Are Lady Gaga and Beyoncé teasing a “Telephone” part two? (YouTube/Lady Gaga)
One of the greatest cliffhangers in pop culture history could soon finally get an ending, as fans are convinced Beyoncé and Lady Gaga are teaming up for “Telephone” part two.
It’s been fourteen years, six UK prime ministers, sixty seasons of Drag Race and just one Sky Ferreira album since Beyoncé and Lady Gaga promised that their “Telephone” music video would have a second part.
At the end of the decade-defining, ten-minute music video, in which the two music legends played a murderous (and potentially queer?) Bonnie and Clyde duo, the now-haunting words “To be continued…” appeared.
And thus began a 14-year wait for a follow-up that has simply never come to fruition – until, potentially, now.
Now, take this with a grain of salt, as ARTPOP ACT II hitmaker Lady Gaga has form for not seeing through her teased projects (FAO: Chromatica Ball film), but fans have pieced together some evidence that suggests a Gaga and Beyoncé collab could be coming soon.
Are Lady Gaga and Beyoncé collaborating again?
Now, it’s a little known fact that Beyoncé, 42, has an album coming out this Friday (29 March), entitled Cowboy Carter, the follow-up to her Grammy-winning 2022 record, Renaissance.
As it stands, the upcoming album doesn’t have a tracklist, so potential collaborators are shrouded in mystery. What we do know is that Cowboy Carter is grounded in country music, a genre that Lady Gaga knows a fair bit about, given her criminally-underrated 2016 Joanne is tinged with country influences.
That’s not enough evidence to suspect a collaboration, but things recently got a great deal more intriguing.
As all Gaga fans know, the 37-year-old singer is currently busy in the studio working on the follow up to 2020’s dance pop smash album Chromatica. She’s been unusually active on social media, sharing updates and selfies from the studio, and yesterday (25 March), she shared a photo of her recording with a guitar, a piano, and wait for it: an image of the “Telephone” album artwork.
Interesting, but that’s not all.
It may just be extremely convenient timing, but on the same day (25 March), one of Beyoncé’s stylists Vance Gamble shared an image of Gaga from behind the scenes of the “Telephone” video shoot, donning the legendary cigarette sunglasses.
Pretty convincing. But if that’s not enough, let’s throw in one extra tidbit of information that fans have picked up on.
At the 2020 MTV VMA awards, as Gaga picked up the “Tricon Award” decked out in a silver chrome outfit, she declared that “a renaissance is coming, and the wrath of pop culture will inspire you”.
As a friend of Beyoncé, Gaga likely knew Renaissance was coming in all its dance-chrome glory back in 2020. And, as Beyoncé has since confirmed, Cowboy Carter was created before Renaissance, again meaning that Gaga has likely known about the record’s existence for some time.
Unsurprisingly, fans on social media have taken the small teases and ran with them, convincing themselves that a Beyoncé and Gaga collaboration is coming once again.
There are those who, of course, believe the BeyHive and Little Monsters are just a bit drunk on delusion, and think that “Telephone” part two is not and will never be coming.
Let’s wait and see.
Cowboy Carter is out on Friday 29 March.