all singing, all dancing

Definition

Having many features, options or extras; sometimes used ironically to imply that the added features are just gimmicks.

Etymology

From the advertising posters used to promote the 1929 film The Broadway Melody – Hollywood’s first all-talking musical (as opposed to partially talking, partially silent) – which proclaimed the film to be “All Talking All Singing All Dancing” – see film poster. In full, the poster reads: METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER’S ALL TALKING ALL SINGING ALL DANCING PICTURE THE BROADWAY MELODY

Example Sentences

• "This is why we need a major relaunch of the railways. Not some half-hearted campaign such as "Britain runs on rail", but an all out, all-singing, all-dancing campaign to get people to use the railways again: to rediscover the benefits of train travel and learn to trust them once again."
• "In fact, an all-singing, all-dancing DSGE model implies that relative to zero, a 2 percent inflation target costs the economy roughly $385 billion every year."