"4 Minutes" is the first single by American singer-songwriter Madonna from her eleventh studio album Hard Candy and was released on March 17, 2008 by Warner Bros. Records. It features American singer-songwriter Justin Timberlake and Timbaland who also co-wrote and co-produced the song.
The song was originally titled "4 Minutes to Save the World". Madonna herself still refers to it as this title during an interview with UK morning show GMTV which was aired April 4 , 2008. "4 Minutes" received its first airing when co-producer Timbaland played part of the song at a concert on December 16, 2007 in Philadelphia. After brief appearances on YouTube and Perez Hilton, Warner Bros. quickly acted to prevent further viewing. 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.
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.
The song was also used for an television advertisement for Sunsilk that began to air on March 17.
Ironically, the song’s lyrics and video suggests that both protagonists have no more than four minutes to "save the world," yet the length of the song is not four minutes, but rather four minutes and four seconds.
The music video was filmed in London from January 30 to February 2, 2008 with Timberlake and Timbaland, directed by French duo Jonas & Fran
