4 Minutes (Madonna song)

"4 Minutes"
Single by Madonna featuring Justin Timberlake and Timbaland
from the album Hard Candy
Released	March 17, 2008
Format	CD single, music download, 12"
Recorded	2007; Sarm West Studios London, England; The Hit Factory Miami, Florida
Genre	Dance-pop, hip hop
Length	4:04
Label	Warner Bros.
Writer(s)	Madonna, Tim Mosley, Justin Timberlake, Nate Hills
Producer	Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Danja
Madonna singles chronology
"Jump" (2006) "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)

"4 Minutes" is a song by American singer and 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. The song's development was motivated by a sense of urgency to save the planet from destruction, and how people can enjoy themselves in the process. The writing was completed through discussions between Madonna and Justin Timberlake about different situations, issues and relationships. According to Madonna, the song inspired her to produce the documentary I Am Because We Are.

The song features vocals by American musicians Timberlake and Timbaland. It was recorded at Sarm West Studios in London, while the mixing of the track was finished at The Hit Factory studio in Miami. Sound engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellon first worked on the vocals of the track, by honing them according to his instincts, and then worked on the beats and the synths composed by Timbaland and Danja. An uptempo dance song with an urban, hip hop style, "4 Minutes" incorporates Timbaland's characteristic bhangra beats and the instrumentation used in the song includes brass, foghorns and cow bells. The song's lyrics carry a message of social awareness, inspired by Madonna's visit to Africa and the human suffering she witnessed there.

"4 Minutes" has been praised by many contemporary critics who called it a busy, dance track and complimented its music, which was compared to that of a marching band. Some however noted that Madonna, rather than Timberlake, appeared as more of a featured artist in the song. "4 Minutes" achieved worldwide success by reaching number one in twenty-one countries, including Australia, Canada, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom. In the United States, "4 Minutes" peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 100, giving Madonna her 37th top-ten single, breaking the record previously held by Elvis Presley as the artist with most top-ten hits. It is also her second multi-platinum certified single in that country, after "Vogue" from 1990.

In the song's accompanying music video, Madonna and Timberlake sing and run away from a giant black screen that devours everything in its path. At the end of the video, Madonna and Timberlake are consumed by the screen. "4 Minutes" was performed by Madonna on the promotional tour for Hard Candy and the Sticky & Sweet Tour. In the latter, the song served as the opener of the rave segment, where Madonna wore a futuristic robotic dress. During performances of the song, Timberlake and Timbaland appeared on video screens and sang their lines. The song received two Grammy Award nominations for "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" and "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical."

Writing and inspiration

"We kind of had psychoanalytic sessions whenever we wrote songs. We’d sit down and we’d start talking about situations. And then we’d start talking about issues or problems or relationships with people. That was the only way, because you know, writing together with somebody is very intimate. So we had to find a place to start talking about something we cared about, so we could get into writing about something we cared about."

—Madonna talking to Interview about the writing process.

"4 Minutes" is a collaboration between Madonna, Justin Timberlake and Timbaland. It was written and produced by all three of them, along with Nate "Danja" Hills. The song, initially named "4 Minutes to Save the World", was one of the last to be produced for Madonna's album Hard Candy. In an interview with MTV, Madonna said that the concept of the song was developed through discussions with Timberlake. She further explained the meaning of the song:

Well I don't think it's important to take it too literally. I think the song more than anything is about having a sense of urgency; about how we are you know, living on borrowed time essentially and people are becoming much more aware of the environment and how we're destroying the planet. We can't just keep distracting ourselves we do have to educate ourselves and wake up and do something about it. You know at the same time we don't want to be boring and serious and not have fun so it's kind of like well if we're going to save the planet can we have a good time while we are doing it?

Ingrid Sischy from Interview magazine said that the song felt like a ballad for the world, containing "the sounds of a great big marching band. Its a giant dance song". Madonna agreed with Sischy and responded that the song was "a funny paradox" and was one of the inspirations behind her documentary I Am Because We Are. The documentary dealt with the acute suffering and food shortage afflicting the African nation of Malawi.

