It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings

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It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings is a proverb, essentially meaning that one shouldn't assume the outcome of some activity (frequently a sports game) until it has actually finished.

This phrase in turn refers to the impression by many that at the end of every opera, an aria is sung by a heavy-set woman dressed like a valkyrie. A famous example of this is Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen (aka the Ring cycle). This is a set of four separate operas (lasting about 15 hours), in which the final scene includes Brünnhilde (a very large Valkyrie) singing, and then riding onto Siegfried's funeral pyre. The set collapses and the entire cycle ends up in the Rhine river, where it started. The "fat lady" is often illustrated with a horned helmet, a spear, possibly a shield, and possibly blond braids (to suggest Scandinavian ancestry).

[edit] Attribution

It is a common expression in sports reporting. Although there are earlier similar phrases, it is commonly attributed to writer/broadcaster Dan Cook; his original line was "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings."^[1] This occurred in April 1978, when he coined the phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) during the 1977-78 National Basketball Association playoffs, to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.

The phrase has also been attributed to former major league manager Earl Weaver.^[2]

However, it is now known that Cook did not coin the phrase; Fred R. Shapiro found and published an example in The Yale Book of Quotations which appeared in the Dallas Morning News on 10 March 1976:

Despite his obvious allegiance to the Red Raiders, Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter was the picture of professional objectivity when the Aggies rallied for a 72-72 tie late in the SWC tournament finals. "Hey, Ralph," said Bill Morgan, "this... is going to be a tight one after all." "Right," said Ralph. "The opera ain’t over until the fat lady sings."

In the same newspaper on 26 November 2006, Steve Blow followed up the discovery by contacting Bill Morgan about the incident: "Bill vividly remembers the comment and the uproar it caused throughout the press box. He always assumed it was coined on the spot. 'Oh, yeah, it was vintage Carpenter. He was one of the world’s funniest guys,' said Bill, a contender for that title himself."

A suggestion that the phrase is older is based on an old saying in the Southern United States stating that "Church ain't over until the fat lady sings". This form of the line was apparently well known in the South for years, appearing in a 28 page booklet in 1976 entitled Southern Words and Sayings.^[3][4]

[edit] Cultural impact

This saying is often misattributed to Yogi Berra, as he is the originator of the similar line "It ain't over until it's over," which in turn was a corruption of the old baseball truism that, "The game isn't over until the last man is out."

Kate Smith, who weighed 235 pounds, performed "God Bless America" on occasion before Philadelphia Flyers hockey games. Her performances were said to bring good luck to the Flyers and led to the indelicate saying "It ain't BEGUN 'til the fat lady sings!"^{[citation needed]}

During his trademark broadcasting style of Australian Football, Australian Radio announcer Rex Hunt often 'sings' in the style of the fat lady, "IT'S OVER!" when he believes a team is in front by a margin which cannot be recovered by the opposition. In the rare cases of a team recovering that margin, he sings "REVO STI!" ("It's Over" backwards)

[edit] References