It's Not Over Until The Fat Lady Sings

It's Not Over Until The Fat Lady Sings is a cover group consisting of four thin British men and a fat American woman. The band's outrageous personalities, wacky publicity antics, and complete disregard for how bad they truly are have helped them catapult to superstardom, most notably, earning the Christmas #1 in 2005 with "The Most Fattening Time Of The Year EP".

Fat Lady and the gang infamously cut corners with their promotion when their popularity waned in mid-2006, and as a result they were let go by their management. But miraculously, the band were given a second chance following a low-key radio performance, and in 2008 released a cover of the disastrous "Power Power" collaboration to rave reviews.

Phyllis "Fat Lady" Remington
Phyllis Remington is the overly demanding leader of the group; she always makes her leadership status of the group known by referring to the men as "her four slaves". She asks her band mates to always, and she means always refer to her as "Fat Lady", always proud of being fat despite the cultural norm that fat people are ashamed of how they look. She is a cannibal, and threatens to eat people if they don't fulfill her demands, usually either to vote her single or to not vote a no-promo act. Other than humans, she enjoys eating other objects most would not have the capability to eat.

Other than eating and being bossy, she enjoys listening to and worshipping Allyseenah and the late Aisha Lushington, protesting against no-promo acts, and stealing other people's artwork for her own promotion.

Phyllis has identified herself as a bisexual; while she has complimented "sexy hunks of man" she has also been rumored to have had affairs with Allyseenah and Holly Velvet from Electric Lapdance. She was involved in a relationship with Winter from The Four Seasons, and the couple had a child. She has also been seen kissing other women in public.

In January 2008, she launched her own clothing line called Phat, designed for fat women who hate the "cheap maternity shit at Wal-Mart".

Phyllis's family includes a father, Blake, who is fatter than she is, and a sister, Katharine, who is notable for unsuccessfully auditioning for URAPS Idol 10.

Howard Patterson
Howard Patterson is an aspiring drag queen. At inappropriate times, he will usually make a comment saying he likes to look like and dress like a woman. In 2006 he had an obsession with Rocco Varens because he felt he could relate to his single "No Personality".

Howard's biggest accomplishment was tying for seventh in the 2007 Uravision Song Contest, representing Croatia with the song "Lesbians!"

Following the success of Howard in Uravision, more attention has been focused on Howard in the course of the group's promo. Howard's cosmetic surgery, creepy obsession with Angel Phillips, and tabloids' "pantyless" shots received just as much attention as his boss's antics.

Howard left the band in April 2008 after his bandmates released a photo of him posing topless, but was forced back into the band due to fears that Fat Lady would eat all his possessions.

Jordan Griff
Jordan Griff is possibly best known for the fact that his sexuality is always in question. He always likes to flirt with other females and try to get them to go out with him, but the guys try to convince him to confess that he's gay. To this very day, we have no clue if Jordan is gay or straight, and perhaps we may never know the truth.

Jordan confessed he is a mechaphile and enjoys penetrative sex with the exhaust pipe of his car.

Phil Duff
Phil Duff is the most random of the bunch. He usually comes up with something to say that is completely unrelated to what other people in the group might be talking about. He is also the most devoted in trying to prove that Jordan is gay.

Phil somehow became black but because no one understood what the hell he was saying the rest of the group chipped in to pay for surgery to make him speak normal. In what has been hailed as his most shining moment, he conducted an interview with a wall.

Brighton McMasters
Brighton McMasters is the more truthful member of the group; while the others try to be immature all the time, Brighton is the "voice of reason". He also tends to disagree with everything Fat Lady says; for example, he is a fan of all of Fat Lady's least favorite acts: Nikki, Esmeralda Dimuzio, Claire Kitten, Delta Nu, and Violetta DiNozzo. He has received the most threats to be eaten by Fat Lady, but because her management's contract says she is not allowed to eat the other members of her group, there's nothing Fat Lady can do about him.

How they met
The group initially didn't have a fat lady in it. The band started out when Howard, Jordan, and Brighton were in high school, under the name the Anorexics. Their debut single "We Look Like Girls" failed to hit the top 75 in England, but hit the top 20 in Ireland thanks to remixes by DJ Double Garage.

Brighton started gaining weight and decided to change the name of the group since "If I'm not super skinny then the name Anorexics wouldn't make any sense." The band started performing under the name Coronation Neighbours, and Phil joined in. The band was well-received and were poised to just barely crack the charts in 4 countries with their debut single.

All of that changed thanks to one night in a karaoke bar.