Recording and mixing

The recording sessions for "4 Minutes" took place at Sarm West Studios in West London, on a 72-channel SSL 9080 scratching tool. Mixing and recording engineer Demacio "Demo" Castellon recalled that he was not present for the first set of recording sessions because he was working on another project, but arrived for the second set of sessions. About 65 percent of the song was already done by the time Castellon arrived, including the drum sounds to the basic keyboard lines. He recorded the rest, and also did some programming, particularly in the intro and the end. At Sarm, Timbaland and Danja used Akai MPC3000 and Ensoniq ASR-10 sampling drum machines, Yamaha Motif workstation and several soft synths to build the backing track for "4 Minutes". "I think the horn samples came from the Motif, but I'm not sure," explained Castellon. "There were dedicated analogue keyboards and the rest were soft synths. But we're always experimenting and we're always using whatever equipment we have in the studio we work in. We may have our preferences, but we're always into trying new things. That's why our stuff sounds different to that of everybody else." The backing track for "4 Minutes" consisted mainly of brass, synths, and percussion. Castellon asserted that the session was "actually much bigger than most people would think, because Tim and Danja take a lot of pride in designing their own sounds. Sometimes what sounds like one sound is eight different sounds layered on top of each other. A lot of the background parts can be stacked several times. The drums and percussion on '4 Minutes' are 23 stereo tracks, so 46 tracks in total, there were 16 stereo tracks of brass, and so on. The whole session panned out to about 100 tracks, and I took 80 outputs from Pro Tools to the SSL, so there was some submixing in Pro Tools. But for the most part it was straight across the board."

In the case of '4 Minutes', Tim had a vision from the beginning of how things should go, especially sonically. He's a real producer. He doesn't look only at the music, he looks at the sounds as well. He's also a great engineer and he has an incredible ear and he knows exactly how to piece things together in the stereo spectrum. When I opened up the session of '4 Minutes', there was so much going on that I knew right away that the hard part would be to make sure that the vocals would cut through and were right in the pocket. Beginning with working on the vocals was the only way to achieve this. After that I formed all the other parts around the vocals. The other challenge was to make sure that everything in the track sounded clear and that you could hear every instrument, every syllable, every breath. Also, I do almost always work linear in time on a track. It's easier, because when you're done, you're done. So I keep working on section after section, until I get to the end of the track and then I know the whole mix is pretty close.

Castellon did not want the SSL machines to mess with his blending of the music, hence he used the Pro Tools automation and did the level rides on his small Motormix controller. He then ran everything through the SSL, while checking for the EQ, compression and panning. The mixing of "4 Minutes" was done at The Hit Factory studio in Miami, on a 96-channel SSL J-series desk. Given the massive amount of backing tracks and the fact that many of the parts sounded busy, one of the main challenges in mixing "4 Minutes" was making sure that the music did not overwhelm the vocals. Castellon explained that this led him to an unusual approach. "I started with the vocals, then I added in the music, and the drums were last. That's unusual for me, even though I don't really have a set way of mixing," he added. Few plug-ins were used for the mix of "4 Minutes", partly because Castellon preferred the sound of outboard gear, and partly to ensure that the mix would be portable between studios because Madonna was on a time-constraint and wanted everything to be done by a deadline. So he gave up some of his ideas for mixing and tried to complete the song as soon as possible. The song took him a full day of work to mix, and after that he left it for two days, and then went back to it for some fine-tuning. He found that adding the effects in "4 Minutes" were easy, but the balancing was quite tough.

Castellon started working with the vocals in the order in which they appeared on the track, so he first began with Timbaland's intro vocals. Castellon tried to get the vocals as close as possible to the way he wanted them in the final mix. The vocal became his point of reference, and while working on it he occasionally put the kick drum or the horns or the synths next to them, to see how they sounded in context. On Timbaland's vocals, he used the EQ and clipped away the parts where his voice sounded too loud. For Madonna and Timberlake he used a little audio compression and an eighth-note delay from a PCM 42 to give their voice some space. Castellon commended Timbaland and Danja's drum programming, but felt that some of it did not sound okay with the song, hence had to leave it. Before sending the final version of the track, he added some Renaissance compression to help achieve the beat level that he wanted. There was one particular kick sound there that clashed with the other tracks, so Timbaland replaced it with another kick that had a very different note and sound. Using a Focusrite D2 EQ, Castellon matched the sound of that new kick drum to the other kick drum sounds. Once the drums and percussion were added, the recording and mixing of "4 Minutes" was finally done. Castellon concluded, "Luckily everything came together in the end. I don't think the mix would have sounded the same if I had worked in the opposite way, starting with the drums and working up towards the vocals."

