15 minutes of fame

English

Alternative forms

• fifteen minutes of fame

Etymology

1968, misattributed to Andy Warhol, in a catalogue of an exhibition of his art in Stockholm: “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.”

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

15 minutes of fame pl (plural only)

1. (idiomatic) A very short time in the spotlight or brief flurry with fame, after which the person or subject involved is quickly forgotten.
   • 2007, Nigel Hamilton, Bill Clinton: Mastering the Presidency, New York: PublicAffairs, →ISBN, page 274:

     […] Paula [Jones] was, even to her lawyers, a loose cannon—as prepared to risk her marriage and her well-being to get the president to confess his original sin as she was intent on making big money and getting her fifteen minutes of fame.

   • 2008, Frederick Levy, 15 Minutes of Fame: Becoming A Star In The YouTube Revolution‎^[1], Alpha Books, →ISBN:

     In the next chapter, we'll meet twenty-five hopefuls who have already begun to experience their fifteen minutes of fame as a result of exposure on YouTube.

   • 2014, Kip Harding; Mona Lisa Harding, chapter 19, in The Brainy Bunch […] , Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 188:

     By the time we went to Central Park, someone walking in the park said they had just seen us on Fox that morning. It was like being a rock star with a whole fifteen minutes of fame. So it was fun for a time.

   • 2016 January 31, Anna Williamson, “The flip side of instant fame”, in The Guardian‎^[2]:

     After just a month on television, this ordinary chap from Catford, south London, was an overnight superstar, ready to milk his 15 minutes of fame.

   • 2022 April 27, Jennifer Schuessler, “An Heir, a $25 Million Giveaway and 30,000 Unopened Letters”, in The New York Times‎^[3], ISSN 0362-4331:

     One day in early January 1970, Michael James Brody Jr. stepped off a Pan Am jet at John F. Kennedy Airport and into what would be one of the new decade’s shortest, strangest 15 minutes of fame.

Synonyms

• 15 minutes
• moment in the sun

Derived terms

• 15 minutes
• 15 megabytes of fame
• 15 minutes of shame

Translations

fifteen minutes of fame

• Afrikaans: vyftien minute van roem
• Albanian: pesëmbëdhjetë minuta famë
• Belarusian: пятнаццаць хвілін славы (pjatnaccacʹ xvilin slavy)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 短暫出名, 短暂出名 (duǎnzàn chūmíng), 大出風頭, 大出风头 (dà chū fēngtou)

• Finnish: viisitoista minuuttia kuuluisuutta
• French: heure de gloire (fr) f
• German: fünfzehn Minuten Ruhm
• Greek: δεκαπέντε λεπτά δημοσιότητας (dekapénte leptá dimosiótitas)
• Hebrew: חמש עשרה דקות של תהילה‎ (khamesh esre dakot shel tehila)

• Hungarian: tizenöt perc hírnév
• Norwegian: femten minutters berømmelse
• Polish: piętnaście minut sławy, swoje pięć minut
• Portuguese: quinze minutos de fama m pl
• Romanian: cincisprezece minute de faimă
• Russian: пятна́дцать мину́т сла́вы (pjatnádcatʹ minút slávy)
• Spanish: quince minutos de fama
• Swedish: femton minuter i rampljuset pl, femton minuter av berömmelse c
• Turkish: sabunköpüğü

See also

• legend in one's own lunchtime
• nine-day wonder
• one-hit wonder