Hard Candy by Madonna

Hard Candy is the upcoming eleventh studio album by American singer-songwriter Madonna and will be released on multiple dates towards the end of April 2008, by Warner Bros. Records. It will be the last of the singer's regular studio albums to be released under her contract with Warner Bros (a compilation to be released in late 2008 or early 2009 will complete the contract).

On March 17, 2008 the first single "4 Minutes" (featuring Justin Timberlake), has been released digitally.

In comparison with earlier albums, a number of collaborators have been rumoured to have produced tracks for Hard Candy. Involvement varies from producing, songwriting, and vocals.

The following were speculated to be collaborating on the project: Danja, Pharrell Williams, Timbaland, Felix Da Housecat, Swizz Beatz, Sean Garrett, Akon, Kanye West and Mark Stent.

Following months of speculation, the only officially confirmed vocal collaborations are that between Madonna and guest artists Justin Timberlake and Pharrell Williams, along with production credits from Timbaland, Justin Timberlake, Pharrell Williams, Austin Cookins, Nate "Danja" Hills and of course co-production from Madonna herself.The album is expected to have an overall hip-hop feel, whilst remaining a Pop/Dance record at heart. Stuart Price, the producer of Madonna's last studio album, 2005's Confessions on a Dance Floor, described the new album as moving in an "urban" direction. The Sun quoted a source as saying: “It’s not all hip-hop though, there are a lot of producers from a lot of genres in there. It could be her most ambitious project yet.”

Timbaland stated in an interview: "It's kinda like 'Holiday' with an R&B groove."In an interview for industry magazine Hollywood Daily People, Justin Timberlake noted: "It’s an R&B/pop/dance record, but it’s still Madonna... A couple of times I pushed her in a direction where it took a minute before we saw eye to eye. Her approach was, 'Well, I just haven’t done that' and I was like, 'Yeah, that’s why you should do it'.”

The album artwork, a photograph by long-time collaborator Steven Klein, depicts Madonna as a 50's style female pro-wrestler, wearing a belt carrying the slogans "Give It To Me", "M" and "M-Dolla".