"Paparazzi" is a song by Lady Gaga, written by Rob Fusari and Lady Gaga for her debut album, The Fame. The song will serve as the album's third single in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and will be released on July 6, 2009. Initially, "LoveGame" had been planned to be released as the third single in the United Kingdom, but it was decided that "Paparazzi" would be released instead because of the potentially controversial lyrics and video of "LoveGame". The song was written by Gaga to portray her struggles and her love for fame. A mid-tempo dance song, the lyrics of "Paparazzi" depict the idea of a stalker following somebody to grab attention and fame.

"Paparazzi" has been critically appreciated for its fun-filled, club-friendly nature and is deemed the most memorable and telling song from the album. The accompanying music video for the song is a mini-movie starring Gaga as a doomed starlet who is hounded by the photographers and in the process is almost killed by her boyfriend. The video shows how she survives and makes a comeback while taking revenge on her boyfriend. It portrays the situations a person goes through in order to be famous. The song has already charted in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Gaga performed the song in a number of live appearances including her first headlining Fame Ball tour where she performed it as the opening number of the show, wearing a geometric patterned shaped black dress.
 

The music video was directed by Swedish director, Jonas Åkerlund, who has previously directed music videos for artists like the Smashing Pumpkins, Madonna, Moby and U2. His wife B. Åkerlund was hired as Gaga's stylist for the video. Gaga told MTV that she had finished shooting my video for 'Paparazzi,' which I really am very pleased with the way that turned out. It's like a short film." In an interview with The Canadian Press on May 26, 2009, Gaga cited her video as "the most amazing creative work that [she's] put together so far." She went on to describe the idea behind the video and the message it gives. She said,

"It has a real, genuine, powerful message about fame-whoring and death and the demise of the celebrity, and what that does to young people. The video explores ideas about "sort of hyperbolic situations" that people will go to in order to be famous. Most specifically, pornography and murder. These are some of the major themes in the video.

The video premiered on June 4, 2009 in the United Kingdom and Ireland broadcast on Channel 4, where the "explicit late night version" of the video was aired. However, while touring in Australia, Gaga posted a message on her Twitter on account on May 28, 2009 saying "Stop leaking my mother[fuck]ing videos", which referred to the video being released without the singer's consent.

The music video is an eight minute mini-movie starring Gaga and Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård as her boyfriend. It features a murderous plot line involving a doomed starlet who is constantly followed by photographers. The video opens up with the camera focusing on what appears to be an elegant seaside estate surrounded by roses and Greek statues. Seagulls cry in the background amid tinkling piano notes. Gaga and her boyfriend are shown lying on a bed whispering love talk in Swedish. Also shown are hundred dollar bills with Gaga's face on it. She and her boyfriend start making out and eventually move out in the balcony. As they kiss passionately, a photographer takes pictures of them kissing while remaining hidden. Gaga realizes that her boyfriend has set the paparazzi to photograph her and tries to stop him. However, when it becomes futile, she smashes his face with a champagne bottle. The enraged boyfriend tosses her over the balcony, leaving her in a crumpled heap on the ground below as the paparazzis take pictures of her bloody body and tabloid headlines proclaim that her career is over. According to Rolling Stone this scene is a homage to Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo.

Next she is shown getting down from a limousine, being carried by male dancers to an enhanced wheelchair with jazz hands. Gaga wears a bejeweled neck brace and a side halo on her hair in this sequence. As the dancers gyrate around her, she takes off her black body suit and starts walking down the carpet with the help of a pair of crutches while wearing a metallic bustier and a matching helmet. According to Entertainment Weekly this cyborg like leotard is similar to an outfit in George Michael's "Too Funky" music video. These scenes are interspersed with scenes of dead models including one whose face is wrapped in plastic, one who is hanging from a noose and one who appears to be oozing gold colored blood from her mouth. Alternate scenes of Gaga on a golden couch are also shown where she makes out with a trio of hair metal rockers during the line "Loving you is cherry pie". The trio, known as Snake of Eden, are from reality television dating program Daisy of Love. According to MTV this scene is a reference to the song "Cherry Pie" by American glam band Warrant. This sequence was dedicated to Gaga's initial days as a dancer at rock clubs. The second chorus features Gaga dancing in a parlor, wearing a white jumpsuit with blue extensions resembling a deconstructed flamenco dress. The video continues through the intermediate bridge with Gaga wearing a dress made up of film strips and a towering feathered Mohawk headdress.

The scene shifts to Gaga and her eye-patch wearing boyfriend reading magazines on a sofa in a quaint tea room. Gaga wears a flamboyant outfit of yellow jumpsuit with circular glasses and circular shoulder pads. The Guardian compared this look with that of Minnie Mouse. She finally takes her revenge on her boyfriend by discreetly poisoning his drink with white powder concealed in her ring. As he falls dead she calls 911 and declares that she just killed her boyfriend. The police comes and she gets arrested for the apparent murder. Gaga, wearing a tall, blond, corkscrew wig, walks to the police car as the paparazzi surround her once again. Images flash by with newspapers proclaiming her innocence and that Gaga is back in the spotlight and has regained her fame. The video ends with Gaga posing for mug shots like a fashion model while wearing a tulip shaped metallic dress similar to the single cover. The Daily Mail compared this dress with a similar outfit worn by singer Beyoncé Knowles on her I Am... Tour.

Rolling Stone writer Daniel Kreps compared the video with "November Rain" and the scenes of the dead models as stomach turning while complimented the video for "brimming with cinematic style [so]that it’s hard to take your eyes off it, though it will likely be labeled as a little self-indulgent." He also commented on the leaking of the video saying that it "warranted more than just a simple leak; it deserved a red carpet." Anna Pickard from The Guardian compilented the video saying that "quite a lot of work has gone into it". However, she opined that the length of the video was too long.