15 minutes of fame
A very short time in the spotlight or brief flurry with fame, after which the person or subject involved is quickly forgotten.
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
“He enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame after the video went viral.”
“The reality star realized that her 15 minutes of fame were ending when the media stopped calling.”
“Many internet sensations discover that their 15 minutes of fame evaporate as quickly as they arrived, leaving them to return to their ordinary lives.”
first recorded 20th c.
First appears c. 1968, although a use in French appears as early as 1821 in Histoire de l'Assemblée constituante by Charles Lacretelle. Often misattributed to Andy Warhol. Warhol is widely credited with saying: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." He first made versions of this remark in the late 1960s. The earliest published version appears in: 1968 Exhibition catalogue for Andy Warhol: Statements Published by the Moderna Museet (Stockholm) The quote was printed as: "In the future everybody will be world famous for fifteen minutes." Warhol repeated variations of the quote throughout the 1970s.
Last updated August 10, 2026