Composition

"4 Minutes" is an uptempo dance song, composed in an urban, hip hop style. It incorporates the bass effect of a marching band, a clanging beat and instrumentation from a brass that is played in a high riff. Other musical instruments used are foghorns and cow bells. "4 Minutes" starts with Timbaland's characteristic bhangra beats and he sings the first lines repeatedly eight times. After Timbaland's part is over, the song has Madonna and Timberlake singing and trading verses. The rhythm moves towards a hard clanging beat as Madonna sings the lines that the "road to hell is paved with good intentions." Madonna and Timberlake starts singing the chorus with Timberlake singing the main line of "We’ve only got four minutes to save the world" in a Michael Jackson inspired voice. "4 Minutes" continues in the same momentum in the second verse and second chorus whence the track ends after a brief breakdown where every other beat ceases except for the bhangra beats, the brass riffs and Madonna singing the words "tick-tock" repeatedly, after which it ends.

According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by Alfred Publishing, the song is written in the key of G minor and is set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 115 beats per minute. Timbaland's bhangra beats are featured at the start and the end of the song. Madonna and Timberlake's vocal range spans two octaves, from F₃ to Bb₅. The song has a basic sequence of D–G–C–F–B♭–D in the verses and E♭₅–D₅–C₅–D₅ in the chorus, as its chord progression. The lyrics of "4 Minutes" carry a message of social awareness, inspired by Madonna's visit to Africa and the human suffering she witnessed. Jon Pareles of The New York Times stated that "[h]owever, the song sounds as if four minutes is the time taken for a song to be a guaranteed pop hit or the time required for a quicky; in reality it is the only song from Hard Candy album which contains a message of social awareness in it." The sound of a clock ticking away emphasizes this message further. Madonna explained in New York magazine that the line "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" did not relate to her charity work. Instead it was her question to herself: "Do I understand this opinion that I’ve adopted or this Zeitgeist that I’ve allowed myself to be swept up in? Because you could have the best intentions but not have enough information and make huge mistakes." Regarding the line "Sometimes I feel what I need is a you intervention", Madonna explained, "[y]eah, meaning, sometimes I think you need to save me."

Critical reception

Madonna in a close-up during the performance of "4 Minutes"

Caryn Ganz of Rolling Stone described the song as having "a marching band aesthetic as blasting brass play a scale-like riff." She also called it "a loud, busy, energetic track," while comparing Timberlake's vocals with that of Michael Jackson. Billboard music 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 of 'We've only got four minutes to save the world' is hooky enough unto itself to sell the song." He added that "4 Minutes" qualifies as a record event "between superpowers [Madonna and Timberlake] who not only share equal billing, but sound gangbusters together." Mark Savage of BBC described the sound as "so futuristic it could realistically have been beamed in from the end of the world." Andy Gill of The Independent called "4 Minutes" one of Hard Candy's saviors. He noted that "the Mardi Gras marching-band bumping rumbustiously along," is one of the album's "most ambitious offerings." Joey Guerra of Houston Chronicle compared the track to the work of Nelly Furtado and felt that the composition was "a bid for radio play."

According to Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine, the song is "a blatant advertisement for the rest of the album." Chris Williams of Entertainment Weekly called it a "flirty duet". Ben Thompson of The Guardian said: "It has a hard to escape sense that all concerned are going through the motions [of life] – effortlessly, sometimes brilliantly." Joan Anderman of The Boston Globe believed that the "song is a sure thing, a chart-topper for its sheer star power as well as instant musical allure, and on the eve of Madonna's 50th birthday [...] '4 Minutes' feels a lot like an icon's can't-miss gift to herself." However, he noticed that the "shift in the power structure [is nowhere] more blatant than on '4 Minutes', where Madonna sounds like a featured guest trying to keep pace with Timbaland's colossal beats and Timberlake's nimble melody." Freedom du Lac of The Washington Post complimented the song for being busy and brassy. She commented: "[P]ropelled by a detonative marching-band beat [...] it's one of the most thrilling things Madonna has done in this decade." Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic praised the melodic and rhythmic hook, but was disappointed that Madonna's voice is "drowned out by Timbaland's farting four-note synth – which might not have been so bad if the tracks were fresher and if the whole enterprise didn't feel quite so joylessly mechanical." At the 51st Grammy Awards, "4 Minutes" garnered Madonna, Timberlake and Timbaland a nomination in the "Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals" category. Dutch musician Junkie XL also earned a nomination in the "Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical" category for his remixing of the song.

