"Telephone" is a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her third EP The Fame Monster, featuring American R&B singer Beyoncé Knowles. The main inspiration of the song was Gaga's fear of not being able to enjoy herself because of her career, hence the lyrics show the singer as wanting the dance floor, rather than answering her lover's phone calls.
Gaga explained that the telephone addressed in the lyrics of the song, is in reality a person telling her to continue working harder. Musically, the song is made of an expanded bridge, verse-rap and an epilogue, where the voice of an operator says that the phone line is not reachable. Knowles appears in the middle of the song, singing the verses in a rapid-fire way, accompanied by double beats.
"Telephone" was appreciated by contemporary critics who many times noted it as a stand-out track from The Fame Monster. The song was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2011 for Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals.