Hard Candy (album)
| Hard candy | ||||
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| Studio album by Madonna | ||||
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Publication |
2008 |
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Format (s) |
CD, MC, LP, download |
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Urban pop, dance, hip-hop |
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Title (number) |
12 |
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running time |
56:24 |
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| occupation | Madonna | |||
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Hard Candy is the eleventh studio album by the pop singer Madonna . It was released in Germany on April 25, 2008 and in the United States on April 29, 2008.
background
Madonna worked with Timbaland , Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams ( The Neptunes ) on this album . In addition, were Nate "Danja" Hills and Kanye West involved in the album. The track 4 Minutes , which Madonna sings in a duet with Justin Timberlake, was selected as the first single on the album . The video for the song was shot in London in late January and premiered on April 7th. The single was released on April 11th and was already available as an international download. The remixers are Bob Sinclar , Junkie XL , Tracy Young and Peter Rauhofer . Timbaland had already introduced the song 4 Minutes To Save The World ( 4 Minutes ) to the audience at a concert in Philadelphia in December 2007 and stated that the song would be the first single on the album.
Hard Candy was Madonna's last studio album released by Warner before moving to Live Nation for an initial three albums and four tours . The recordings for the album began in April 2007 and ended in November 2007. R&B , soul , rock , dance , hip-hop and urban set the musical direction. Some of the songs are influenced by Madonna's first album from 1983, according to Timbaland. For the first time since Bedtime Stories (1994), Madonna worked exclusively with US producers for a studio album, which this time should have a positive effect on the positions in the US Billboard charts , as Madonna's singles since American Life (2003) by many US radio stations were boycotted. Madonna gave a listening party in the Warner offices in New York in early December 2007 , and the album recordings were very well received. Madonna favored the song Candy Shop as the first single on the album , which was not released as a single. In 4 Minutes followed Give It 2 Me and Miles Away as singles. Miles Away is a highlight of the album and was also used as the theme song for a Japanese television series. Candy Shop and The Beat Goes On ( Beat Goes On ) made their way onto the internet as unfinished raw recordings in the summer of 2007. There was a lot of confusion, especially around the album title. A nine - second a cappella clip of the unreleased song Across the Sky was launched on the Internet in August 2008.
Madonna's PR manager Liz Rosenberg said of the explanation of the album title Hard Candy : “It's about the combination of rough and sweet, or as Madonna so aptly puts it: 'I'm going to kick your ass, but you will feel good about it! '”At the same time, the title is also the name for child pornographic material, as evidenced by the film of the same name and Ellen Page in the lead role.
promotion
Madonna began promoting the album in late February 2008 after her directorial debut Filth And Wisdom at the Berlinale . First, the final album title Hard Candy , the track list and the description of the songs were announced. Then it became known that Madonna will be featured on the cover of almost all major US magazines such as Q , Elle or Vanity Fair from spring . There were also large photo series by Steven Klein, Madonna's longtime personal photographer. The album cover was recorded in December 2007 by Steven Klein, on March 14th the artwork was officially announced. On the album cover in a leather outfit, Madonna is emphatically sexy and controversial, which was supposed to spark a heated discussion among fans and critics and was widely reviewed in the media. For the first time, the words “Madonna” could not be read on an album. Madonna's style was completely different from that of the previous album Confessions On A Dance Floor (2005). Hard Candy was already considered the most anticipated album for 2008, as previous surveys of renowned music magazines showed. 4 Minutes was played on February 29, 2008 by a private French radio station, recorded by fans and posted on the Internet. Major US radio stations that boycotted Madonna's past singles since American Life took the first single 4 Minutes very positively and also began international airplay on March 17th. Madonna announced in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph that the album will be followed by a major tour that will take her to Australia for the first time since the Girlie Show (1993) - but in the end Australia was not on the tour schedule again. Madonna also gave numerous TV interviews to promote Hard Candy . US star Ellen DeGeneres played 4 Minutes several times on her successful talk show. Madonna gave a concert at New York's Roseland Ballroom on April 30, 2008 , which was broadcast live on the Internet. Further promotion concerts followed in Paris and Maidstone / Kent.
