"The Call" is a song by American boy band Backstreet Boys. It was released on February 6, 2001 as the second single from their album Black & Blue (2000). It is set in the key of B-flat minor, with a modulation a whole step up to C minor after the drum break. The Neptunes' remix of the song was featured on the 2001 compilation album Now That's What I Call Music! 7.

The music video for "The Call" was directed by Francis Lawrence from December 22–24, 2000. For the video, the album version of the song was edited to extend the length of the song. Additional telephone rings were added at the start, and one measure was added to both the break following the second chorus, and the subsequent a cappella choral segment. A third repeat of the final chorus was also added.

There were two cuts of the video released. One featured the modified album version, and the second featured the Neptunes Remix. The two versions were substantially the same, however the differing arrangements of the two song versions resulted in the video being slightly re-edited to match. The Neptunes video also adds flashes of early in the video as callbacks near the end of the video; there is also an unreleased remix video using the Thunderpuss Club Mix and the Thunderdub of the song. Band member AJ McLean later admitted on The Oprah Winfrey Show, in an episode discussing his recovery from depression and drug and alcohol abuse, that he tried cocaine for the first time on the set of this video. The music video won at the MTV Asia Awards in 2002 for Favorite Video. The Song also Received two nominations at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards.

Complementing the lyrics to the song, the video tells the story of a man who is unfaithful to his girlfriend. He meets another woman in a nightclub and leaves the club with her instead of going home to his girlfriend (whom he calls to make up an excuse for being late home). The man is portrayed progressively by the five members of The Backstreet Boys. However, a twist in the tale is revealed at the end of the video, when it turns out that the man's girlfriend actually knows the woman he cheated on her with. This perhaps leads the viewer to the conclusion that the man's girlfriend sets him up as a test of his fidelity to her. The video could be dismissed as an unlikely case of one partner in a relationship discovering that the other is going behind their back. However, the message behind the video is more likely to be an attack on unfaithful behavior, and a warning against its consequences.

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