4 Minutes (Madonna song)

“4 Minutes”
Single by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland[1] from the album Hard Candy
Released	March 17, 2008 (2008-03-17) (see release history)
Recorded	2007
Genre	R&B, dance-pop, hip hop
Length	4:04 (Album Version) 3:10 (Edit)
Label	Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Madonna, Nate "Danja" Hills, Timothy "Timbaland" Mosley, Justin Timberlake
Producer	Timbaland, Danja, Justin Timberlake
Certification	(see worldwide sales)
Madonna singles chronology
"Hey You" (2007) "4 Minutes" (2008) "Give It 2 Me" (2008)
Justin Timberlake singles chronology
"Release" (2008) "4 Minutes" (2008) "Dead and Gone" (2009) Timbaland singles chronology "Elevator" (2008) "4 Minutes" (2008) "Dangerous" (2008)
Audio sample
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"4 Minutes" is a song by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her eleventh studio album Hard Candy. It was released as the lead single from the album on March 17, 2008 by Warner Bros. Records and features American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake and Timbaland who also co-wrote and produced the song. It was mixed by Demacio Castellon.^[2] The single scored Madonna her 37th Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit, making her the artist with the most Top 10 hits in the history of the chart, surpassing Elvis Presley.^[3] In the UK, she retained her record for the most number one singles for a female artist, this being her 13th.^[4] The video has been one of the most watched videos on YouTube in 2008, and the most watched video of Madonna's career, with over 52 million views in just 6 months, as of October 27th, 2008. ^[5] 4 Minutes is officially nominated for the 51st Grammy Awards under the category of Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals.^[6]

[edit] Song information

The song is sometimes referred to as "4 Minutes to Save the World", including by Madonna herself.^[7] The song received its first airing when co-producer Timbaland played part of the song at a concert on December 16, 2007 in Philadelphia.^[8] After brief appearances on YouTube and Perez Hilton, Warner Bros. quickly got the clips removed for copyright infringement.^[9] Additionally, part of the song was played on a French radio station on February 29, 2008, later leaking online as a radio rip from the broadcast.^[10]

Despite the title, the song lasts slightly more than four minutes while the radio version lasts around 3 minutes.

The single officially debuted on radio on March 17, 2008, and was released digitally in the UK on the same day. It was released digitally worldwide (except USA) on March 18, 2008 and in the US on March 25, 2008.^{[citation needed]} The song was also used for a television advertisement for Sunsilk that began to air on March 17.^[11] The song was also included in the 2008 film Get Smart as well as being used in the end credits (and here is where the "4 Minutes to Save the World" title comes into play: in the film, the song is used to relay a message to Maxwell Smart about a bomb that's about to detonate in the Walt Disney Concert Hall). The Music Video has been viewed over 52 million times as of October 27th, 2008. ^[12]

The song was performed during the Hard Candy Promo Tour and the Sticky & Sweet World Tour. Timberlake made a guest appearance co-performing the song with Madonna on November 6 2008 during her concert date in Los Angeles.^[13]

[edit] Reception

The Rolling Stone magazine described the song as having "a marching band aesthetic as blasting brass play a scale-like riff", and called the song "a loud, busy, energetic track."^[8] Billboard magazine reviewer and editor Chuck Taylor said that with the song Madonna "is poised to score her first top 10 hit since 2005's 'Hung Up.' ... There's an awful lot going on in the busy dance track ... but the trade-off chorus between Madge and Justin ... is hooky enough unto itself to sell the song."^[14] BBC Music described "4 Minutes" as sounding "so futuristic it could realistically have been beamed in from the end of the world."^[15] "4 Minutes" was called one of Hard Candy's saviors by The Independent, who noted that "the Mardi Gras marching-band bumping rumbustiously along" is one of the album's "most ambitious offerings."^[16] Heidi Kotanski of Common Sense Media wrote, "While the afrobeat horn breaks drive the energy of the single, Madonna takes back stage to Timberlake's best impersonation of Michael Jackson and the overpowering erratic electronic sounds signature of Timbaland's production."^[17] Chris Sosa of Musicouch described the song as "big, loud, and borderline obnoxious" but still mainting a "summer-anthem quality".^[18]

[edit] Radio success

The single broke a record in Canada when it debuted at number one on the Canadian CHR Audience chart. This was the first time any single debuted at the top of the chart. The song entered Canada's CHR Spin's Chart at number 5, the second song to debut within the Top 10. This song also entered Canada's All Format Audience chart at number 2, the highest debut ever on the chart.^[19]

"4 Minutes" debuted at number twenty-three on United States' CHR/Top 40 National Airplay radio chart. It was also that chart's most added song of the week, with over seventy new stations.^[20] "4 Minutes" debuted at number eighteen on the Radio & Records Pop Chart on March 26, 2008.^[20]

[edit] Chart performance

"4 Minutes" has topped the charts in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Romania, South Africa, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom and reached the Top 5 in Austria, France, Japan, Russia, Sweden and the United States, becoming Madonna's first chart-topper single in two years since "Sorry" and one of her most successful releases in her career.

