Timecapsule: 5 years of "Hung Up" single

"Hung Up" was inspired by the 1970's disco era, notably ABBA, Giorgio Moroder and the film "Saturday Night Fever". Madonna imagined it to be a cross between the music played at Danceteria, the New York City night club frequented by her in her early days, and the music of ABBA. Their 1979 hit "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight)" formed the basis of the song. Songwriters Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus generally do not allow anyone to sample any of their tracks, an exception being "Fugees", who sampled their song "The Name of the Game" for their single "Rumble in the Jungle". In order to gain the rights to sample "Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!", Madonna had to send her emissary to Stockholm with a letter which begged them to allow her to sample the song and also telling how much she loved their music. To the BBC she explained, "They never let anyone sample their music. Thank God they didn't say no. They had to think about it, Benny and Björn. They didn't say yes straight away". The pair agreed to let Madonna use the sample only after making a copyright agreement that entitled them to significant shares of royalty from subsequent sales and airplay.

The song premiered in September 2005, during a television advertisement for Motorola's iTunes compatible ROKR mobile phone. The advertisement featured Madonna and other artists jammed in a phone booth. On October 17, 2005, the song made its premiere during a live ten minute radio interview between Ryan Seacrest and Madonna. It was also the date of single's release. While promoting "Confessions on a Dance Floor", Madonna played both "Hung Up" and the next single "Sorry" in night clubs around New York, where she enacted the role of a DJ while remixing the songs. Regarding her decision to release the song to iTunes, Madonna said, "I'm a businesswoman. The music industry has changed. There's a lot of competition, and the market is glutted with new releases – and new 'thises and thats.' You must join forces with other brands and corporations. You're an idiot if you don't."

Set in common time, "Hung Up" has a moderate dance beat tempo with a metronome of 120 beats per minute. The key of the song is in F major with Madonna's vocal range spanning from G3 to B♭4. The song progresses in the following chord progression of D–F–Am–D–D–F–Am–D in the first verse and changes to B♭–F–Am–D–B♭–F–Am–D for the second verse. "Hung Up" uses the sound of a ticking clock to symbolize fear of wasted time, which was incorporated by composer and producer Stuart Price. According to Slant Magazine, the song embodies some of Madonna's old hits, incorporating them into the song's pitched-upward vocals while presenting an archetypical key change during the bridge.

The song was successful worldwide, peaking at the charts of more than forty-five countries and earning a 2007 place in the Guinness Book of World Records, as the song topping the charts in most countries. In the United States, "Hung Up" debuted at No.20 on the Billboard Hot 100. It became her highest opening position since "Ray of Light" entered the chart at five in 1998. The same week the song entered the Hot Digital Songs chart at number six and became the highest debuting single of the week on the Pop 100 Airplay, where it debuted at thirty-eight. On the issue dated December 7, 2005, the song entered the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 at No.7, which became its peak, jumping from position fourteen of the previous week. The song became the chart's greatest digital gainer for that week and claimed the top position on the Hot Digital Songs chart. It also tied Madonna with Elvis Presley for thirty-six top ten hits, which was subsequently broken by Madonna's 2008 song "4 Minutes", which peaked at three on the Hot 100. The song debuted at numbers 25 and 10 on the Hot Dance Club Play and Hot Dance Airplay charts respectively ultimately reaching the top of both charts. The song also reached a peak of seven on the Pop 100 chart. On August 18, 2008, the single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling at least a million copies in paid digital downloads. As of April 2010, the song has sold 1,200,000 digital units in the United States.

In Australia, the song debuted atop the chart for the issue dated November 14, 2005, breaking her tie with Kylie Minogue as the female artist with most number-one singles in Australian chart history. It was present on the chart for twenty-three weeks. It peaked atop Canadian Singles Chart and was certified four times platinum. "Hung Up" debuted at sixty-seven in the French singles chart and made a major jump the next week to number one. In Ireland, the song debuted at number two on the chart, becoming the highest debut of the week. In New Zealand, the song debuted at No.13. The next week the song reached its peak position of two, becoming the weeks greatest gainer, but was kept from the top spot by Kanye West's single "Gold Digger".

In the United Kingdom, "Hung Up" debuted at  No.1 thus giving Madonna her eleventh number one single on this chart. It remained in the chart for twenty-nine weeks. The song also peaked Billboard's Eurochart Hot 100 Singles chart where it soared from No.73 to the top of the chart on the issue dated November 21, 2005. The song was able to peak the charts in almost all the European nations including Austria, Belgium (Flanders and Wallonia), Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

Originally the video for "Hung Up" was scheduled to be directed by photographer David LaChapelle. LaChapelle wanted the video to have a "documentary"-style look, much like that of his 2005 film "Rize", of which five of the dancers from the "Hung Up" video appeared. LaChapelle and Madonna disagreed on the concept, prompting the project to be reassigned to Johan Renck. Madonna wanted to use a few performers from her tour, such as Daniel "Cloud" Campos, Miss Prissy from LaChapelle's "Rize" crew and traceur Sebastien Foucan, a practitioner of parkour. Renck said that "It's not about the music, but the bodily expression. We wanted to show the whole spectrum, be it krumping, breakdancing, jazz or disco." Since they could not shoot all over the world, Madonna wanted the video to have an "omnipresent feel", with the middle section of the song generating a sense of congregation. Renck suggested that they include a boombox, used as a means of uniting everyone and everything since it was through listening to songs on a boombox that street dancing started. Though some scenes in the video feature cities like London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai and Tokyo, in reality the actual sets were constructed in Los Angeles and London only.

The video was nominated for five awards at the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards including Best Female Video, Dance Video, Pop Video, Best Choreography and the Video of the Year award although it did not win any of them.

Madonna opened the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards and the 2006 Grammy Awards with "Hung Up". She also performed the track at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, California, and it was the finale for her "Confessions Tour". She ended the London leg of Live Earth concert with "Hung Up". A rock version of the song was included in her 2008 world tour, the "Sticky & Sweet Tour" in the closing segment.