After the band's debut performance on CD:UK, they celebrated by going out for drinks at a fish and chips restaurant. It was karaoke night, and the band couldn't help but stay for a few laughs. That's when they met Phyllis, who ended up stealing the show with a hilarious rendition of Will Smith's "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".

Phyllis opened for Coronation Neighbours at a club show the next night, and the band thought she was the real deal - Coronation Neighbours joined forces with Phyllis as they walked away from their indie label contract to get signed with Filthy/Gorgeous, and It's Not Over Until The Fat Lady Sings was born.

Gettin' Jiggy Wit It and Thriller
Fat Lady wanted "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It" - the first song the slaves got to hear her sing - to be the group's first single. The group developed a cult following because of their ripoffs of CD covers from the likes of Melissa Moore and Cleo Clarice. People gave in to temptation and bought the single, and it entered at #20 despite lackluster promo when it was released in May 2005. The personalities of the group were not expressed well with the promotion of the single, but after making numerous adlibs from the stands at the 2005 Uravision Song Contest, they gained a bit of recognition.

The group became even more successful with the follow-up, a cover of Michael Jackson's "Thriller", which gained attention thanks to the group's promotional banners which made fun of everyone releasing on August 29, 2005. The video was a direct ripoff of Jackson's classic video - and he even co-starred in it! The video made the top 10 on TRL and the song reached #3 on the pop airplay charts.

Proving the hype was not a fluke, "Thriller" debuted at #8 on the singles charts in September, just behind new entries from Nikki, Esmeralda Dimuzio, and Russ Hooch. With the release of their debut album The Fattening Begins following the week after the single's release, this proved Fat Lady was here to stay.

Christmas 2005: Fat Lady Is #1
When planning what to do after "Thriller", Fat Lady came up with an idea: to cover "The Most Fattening Time Of The Year", Bob Rivers' parody of the Christmas standard "It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year", and release it on Christmas week. When the group came up with more ideas for Christmas songs, they decided, "the hell with it, let's release an EP instead!" "The Most Fattening Time Of The Year EP" also contained a remake of the Barking Dogs' "Jingle Bells" and a parody of Thurl Ravenscroft's "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch", entitled "You're A Gay One, Jordan Griff".

Originally intended as a joke release, it became a priority release - Tyler Wilson, who volunteered to co-star in the song's music video among a parade of Z-listers, backed the single for the Christmas #1, and many soon followed. Fat Lady's new label, Plat'num, riding high on the surprise successes of label boss Allyseenah and co-manager Electric Lapdance, was among those who followed suit. Annalina, who competed against Fat Lady with another Christmas #1 contender, "The Lucradeia Megamix", and singer/model Cosette Cross, who unfortunately never released her first single, were not only outspoken supporters of the Fat Lady Christmas single, but Fat Lady also agreed with them that Kate Hart from ENVY was a skank and set up an organization against her.

The crazy promotional stories did not end there. Brighton worked as a department store Santa, and he hated the job - so to get out of it, he assaulted an elf, only to go to jail, which he also hated! And Allyseenah kept putting off paying his bail money! Fat Lady also paid homage to the madness that was the 2004 Christmas Chart Show by including snippets from the show in an extended remix of "The Most Fattening Time Of The Year".

The single debuted and peaked at #1 on Christmas week 2005, and sold 363,296 copies.

Cut corners and failed comebacks
Immediately after charting at #1, the group decided to capitalize on their sudden popularity by releasing another single from their album to get it to a new peak. The double A-side of "It's Raining Men / Wannabe" was released in March and charted at #3 just behind Claire Kitten and Alesha and Sarah Summers's duet.

Later on they entered the 2006 Uravision Song Contest, representing the Netherlands. Due to the contest requirements, the group could not compete with a cover song, but they did so anyway, competing with a remake of "We Look Like Girls", the first and only single released by Howard, Brighton, and Jordan's old band the Anorexics. The project was a disaster and they only placed 17th.

July 2006 saw the release of the group's second album, the double-disc Bubblegum Bop / Rhymes & Reasons, with disc 1 containing pop songs and disc 2 containing rap songs. Its first single, "My Humps / Since U Been Gone", showed the group was losing their touch, as Fat Lady resorted to having a dog promote for her. They were too lazy to film a music video so they stole an amateur video from YouTube which had their song in the background to use as the official clip for the single. Expecting to flop with both projects, the single was another top 10 hit for the group, and the album did as well as the first one.

