Columbia Records released "Listen" as the lead single from the Dreamgirls: Music from the Motion Picture soundtrack album on January 19, 2007.

Contemporary music critics complimented the strong and emotional vocals of Beyoncé, and added that the lyrics perfectly elaborate on Deena Jones's life.

The song was covered by Jake Zyrus during the second-season premiere of Glee and Melanie Amaro during the finale of the first season of The X Factor in the U.S., where she emerged as the winner.

In the film version of Dreamgirls, Beyoncé portrays the character of Deena Jones, a pop singer loosely based on Motown star Diana Ross.

The story explores the life of The Dreams (based on The Supremes), a fictional 1960s group of three female singers: Effie White (Jennifer Hudson), Deena Jones and Lorrell Robinson (Anika Noni Rose), whose manager Curtis Taylor (based on Berry Gordy and played by Jamie Foxx) manipulates their personal and professional relationships.

[2] The "emotional punch" of "And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going" led him to ask the musical team for Dreamgirls "to create a new and equally moving song to energize the second act".

[7] "Listen" is a soul-R&B ballad,[3][6][8][9] which is written in the key of B major, and set in common time at a moderately slow groove of 62 beats per minute.

[7][8] According to Sarah Rodman of The Boston Globe, its lyrics make reference to tenacity, love, and the refusal to defer dreams; Beyoncé, as the female protagonist, sings, "demanding her moment in the sun".

[10] Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote that Beyoncé shimmers "with evocative emotion", rising to new heights alongside "a golden melody with spellbinding, rafter-raising production".

[17][18] On January 19, 2007, it was serviced as a CD single in the United Kingdom,[19] and several European countries,[20] where a remix produced by Fraser T. Smith was later released on March 9, 2007.

[24] Describing the song as a "devastatingly beautiful ballad", Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine wrote, "Beyoncé delivers the performance of her career, another defining moment in the brilliant flick [besides Hudson's 'And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going'].

[25] Another reviewer of the same publication called the song "epic" noting that Beyoncé "unfurls the true range of her magnificent voice".

[26] Comparing the song to Andrew Lloyd Webber's "piano weepie[s]", a writer of The Observer stated that "Listen" is a "bangers-to-ballads ratio to die for".

"[10] Sal Cinquemani of Slant Magazine said that "Listen" will undoubtedly be "the payoff for fans of Beyoncé's voice who sat through the first [thirty-eight] minutes of [B'Day] waiting for the cum shot.

"[28] By contrast, Jody Rosen's review for Entertainment Weekly was less impressed, describing "Listen" as "gloopy" and "an inspirational ballad about 'the song in my heart', which builds to an enormous schlock-opera climax".

The music video, directed by Matthew Rolston, features Beyoncé wearing a modern-day tank top, performing the song against a blank background which changes back and forth between white and black.

In the director's cut of this version, Beyoncé is seen posing for a photo shoot not featured in the film in which she wears very outlandish clothing.

[59] Jon Pareles of The New York Times praised the performance, stating: "Beyoncé needs no distractions from her singing, which can be airy or brassy, tearful or vicious, rapid-fire with staccato syllables or sustained in curlicued melismas.

[62] Beyoncé was accompanied by her two drummers, two keyboardists, a percussionist, a horn section, three imposing backup vocalists called the Mamas and a lead guitarist, Bibi McGill.

[68] "Listen" was covered by Jake Zyrus for the American TV show Glee episode "Audition", which aired on September 21, 2010.

As commented by both Becky Bain of Idolator and Jennifer Still of the British entertainment and media news website Digital Spy, the "powerful [and] emotional" performance "deservedly brought the judges to their feet".

You have the gift, you have the soul, you have the spirit, you have the swagger ... you have the X Factor" while Simon Cowell said: "When I was asked by a lot of people why I was bringing this show to America, it was because I hoped that we were going to find someone like you.

[78][79] A writer of Fox News Channel commented that the judges "didn't want to stop listening to Melanie Amaro" while she was singing a "soaring rendition" of the ballad.

[78] Lisa de Moraes of The Washington Post praised Amaro's rendition, writing that it contained a "determined look on her face, lots of generous spreading of the arms, and plenty of big notes".

[82] "Listen" was performed live by Teodora Sava (11 years old at that time) in the finale of the first edition of the Romanian kids talent show Next Star 2013.

Her performance gathered praise and positive reactions from all of the judges and online, and had 3.5 million combined views on YouTube, making her well known to a wider audience in Romania and abroad.

[91] On November 3, 2012, Jahméne Douglas performed the song on the ninth series of The X Factor in the UK, receiving praise from the judges of the show.

[94] American Idol runner-up Jessica Sanchez sang "Listen" on March 16, 2014 during Solaire Resort & Casino's first anniversary concert.

Mia Negovetić (Croatia) covered it in the first song on "Zvjezdice" vocal contest and in the Little Big Shots airing on NBC TV in March, 2016.