Chart performance

In the United States, "4 Minutes" debuted at number sixty-eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for the issue dated April 5, 2008, based solely on airplay. Within a week, the song had jumped sixty-five places, reaching number three on the chart. This leap was spurred by first-week digital sales of 217,000, enabling the song to enter Billboard's Digital chart at number two, behind Mariah Carey's single "Touch My Body". The song became Madonna's first top-ten single since "Hung Up" (2005), and was her thirty-seventh Hot 100 top-ten hit, breaking the record previously held by Elvis Presley. "4 Minutes" was also her highest-charting single on the Hot 100 since "Music" reached the top of the chart in 2000. For Timberlake, "4 Minutes" became his ninth top-ten hit. On the Pop 100 chart, the song reached a peak of two. "4 Minutes" was a success on Billboard's dance charts, topping both the Hot Dance Club Play and the Hot Dance Airplay charts. Four months after its release, "4 Minutes" was certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for sales of two million paid digital downloads. It is her second single to achieve multi-platinum certification, after "Vogue" (1990), and it is one of her best-selling songs in the United States. As of September 2010, it had sold 2.8 million digital downloads in the United States. "4 Minutes" was the tenth most downloaded song in the United States in 2008, according to Nielsen SoundScan. In Canada, Nielsen Broadcast Data Systems (BDS) confirmed that "4 Minutes" debuted at the top of the Canadian Contemporary Hit Radio chart. This marked the first time any song entered at the top of the CHR chart in BDS history. The song debuted at number twenty-seven on the Canadian Hot 100 on March 27, 2008, and topped the chart the next week. The song spent nine non-consecutive weeks at the top of the chart.

"4 Minutes" was also a success in Australia and New Zealand. The song debuted at number three on the Australian ARIA Singles Chart, and ascended to the number-one position two weeks later, where it stayed for three consecutive weeks. "4 Minutes" has been certified platinum by the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) for the shipment of 70,000 copies. In New Zealand, "4 Minutes" made its debut at number fourteen on the New Zealand Singles Chart, and ascended to the top ten, finally peaking at number three. The song has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand (RIANZ) for the shipment of 7,500 copies.

In the United Kingdom, "4 Minutes" debuted on the UK Singles Chart at number seven, based only on download sales. The song became Madonna's sixtieth top-ten single in Britain. It debuted on the airplay charts at number 19, with first week tallies of 564 plays and 27.10m listeners. The song rose to the top of the chart on April 20, 2008, with sales of 40,634 copies, thus giving Madonna her thirteenth British number-one single. With this feat, she retained her title of the most number-one singles in the British chart history by a female solo artist; Kylie Minogue has the second most, with seven. According to The Official Charts Company, the song has sold 475,000 copies there. "4 Minutes" was also number one on Billboard's European Hot 100 Singles for four weeks. Overall, "4 Minutes" reached number one in twenty-one countries worldwide and it was the 7th best selling song in 2008.

Music video

A still from the music video showing Madonna and Justin Timberlake. The black background is seen behind Timberlake, devouring his sides.

The music video was directed by French duo Jonas & François. It featured choreography by Jamie King, who worked on Madonna’s Confessions, Re-Invention and Drowned World tours as well as her video for the single "Sorry" (2006). Japanese hip hop dancing duo Hamutsun Serve also made an appearance in the video. Before its release, Rolling Stone said the video had Madonna and Timberlake playing superheroes while tackling physical obstacles. In the video, Madonna wore a cream colored corset, glistening black boots and styled her hair in platinum blond waves while Timberlake wore mainly denims and had a scarf wrapped around his neck. Regarding the idea behind the music video, Madonna said that "it was conceptualistic". She explained that the video was shot like a march past; "It's a movement, and we want to take everybody with us." About the idea of a black screen devouring everything, Madonna said,

None of us did [understand the concept of the black screen]. It was just, you know, it's very conceptual. We basically gave the song to the two French directors [Jonas & Francois] and they came up with the only concept that I thought was interesting, with this black sort of amorphous graphic line slowly eating up the world. I just liked that as a concept.

The video used soft focus, gentle lighting and airbrushing looks on Madonna. It starts with Timbaland chanting the opening line in front of a giant timer screen that counts down from four minutes. As he sings, a black geometric patterned screen comes from behind and engulfs all of the musical devices present. Madonna and Timberlake enter a house but run away from it after finding the screen there, which starts eating the hands and legs of the inhabitants of the house, thus showing their insides. After a number of shots showing Madonna and Timberlake jumping on and over cars to escape from the screen, they finally move into a supermarket. The screen follows them, consuming the long lines of stalls and the people present there. As the second chorus starts, they arrive in front of the screen where Timbaland is singing. After choreographed dancing, Madonna performs a back arch as the timer reaches zero time. The last "tick-tock, tick-tock" sound is heard, Madonna and Timberlake dance again on a long stage; the black screen approaches them from both sides. The video ends with both of them kissing, and the black screen devouring them. Timberlake's bones and ribs, and Madonna's cheeks are seen in the last shot.