"My Heart Will Go On", their remake of the Celine Dion song from "Titanic", was confirmed to be the group's second single from the album when Christian rock flopstars Calling Joshua decided to release a cover version as a charity single featuring Emblaze, Izzy, and Nikki. This led to numerous flame wars between Fat Lady and Calling Joshua singer Jeremy Jackson; Jackson claimed it was their idea to cover the song first, but Fat Lady's version was released on their album before they even confirmed the single release. They bragged that because Emblaze, Izzy, and Nikki were all on the single, that it would go to #1; Fat Lady's version charted at #10, and Calling Joshua's version did not appear in the top 40 at all.

The next single didn't fare as well. A cover of Ricky Martin's "She Bangs", a collaboration with third place URAPS Idol 7 finalist Tino, peaked at #21, becoming the group's lowest charting yet; however, it did outsell "Gettin' Jiggy Wit It".

In early February 2007, the group released a promo single, "High School Musical Megamix", and announced a February 26 release date. However, the group was too lazy to commit to promotion and withdrew the single release.

Howard entered the 2007 Uravision Song Contest on his own, representing Croatia with a 14-minute epic song entitled "Lesbians!" He managed to come in seventh, tying with Cyprus's entry from UpTempo - ten places better than with the rest of the group the previous year. The group intended to capitalize on the contest's other success stories by releasing "Lesbians!" as a group single, but it never happened.

Comeback era
The group's management terminated their contract due to their loss of commitment, which contributed to their declining popularity. The group became a nightclub act and performed in small bars all across Europe, winning crowds with a cover of the Alesha/Buffi/Shell Ruin/Taylor Brookes mega-collab "Power Power", which just bombed on the charts at the time the group were regularly performing it.

Then came a chance encounter with a relative of their former manager. She was so impressed with the "Power Power" cover that she decided to relaunch the group's career after a yearlong hiatus, with "Power Power" as their comeback single. Like their second and third singles, what was intended as a joke soon became a priority release and the single was given a heavy push for success. Many hoped it would do what the original version couldn't and be a major hit on the charts, and it did just that, as "Power Power" entered the charts at #3 upon its January 21 release. The single was followed with the album From Britney To Buffi, released January 28, which hit #2 to become the group's best charting album by far and outsold their first two albums combined.

After Wired Records absorbed Plat'num in February 2007, the group stated they would not sign to another major label. A year later, following their comeback success, the group signed with Wired.

The group's next release was a double A-side of "Daddy Didn't Say Thank You/Give It To Me", the first side a Fat Lady original and the second a cover of Timbaland's collaboration with Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake. It was released physically on May 19 and to download outlets the week before, matching the peak of their previous single by reaching #3 upon its physical release. The success of the single helped From Britney To Buffi become their first platinum album.

The third single, a cover of Putanovska's "Bitch In Heat", was released September 22. It tied the record for biggest climb in the top 40 with Stacy Hart's "Starcrossed" (which was released two weeks earlier) when it moved from #38 to its peak of #13 in its full physical release. Though it became Fat Lady's third single to miss the top 10, it outsold three of the group's top 10 hits.

On April 20, 2009, Fat Lady released their greatest hits collection All The Fattest: Greatest Hits, and its lead single, a cover of the Spice Girls' "Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)". The Fat Lady greatest hits collection was the first LP to contain the group's 2005 Christmas single, "The Most Fattening Time Of The Year". Both releases were minor successes and charted within the top 10.

2010: Failed second comeback era
With a new wave of novelty performers dominating the charts, Fat Lady believed 2010 was the right time for a comeback, and prepared a new album for release in the summer. The album March On Remington was released in October 2010, but its first two singles, the Lady Gaga double A-side "Poker Face/Bad Romance" and the YMCMB cover "Bedrock" (featuring guest vocals from Edna Albaquerque and Tentrita Troll) only peaked in the lower rungs of the top 20.

Albums
2005: The Fattening Begins 2006: Bubblegum Bop / Rhymes & Reasons 2008: From Britney To Buffi 2009: All The Fattest: Greatest Hits 2010: March On Remington

Singles
2005: Gettin' Jiggy Wit It 2005: Thriller 2005: The Most Fattening Time Of The Year EP 2006: It's Raining Men / Wannabe 2006: My Humps / Since U Been Gone 2006: My Heart Will Go On 2006: She Bangs (with Tino) 2008: Power Power 2008: Daddy Didn't Say Thank You/Give It To Me 2008: Bitch In Heat 2009: Headlines (Friendship Never Ends) 2010: Poker Face/Bad Romance 2010: Bedrock (featuring Edna Albaquerque & Tentrita Troll)

Featured singles
2010: Ain't No Mountain Hai Enough (Tamika featuring the URAPS Fierce Female Choir)