Amalie Materna as the valkyrie Brünnhilde (1876) " It ain't over till (or until) the fat lady sings " is a colloquialism which is often used as a proverb. It means that one should not presume to know the outcome of an event which is still in progress. More specifically, the phrase is used when a situation is (or appears to be) nearing its conclusion. It cautions against assuming that the ...
Charlie K. asks: Where did the expression “It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” come from? You might think the expression, “The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings,” derives from some stereotypical “fat lady” singing to close out operas.
Who is the Fat Lady, and Why is It Over When She Sings?
The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings.” Another US sporting theory is that the fat lady was the singer Kate Smith, who was best known for her renditions of “God Bless America”. The Philadelphia Flyers hockey team played her recording of the song before a game in December 1969.
It’s not over till the fat lady sings A modern American proverb that is used to describe close-run contests and was first cited during the 1970s in a sporting context although the reference is a rather irreverent allusion to opera, perhaps with particular reference to Wagner’s Götterdämmerung finale when the Valkyrie Brünnehilde sings ...
“The opera ain’t over,” he said, “til the fat lady sings.” Suddenly the fat lady was singing operatic arias all over the place. There is an explosion in the use of the phrase over the next few weeks, as the Bullets went on to the win the championship, cementing this variant of the phrase into the general vocabulary.