It ain't over till (or until) the fat lady sings is a colloquialism, essentially meaning that one should not assume the outcome of some activity (e.g. a sporting contest) until it has actually finished, similar to a common proverb. It is a perception of Grand Opera, with its stereotypically overweight sopranos.
It is a common expression in sports reporting and everyday situations to mean, "it's not over until it's over," similar to the 16th century saying "don't count your chickens before they hatch" (but with opposite connotations). Although originally the proverb was, "The carnival isn't over until the fat lady sings," its use in sports journalism has been 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 used the phrase after the first basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and the Washington Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) during the 1977–1978 National Basketball Association playoffs, to illustrate that while the Spurs had won once, the series was not over yet.
The phrase has also been used by former Baltimore Orioles' manager Earl Weaver.[2]
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."
The imagery of Richard Wagner's opera suite Der Ring des Nibelungen and its last part, Götterdämmerung, is typically the one used in depictions accompanying reference to the phrase. The "fat lady" is the valkyrie Brünnhilde, who is traditionally presented as a very buxom lady with horned helmet, spear and round shield (although Brünhilde actually wears a winged helmet). Her aria lasts almost twenty minutes and leads directly to the end of the opera, though the character Hagen has one final line, "Zurück vom Ring!", to sing after Brünnhilde's death, and there is also a substantial orchestral finale.[3] As Götterdämmerung is about the end of the world (or at least the world of the Norse gods), in a very significant way "it is [all] over when the fat lady sings."
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