Written and produced by Madonna in collaboration with Stuart Price, "Hung Up" prominently features a sample from the instrumental introduction to ABBA's single "Gimme!

"Hung Up" became a global commercial success, peaking atop the charts of 41 countries and earning a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

"[7] The pair agreed to let Madonna use the sample only after making a copyright agreement that entitled them to a significant share of the royalties from subsequent sales and airplay.

[9] While promoting Confessions on a Dance Floor, Madonna played both "Hung Up" and the next single "Sorry" at Luke & Leroy's nightclub in Greenwich Village, where she was invited by Junior Sanchez to perform briefly as the DJ, mixing the two songs.

According to The New York Times, the song has vaguely familiar hooks, sustained overlays of the string arrangement and acoustic guitar enfolding the music to create a haze-like sound.

The instant familiarity of the sampled music is changed by Stuart Price and Madonna by adding a chugging groove and a chorus which singles it out as an independent song.

[21] "Hung Up" uses the sound of a ticking clock to symbolize fear of wasted time,[6] which was incorporated by composer Stuart Price, from his remix of Gwen Stefani's 2004 single "What You Waiting For?".

[19] Jon Pareles of The New York Times said that Madonna kept her pop touch in "Hung Up" and called it a love song which is both happy as well as sad.

[28] Alexis Petridis from The Guardian called the track a "joyous...single that could theoretically have been more camp, but only with the addition of Liza Minnelli on backing vocals and lyrics about Larry Grayson's friend Everard.

[37] Tom Bishop from BBC News commented that Madonna has either reinvigorated her career or she is "merely throwing one final dance party for her long-term fans before settling down to record more sedate material".

[41] Thomas Inskeep of Stylus Magazine declared that "Hung Up" and the next single "Sorry" might not have the same sleaze as Madonna's older songs like "Physical Attraction" or "Burning Up", but have the same modus operandi of being designed for "sweaty up-all-night dancing".

[43] "Hung Up" was ranked at number 76 on Rolling Stone's 100 Best Songs of the 2000s list, calling it "One of her [Madonna's] most captivating hits ever — and thanks to those deceptively hard-hitting lyrics, one of her most personal.

[55] In 2008, the single was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for selling at least a million copies in paid digital downloads.

[61] Consequently, "Hung Up" also peaked atop the Canadian Singles Chart for 14 non-consecutive weeks, and was certified double platinum by Music Canada for sales of 40,000 copies.

[72] The next week the single had a decline in sales of 43% to 59,969 copies, but remained on the top as Confessions on a Dance Floor debuted atop the UK Albums Chart.

[70] 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.

According to an interview with MTV, Renck was directing Kate Moss for a H&M commercial when he received a phone call from Madonna who desperately wanted to work with him.

"[83] 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, a philosophical French sport.

"[83] 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.

[83] Madonna had broken eight bones in a horseback-riding accident a few weeks before shooting the video and faced difficulty doing the steps devised by choreographer Jamie King.

Regarding the making of "Hung Up", Renck said that it was a massive work to undertake, "It's like you form this little family that's flourished and prospered for the month, and then you chop it down like a tree, [...] You come out with a sense of yearning and longing, like, 'Can we just do that again?

[86] On November 4, 2005, Madonna opened the 2005 MTV Europe Music Awards at the Pavilhão Atlântico in Lisbon, Portugal with her first performance of "Hung Up".

After performing a fragment of "Papa Don't Preach", several dancers wearing tribal masks, surrounded Madonna, tied her up and proceeded to carry her to the center of the main stage just as the song's opening riffs, underpinned by the dramatic sound of church bells with vocoder vocals, started to play in the background.

[111][112] Dressed in a black skintight outfit with an ample cleavage, gloves of the same color and heeled boots, Madonna and her dancers performed the song while at the same time slacklining on some ropes held on the middle of the stage.

[114] This performance received generally mixed reviews, Jon Pareles from The New York Times believed that changing the composition of the song in lieu of the theme for the segment made it "ominous and obsessive", while making it "a memory of distant innocence".

"[118] The performance of the song at the November 19–20, 2012 shows in Miami, at the American Airlines Arena, were recorded and released in Madonna's fourth live album, MDNA World Tour.

[121][122] The rapper then revealed that he actually enjoyed the kiss, posting a picture of the moment to his Instagram account which read: "Don't misinterpret my shock!!

[124] On June 24, 2021, the singer made a surprise appearance at a pride party at the Boom Boom Room of New York's The Standard hotel and performed the song on top of the lounge's bar; she wore a see-through mesh top, leather shorts, a vintage Jean Paul Gaultier corset, a blue wig and long pink fingerless gloves.

[125] In June 2022, to accompany the remix album release, Finally Enough Love: 50 Number Ones, Madonna performed at Pride at the Women of the World Party in New York City.

[129][130] The song's accompanying music video was directed by Sasha Kasiuha and filmed in Washington Heights in New York City in early September 2022.