Regarding the video, Madonna said it was like "[g]oody goody gum drops," referring to the candy oriented theme of the album. The New York Times called the video heart-pounding, and compared its momentum with the music video of "Thriller", "In the Air Tonight" and "Shadows of the Night". However, they commented that the video did not yield a breakout Madonna look compared to her videos from the 1980s. Singer Miley Cyrus created her own version of the video and posted it on her YouTube channel. Madonna responded to it in her own video and said, "All you people out there who are making videos to my new single, '4 Minutes,' keep up the good work, nice job." She was portrayed cleaning the set of the music video, of her follow up single "Give It 2 Me". "4 Minutes" was nominated for an award at the 2008 MTV Video Music Awards in the "Best Dancing in a Video" category, but lost to the Pussycat Dolls single "When I Grow Up".

Live performances and covers

Madonna and her dancers emerge from behind the moving screens for the performance of "4 Minutes" on the Sticky & Sweet Tour.

The song was performed during the promotional tour for Hard Candy and Sticky & Sweet Tour (2008–09). At the promotional tour, "4 Minutes" was performed as the third song of the setlist. Madonna wore a shiny black dress with black tails, Adidas track pants and high-heeled, lace-up boots for the performance. Justin Timberlake made an appearance alongside Madonna, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York, to perform the song. As Timbaland appeared on the video screens, the beat of the song started. The four side-stage video screens began to glide across the stage, and swiveled around to reveal Timberlake behind one and Madonna behind the other. They performed the song in a similar choreography from the music video. When the song came to an end, Madonna pushed Timberlake against a wall.

On the Sticky & Sweet Tour, "4 Minutes" was performed as the opening song of the "Futuristic rave with Japanese influence" section. During this segment, Madonna wore a futuristic robotic dress designed by Heatherette. She coupled it with metallic plates on her shoulder and a wig with long curled hair. Madonna and her dancers emerged from behind backdrops, on which Timbaland and Timberlake appeared, to perform their lines. An apparent duet between Madonna and Timberlake ensues, with Timberlake singing and dancing his part from the screens. He joined Madonna in person, for the show at Los Angeles's Dodger Stadium on November 6, 2008, the same show in which Britney Spears appeared alongside Madonna to perform "Human Nature". They performed "4 Minutes" in similar fashion to the promotional tour choreography. Timbaland joined Madonna during the performance at Dolphin Stadium in Miami. The song was also used as a mashup during the introduction video called, "The Sweet Machine" and intermediate video "Get Stupid". The latter was a save-the-world video that portrayed people with good and bad intentions. It juxtaposed John McCain with Hitler and Barack Obama with Mahatma Gandhi. "4 Minutes" was also used as mashups during the performance of songs like "Vogue" and "Hung Up".

"4 Minutes" was one of the songs covered by the cast of Glee during the April 20, 2010 episode "The Power of Madonna". The fictional character Kurt Hummel, portrayed by Chris Colfer, sang Madonna's parts while Mercedes Jones (Amber Riley) sang Timberlake's. In the episode, the song is performed during a routine by the high-school cheering squad, accompanied by the school band. The version was released both as a digital downloadable single and on the EP, Glee: The Music, The Power of Madonna. "4 Minutes" cover charted on the Hot Digital Songs of Billboard at number 55 on May 8, 2010, while reaching number 89 and number 70 on the Billboard Hot 100 and Canadian Hot 100, respectively.