On April 15, the Internet service Musicload added the 12-track version of Hard Candy to its offer and had already provided 30-second audio samples. April 21, 2008 was given as the expected release date. After a few hours, however, the item was removed from the range. An official statement on this offer, which affected the exclusivity of the premiere, came neither from Warner nor Musicload. The telecommunications provider Vodafone had the privilege of marketing a new song from the album to its customers every day from April 21, 2008. In July the second single Give It 2 Me was released , and on August 23, 2008 Madonna started her worldwide Sticky & Sweet Tour in Cardiff / Wales, with further dates in Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, Zurich and Vienna. In the fall, Madonna opened the North American leg of the tour and continued in Mexico City and South America. The tour ended on December 21, 2008 in São Paulo and became the most successful concert tour of 2008 and the most successful solo artist tour of all time.
Chart placements
album
| Charts | Top ranking | Weeks |
|---|---|---|
| Chart placements | ||
 Germany (GfK)
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1 (40 weeks) | 40 |
 Austria (Ö3)
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1 (28 weeks) | 28 |
 Switzerland (IFPI)
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1 (29 weeks) | 29 |
 United Kingdom (OCC)
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1 (26 weeks) | 26th |
 United States (Billboard)
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1 (30 weeks) | 30th |
Singles
| year | Title album |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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DE
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AT
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CH
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UK
|
US
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| 2008 | 4 minutes hard candy |
DE1 (31 weeks) DE |
AT2 (32 weeks) AT |
CH1 (48 weeks) CH |
UK1 (29 weeks) UK |
US3 (20 weeks) US |
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| Give It 2 Me Hard Candy |
DE8 (15 weeks) DE |
AT10 (17 weeks) AT |
CH4 (24 weeks) CH |
UK7 (23 weeks) UK |
US57 (1 week) US |
First published: June 24th, 2008
Sales: + 135,000 |
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Miles Away Hard Candy |
DE11 (14 weeks) DE |
AT21 (10 weeks) AT |
CH32 (13 weeks) CH |
UK39 (2 weeks) UK |
- |
First published: October 17th, 2008
Sales: + 700,000 |
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Chart record
With her single 4 Minutes Madonna landed her 37th top 10 hit, overtaking Elvis Presley in the category of most US top ten singles . With Hung Up in 2005 she caught up with Elvis. 4 Minutes rose 65 places to 3rd place on the Billboard Hot 100 in the first week of April. With 217,000 downloads, the duo with Justin Timberlake already developed into one of the most successful singles of 2008 in the early April, just two weeks after the download started UNITED STATES. Madonna also set records in other countries with 4 minutes , for example in Canada, where the song became the fastest-selling single of all time and immediately took first place. The song led the iTunes charts worldwide, which could also be carried over to the pre-orders of the album. Hard Candy was number 1 on the United World Charts for four weeks, at the same time as 4 Minutes , which was number 1 on the UWC for a total of 11 weeks. In Germany, Madonna is now the artist who has been in the singles top 100 the longest. Her singles have been on the shelves for over 750 weeks (almost 15 years) in her 25 year career. In Germany, too, Madonna's single went straight to number 1 (3 weeks in total), with which she achieved her fourth number 1 hit in Germany. Hard Candy also climbed to number 1 in Germany and was able to sell 200,000 copies within two months in Germany alone, giving the album platinum status. With Give It 2 Me , another successful top ten placement was added in July 2008.
Hard Candy won a World Music Award in Monaco for the best-selling album by an American artist in 2008 .