"4 Minutes" has also become a success in Oceania. "4 Minutes" made its debut at number-three on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and ascended to its peak at number-one two weeks later, where it spent three consecutive weeks.^[21] "4 Minutes" has since been certified Platinum by ARIA for sales in excess of 70,000 copies.^[22] In New Zealand "4 Minutes" made its debut at number-fifteen on the New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart, and ascended into the top ten in its third week on the chart. "4 Minutes" eventually reached its peak at number-three in its fifth week.^[23] "4 Minutes" is certified Gold by RIANZ for sales in excess of 7,500 copies.

"4 Minutes" Madonna's 61st UK hit single made its debut on the Official UK Singles Chart at number-seven on March 23, 2008 based on download sales alone.^[24] On April 20, 2008, 5 weeks after release it finally made No.1, "4 Minutes" became Madonna's record-breaking 13th number one single, and spent four consecutive weeks at number-one. To date, "4 Minutes" has sold 411,060+ downloads/singles in the UK and is so far the 5th best selling single in the UK of 2008.

"4 Minutes" became Madonna's first Top 10 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 since "Hung Up" in 2005 and her highest-charting U.S. single since "Music" in 2000. With the song, Madonna scored her 37th Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 hit, making her the artist with the most Top 10 hits in the history of the chart, surpassing Elvis Presley.^[25] Based on its first week of airplay, the song made its debut on the U.S. Mediabase Top 40/Pop Airplay Chart at number 23 with an airplay bullet of over 2000.^[26] The single jumped from number 68 to number three on the Billboard Hot 100, spurred by digital download sales. The song sold 217,000 in its first week of wide release and entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at number two. The single has reached number one on both Hot Digital Songs and Hot Digital Tracks. It has sold over 2,000,000 downloads in only a few weeks, and was certified Platinum by the RIAA on June 12, 2008. It is Madonna's first Platinum single since "Hung Up."^[27] In July of 2008, it reached double platinum status in the US. Her last single to reach double platinum status was "Vogue."^[28][29] In Spain, the single was certified 3x Platinum for more than 60,000 downloads.^[30]

On December 28, 2008, the UK Singles Chart listed this at #9 for the year end countdown. Billboard Hot 100 listed this as the 23rd most successful song of the year.

[edit] Music video

Still from the music video showing Madonna and Justin Timberlake singing while the black background catches up, showing Timberlake's insides.

The music video was filmed in four days at Black Island Studios in London: January 30, 2008 with Timberlake and from January 31 to February 2, 2008 with Madonna and Timberlake, directed by French duo Jonas & François (Justice's "D.A.N.C.E."),^[31] with choreography by Jamie King.^[8] and features an appearance of Japanese hip-hop dancing duo Hamutsun Serve^[32]).

The music video was released in some countries on iTunes Store on April 3, 2008. It also made a television premiere on MuchMusic at midnight on April 6, 2008 and on MTV's TRL on April 7, 2008.

The video was nominated for a VMA at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards in the "Best Dancing In A Video" category.

The video starts with Timbaland chanting infront of a giant timer screen which starts counting down from "4 Minutes" and a black screen comes and engulfs everything. Then Madonna pushes a car into a home and gets inside. The people inside are oblivious to the fact that she is inside their home. Justin is also present there and they methodically run away from the screen which eats people's hands and legs showing everything. They come out into a caryard where they escape from the screen into a supermarket. There they dance on the conveyor belt and then go into a bathroom. At the second chorus they come in front of the same screen where Timbaland was singing and immediately start choreographed dancing. As the encore progresses they dance vigourously until the screen catches up them devouring Justin and Madonna.

• Directors: Jonas & François
• Producer: Greg Panteix
• Director of Photography: Dan Landin
• Editor: Danny Tull
• Production Company: 75

[edit] Track listings and formats

4 Minutes was released in many formats, and unusually, each format was accorded a separate release date. In the UK, almost two months separated the release of the song as a download and the final format release of a 12" picture disc.^[33]

[edit] Official versions

[edit] Release history

[edit] Charts

[edit] Worldwide sales

[edit] Chart procession and succession

[edit] References