How Madonna and Justin Timberlake's "4 Minutes" Became the Latest TikTok Dance Challenge

“4 Minutes” was released as the lead single off Madonna’s eleventh studio album Hard Candy. The song was recorded at Sarm West Studios in London, and mixed at The Hit Factory Studio in New York City. “4 Minutes” featured Justin Timberlake who by that point was several years into his hit solo career, and was quite memorable as it was the first time in history that Madonna had ever featured another artist on her own single.

That right folks, prior to 2008 (which would have been roughly 25 years in for Madonna), Madonna had never collaborated with another artist on one of her songs. While that might seem like a rare anomaly for the 2020s, it was actually standard for artists that came from Madonna’s era.

When you look at her peers (Michael Jackson, Prince, Janet Jackson, Whitney Houston,etc), a good percentage (if not all) of their work was solo dolo at least until a certain point in their careers as well. Back to “4 Minutes,” the track was produced by Timbaland (who is also currently going viral for his classic 2000s hit on TikTok), and was released on March 17th, 2008. The song received positive reviews and experienced commercial success, reaching number 3 on the US Billboard Hot 100, Madonna’s 37th top ten single. “4 Minutes” would also perform well overseas reaching number 1 in 21 countries including the UK, Canada, Italy, and Spain.