The main event for this week’s episode of iMPACT! Wrestling is Al Snow vs Grado, playing on the storyline on the TNA reality show British Bootcamp 2. Grado uses Madonna’s “Like A Prayer” for his theme song. He used it for that episode but when TNA tried to license the song but were turned down. Grado is a popular wrestler in Scotland and started a social media campaign to get Madonna’s attention so she’d approve the use of the song.
He said in a statement: “This might fall on its arse, but its worth a go… As most of you know, for entrance music I use a version of ‘Like A Prayer’ originally recorded by Madonna. TNA wrestling had managed to negotiate with several important publishers to get the rights for the song, and this Friday on American telly I was getting the go-ahead for my match with Al Snow from The Hydro to be shown in full, with the ‘Like A Prayer’ entrance – I was over the moon!! Until today, we received an e-mail saying “Please be advised that the request below for the use of ‘Like A Prayer’ has been denied on behalf of Madonna ” Now I get the feeling there is no way, she herself was on the blower talking about some daft Scottish wrestler about using her choon on the tv, which is why I want to try and reach out to her Madge herself and to let her know how much the song means to myself and the wrestling world! I never want to use any other theme music, or some dubbed shite, there is no better feeling than a big rowdy crowd going bush to this song. I want her to watch this wee video and hopefully she can tell the folk representing her to let me use it! So I’m looking for anyone who likes my page or follows me on Twitter to give her a shout and show her this vid and see if we can persuade her! #SayYesMadonna”
It has been trending on Twitter, including the UK and other areas where Grado is most famous. It’s still one of the top five trends in the UK. The story has received quite a bit of mainstream attention, including BBC News, Time, Scottish newspaper The Daily Record, Scotland national broadcast station STV.
“Weird Al” Yankovic tried something similar a few years ago after Lady Gaga’s management turned him down when he wanted to parody “Born This way”. The campaign had a lot of attention and Gaga learned about it (and the parody song she knew nothing about) and approved it. Of course, Yankovic is far more popular than Grado is.
If you want to support Grado, use “#SayYesMadonna” on Twitter. Grado can be followed @GradoWrestling.
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