The controversy generated by YouTube's banning Justin Timberlake's Tunnel Vision, that features bare-breasted female dancers, worked in favour of the 32-year-old singer.

YouTube initially found the video too provocative for showing on its video sharing site due to the three topless models that were gyrating topless, which goes against the no nudity policy of Google.

Hours after YouTube allowed the 7-minute video on its site, the MTV had more than 1.6 million hits.

There are actually two versions of the video. It is the more explicit version below which got 1.6 million hits.

The tamer and official version below, which runs for 4 minutes, 40 seconds, got a measly 40,000 plus views. It removed the breast exposures, which in the uncut version, were interspersed with images of Timberlake.

However, on Saturday, Google, which owns YouTube, made an exception and allowed the explicit version of the Tunnel Vision MTV.

"While our Guidelines generally prohibit nudity, we make exceptions when it is presented in an educational, documentary or artistic context, and take care to add appropriate warnings and age-restrictions," ABC News quoted a Google spokesperson.

To view the controversial explicit version of Tunnel Vision, surfers must confirm that they are at least 18 years old. That version was posted on July 3, but was pulled out immediately because of Google's policy on explicit content.

The MTV is said to imitate the 4 minute, 32-second Blurred Lines video of Robin Thicke and Pharell which has generated so far 77.8 million hits, although the three female models here did not bare their breasts.