daintily,” recalled Madonna. “I have this theory about people who don’t eat. They annoy me.”

Prince later joked he had “more hits than Madonna’s got kids” during his 21-night residency at the O2 Arena in London in 2007.

In 2013, Prince elaborated on their feud and his dissolution with Warner in 1996. “It was also about Madonna,” he said. “She was getting paid, but at the same time, we were selling more records and selling out concerts on multiple nights. It wasn’t about her. This was about business.”

Despite their decades-long feud, the two made amends years later. Madonna was a special guest at one of Prince’s “Welcome 2 America” concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City in January 2011, and he also invited her to an after-party at Paisley Park in 2015.

Following Prince’s death in 2016 at age 57, Madonna shared a photograph of them on X, called him a “visionary,” and even referenced their 1989 collaboration, writing, “He Changed The World!! A True Visionary. What a loss. I’m Devastated. This is Not A Love Song.”

Photo: Ross Marino/Getty Images