Track listings and formats

• UK CD 1

1. "4 Minutes" (Album Version) – 4:04
2. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Remix) – 5:39

• UK CD 2 / AUS CD Single

1. "4 Minutes" (Album Version) – 4:04
2. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Remix) – 5:39
3. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Remix) – 6:16

• UK 12" Vinyl

1. "4 Minutes" (Edit) – 3:10
2. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Edit) – 4:57
3. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Remix Edit) – 4:39
4. "4 Minutes" (Tracy Young House Radio) – 3:33

• US Digital Maxi Single

1. "4 Minutes" (Edit) – 3:11
2. "4 Minutes" (Peter Saves Paris Edit) – 4:49
3. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Edit) – 3:23
4. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Dirty Dub Edit) – 4:05

• EU / US Maxi CD Single

1. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Remix) – 5:39
2. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Remix) – 6:16
3. "4 Minutes" (Tracy Young House Mix) – 7:55
4. "4 Minutes" (Peter Saves Paris Remix) – 8:52
5. "4 Minutes" (Rebirth Remix) – 7:57
6. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Dirty Dub) – 4:52

• US 2× 12" Vinyl

1. "4 Minutes" (Bob Sinclar Space Funk Remix) – 5:39
2. "4 Minutes" (Peter Saves Paris Remix) – 8:52
3. "4 Minutes" (Tracy Young House Mix) – 7:55
4. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Dirty Dub) – 4:52
5. "4 Minutes" (Album Version) – 4:05
6. "4 Minutes" (Rebirth Remix) – 7:57
7. "4 Minutes" (Junkie XL Remix) – 6:16

Credits and personnel

• Madonna – writer, vocals, background vocals, executive producer
• Justin Timberlake – writer, vocals, producer
• Timbaland – writer, vocals, producer, drum programming, recording
• Danja – writer, producer, keyboard instrument
• Demacio "Demo" Castellon – programming, mixing, scratching and recording at Sarm West Studios (London) and The Hit Factory Studios (Miami)
• Marcella Araica – mixing, scratching
• Ron Taylor – protools editing

Credits and personnel adapted from Hard Candy album liner notes.

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts

Chart (2008)	Peak position
Australian Singles Chart	1
Austrian Singles Chart	2
Belgian Flanders Singles Chart	1
Belgian Wallonia Singles Chart	1
Canadian Hot 100	1
Czech Airplay Chart	4
Danish Singles Chart	1
Dutch Top 40	1
European Hot 100 Singles	1
Finnish Singles Chart	1
French Singles Chart	2
German Singles Chart	1
Hungarian Singles Chart	1
Irish Singles Chart	1
Italian Singles Chart	1
Japan Hot 100	6
New Zealand Singles Chart	3
Norwegian Singles Chart	1
Romanian Airplay Chart	1
Slovak Airplay Chart	2
Spanish Singles Chart	1
Swedish Singles Chart	2
Swiss Singles Chart	1
UK Singles Chart	1
US Billboard Hot 100	3
US Hot Dance Club Play	1
US Mainstream Top 40	5
US Pop 100	2

Decade-end charts

Charts (2000–09)	Position
Australian Singles Chart	77

Year-end charts

Charts (2008–09)	Position
Australian Singles Chart	15
Austrian Singles Chart	11
Belgian Singles Chart (Flanders)	3
Belgian Singles Chart (Wallonia)	13
Canadian Hot 100	11
Dutch Top 40	11
European Hot 100 Singles	5
French Singles Chart	14
Hungarian Singles Chart (2008)	13
Hungarian Singles Chart (2009)	138
Irish Singles Chart	11
New Zealand Singles Chart	31
Spanish Singles Chart	18
Swedish Singles Chart	3
Swiss Singles Chart	6
UK Singles Chart	9
US Billboard Hot 100	23
US Mainstream Top 40	38

Certifications

Country	Certification
Australia	Platinum
Belgium	Gold
Brazil	Platinum
Denmark	2× Platinum
Finland	Platinum
Germany	Platinum
Mexico	2× Gold
New Zealand	Gold
Norway	3× Platinum
Spain	2× Platinum
Sweden	Platinum
United States	2× Platinum

Release history

Region	Date	Format
Australia	March 17, 2008	Digital download
	April 18, 2008	Remixes digital download
	April 19, 2008	CD single
United Kingdom	March 17, 2008	Digital download
	April 21, 2008	CD single
	June 2, 2008	12" Picture disc
United States	March 25, 2008	Digital download
	April 15, 2008	Remixes digital download
	April 29, 2008	CD single
Germany	April 11, 2008
France	April 14, 2008

See also

• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Australia)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Belgium Flanders)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Belgium Wallonia)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Canada)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Denmark)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Europe)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Finland)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Germany)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Ireland)

• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Italy)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Netherlands)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Norway)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Spain)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (Switzerland)
• List of number-one singles of 2008 (UK)
• List of number-one dance airplay singles of 2008 (US)
• List of number-one dance singles of 2008 (US)
• List of number-one digital songs of 2008 (US)

External links

• Madonna "4 Minutes" music video at MTV.com