Reviews
“Madonna sells below value on her CD. […] On the cover, the 49-year-old sits with her legs apart as a porn queen. She celebrates her disco phase again with 'Hard Candy'. The musician Madonna has already made better records. She now sounds like many of her competitors. "
“Because her last two works, 'American Life' and 'Confessions On A Dance Floor', met with little approval in the USA, she hired the currently most successful producers, so to speak, as stick boys, in order to start selling again in her home country with the Neptunes and Timbaland to crank something. With Justin Timberlake and Kanye West, two of the most popular interpreters of pop and hip-hop are also there - and it looks like Madonna's plan is going wonderfully so far. The first release, '4 Minutes', produced by Timbaland and Timberlake - a kind of hyperactive marching music to which the trumpets of Jericho pounded resolutely - is currently number one in the charts in fourteen other countries alongside the USA, and it is by no means the only piece that is good for a hit. "
“Madonna 2008 means: urban and retro at the height of the times, including the usual pure pop refrains. As announced, she changed horses for it. Still, 'Hard Candy' does not pass as a future-oriented album. After all, you have to look for the stars, who Pharrell and Timbaland - their ability remains undisputed - not yet rightly knocked out, soon with a magnifying glass. "
“[…] The singer's new single, '4 Minutes', is a fatally insignificant pop scrubbing. She raps with the smart rubber man Justin Timberlake and the enchanting hip-hop colossus Timbaland, and the excellently timed 0815-Geunke will inevitably be number 1 for all stuck in traffic. With her new work, Mrs. Ritchie wanted to 'kick our asses' but we would 'feel good about it'. Not correct! The first kick is just a dull best of her old egos: blonde, willing, tough. It's a shame that this tall woman goes so hard into the prime of a pop icon. "
Track list
Hard Candy contains 12 songs:
- Candy Shop (Madonna, Pharrell Williams ) - 4:15
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake ) (Madonna, Timothy Mosley , Nate Hills , Justin Timberlake) - 4:04
- Give It 2 Me (Madonna, Williams) - 4:49
- Heartbeat (Madonna, Williams) - 4:03
- Miles Away (Madonna, Mosley, Hills, Timberlake) - 4:48
- She's Not Me (Madonna, Williams) - 6:04
- Incredible (Madonna, Williams) - 6:19
- Beat Goes On (featuring Kanye West ) (Madonna, Williams, Kanye West) - 4:26
- Dance 2night (Madonna, Mosley, Hannon Lane , Timberlake) - 5:03
- Spanish Lesson (Madonna, Williams) - 3:37
- Devil Wouldn't Recognize You (Madonna, Joe Henry , Mosley, Hills, Timberlake) - 5:09
- Voices (Madonna, Mosley, Hills, Lane, Timberlake) - 3:39
Special editions also include:
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Tracy Young's House Edit; Special Edition CD) - 3:33
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Tracy Young's House Remix) - 7:54
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Rebirth Remix Edit; Special Edition CD) - 3:42
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Marcos Castellon Rebirth Anthem Remix) - 7:55
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Peter Saves New York Edit; Special Edition iTunes )
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Junkie XL Remix Edit; Special Edition iTunes) - 4:38
- 4 Minutes (featuring Justin Timberlake & Timbaland; Bob Sinclar Space Funk Edit; Special Edition iTunes) - 3:23
- Give It 2 Me [Paul Oakenfold Edit] (iTunes exclusive, previously named Secret Bonus [Remix] ) - 4:59
- Ring My Bell (bonus track in Japan & exclusively on iTunes pre-orders)
- Devil Wouldn't Recognize You (originally Even The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You ) was written and composed in 2004 by Madonna, Patrick Leonard and Mirwais Ahmadzai and should be part of the musical Hello Suckers! be. The song remained unreleased in the four years. For Hard Candy the song has now been picked up again, got a completely new sound and was revised for the album.
- The album will be released in Germany as a 12 Track CD, Special Edition 12 + 2 Track CD with two Remix Edits of 4 Minutes , LP as well as a Standard and Special Edition download album. In the USA the LP will be sold as a 3 records + CD package. The Japanese CD will contain the bonus track Ring My Bell , which is not a cover version of Anita Ward's hit .
Web links
- Official music video for 4 Minutes on YouTube
- Official music video for Give It 2 Me on YouTube
Individual evidence
- ↑ hollywoodinsider.ew.com ( Memento of the original from February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ mad-eyes.net
- ↑ mad-eyes.net
- ↑ madonnalicious.com
- ↑ madonnalicious.typepad.com
- ↑ madonna.com
- ↑ a b c d e Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ madonna-news.de
- ↑ musicline.de
- ↑ welt.de
- ↑ welt.de
- ↑ laut.de
- ↑ focus.de
- ↑ madonnatribe.com
- ↑ madonnalicious.typepad.com
