Top 5 Biggest Religious Scandals in Pop Music

With all this talk of Lady Gaga's religious symbolism in her new video "Alejandro", it only makes sense to examine the biggest music clashes with the religious world. Looking at these five pop moments, Gaga's doesn't seem too big (although the rosary eating could definitely hold its own).

5. Michael Jackson at 1996 BRIT Awards - While there was no official comment from any religious association, the King of Pop's performance of "Earth Song" ruffled more than a few feathers. Some people (infamously including Jarvis Cocker) weren't too impressed with MJ's assumption of the Messiah role as he emerged from his tattered black robes in a white outfit and spread his arms out in an epic (read Jesus) pose while children surrounded him in praise. The aforementioned Cocker stormed the stage during the performance.



4. Madonna On The Cross at Confessions Tour - Leave it to her Madgesty to take the Messiah thing even further. During her performance of "Live to Tell" on her 2006 Confessions Tour, Madonna sang from a huge glass cross with a thorned crown on her head as images of AIDS-suffering African children were played in the background. The Catholic community was none too happy. Germans wanted her sued for blasphemy, the Vatican condemned her Rome concert, and a cardinal from Italy called for her excommunication.



3. Sinéad O'Connor Rips The Pope - During a powerful performance of Bob Marley's song "War", the "Nothing Compares 2 U" singer pulled out a picture of the Vatican leader and ripped it up, screaming "fight the real enemy" in front of a stunned audience. The demonstration was in response to the sex abuse scandals surrounding the church. The country was outraged; her albums were burned, the legendary Frank Sinatra wanted to fight her, and she was booed off the stage at a Bob Dylan tribute concert. In a perfect bit of irony, O'Connor as ordained as a Catholic priest in 1998.

2. Madonna's "Like a Prayer" Video - 1989 was a huge year for the Material Girl. She was releasing a new album Like a Prayer, and was releasing the title track as the lead single. She signed a $5 million deal with Pepsi to use the music video in a commercial. What the soda company, and the rest of the planet, wasn't anticipating was how scandalous the video would be. The video, about a woman witnessing the murder of another girl by three men and a black man going down for the crime, featured all kinds of Catholic symbolism. There was dancing in front of burning crosses, stigmata, dancing suggestively in a church, and kissing a black Jesus Christ. Pepsi was furious and yanked the commercial after only two airings. The video, twenty years later, stands as one of the most influential of her career, and the first that challenged the boundaries of pop music.

1. John Lennon Calls The Beatles Bigger Than Jesus - In the 60's, there was nothing bigger than The Beatles. It seemed so rooted in fact that John Lennon made a remark that nearly destroyed their careers in the United States. In an interview with the Evening Standard in 1966, Lennon talked about the decline of Christianity, and said that the group was bigger than Jesus. The comment made zero waves in the UK, but when republished by a teen magazine months later, the outrage was palpable. Radio stations banned their music, their records were publicly burned, and their concert tour was threatened with violence from many sources, including the Klu Klux Klan. Eventually, the furor calmed and The Beatles' status as pop legends was secured, but there was little doubt of the magnitude those comments made. Ironically, the backlash, as short as it was, proved just how massive The Beatles were, so maybe Lennon wasn't far off.