Put Justin down Madonna, you're old enough to be his mother

While she was shocking the world with her provocative track Like a Virgin back in the mid 1980s, he was barely out of nappies.

But last night during a promotional performance Madonna spent almost every second of her No. 1 track Four Minutes bumping and grinding against Justin Timberlake, despite being well and truly old enough to be his mother.

At one point, the ageing pop star, who turns 50 in August, pinned her 27-year-old partner in song up against the wall. If Justin was feeling the least bit awkward, he did well to hide it.

The mother-of-three appears to have gone to exceptional lengths to keep herself relevant in the youth obsessed pop world, and last night's exhibition was no exception.

She performed six songs for around 2,000 people at New York City's Roseland Ballroom, at one point stopping to guzzle champagne from the bottle in between cavourting around in knee-high black boots, black satin sweatpants with glittery side stripes and a corset.

The performance was to promote the release of her new record Hard Candy, her 11th studio album.

She told the crowd: "Even though I have made what seems like 100 records, every time I put one out it's like the first time and the best time."

She went on to say: "I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have been able to make a record with him, Timbaland, Pharrell, Kanye."

Despite rumours of plastic surgery and a constant, punishing fitness regime, Madonna insists she's comfortable with ringing in 50.

She says: "I just see it as another excuse to have a birthday party."

She certainly has no immediate plans to retire - last year she signed a 10-year deal, including a three-album commitment, with concert touring company Live Nation believed to be worth $US120 million.