song and dance

American  

noun

1. a story or statement, especially an untrue or misleading one designed to evade the matter at hand.

   Every time he's late, he gives me a song and dance about oversleeping.

---

song and dance British  

noun

1. a fuss, esp one that is unnecessary

2. a long or elaborate story or explanation, esp one that is evasive

---

song and dance Idioms  

1. An elaborate story or effort to explain and justify something, or to deceive and mislead someone. For example, Do you really believe his song and dance about the alarm not going off, being stopped for speeding, and then the car breaking down? or At every annual meeting the chairman goes through the same song and dance about the company's great future plans. This term originally referred to a vaudeville act featuring song and dance. [Late 1800s]

---

Etymology

Origin of song and dance

An Americanism dating back to 1870–75

Example Sentences

After Hegseth gave us his version of news headlines, he performed a brief off-key song and dance before skating out of the room having accomplished little and settling nothing.

From Salon • Mar. 14, 2026

And we had this long song and dance where I didn’t want to apply and said, “I’m not interested for all sorts of reasons.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 12, 2026

Linda and her therapist normally have their patient-practioner song and dance down to a science.

From Salon • Oct. 24, 2025

Our chat began with the usual song and dance of gay online dating: Cute dog.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 12, 2025

Sprouts taste of fresh puke but Mum said I had to eat five without making a song and dance about it, or there'd be no butterscotch Angel Delight for pudding.

From "Black Swan Green" by David Mitchell