Tones and I has had the last laugh over the NRL after performing Dance Monkey at the Deni Ute Muster on the same weekend as the grand final.

The Australian singer was thrust into the spotlight when rugby league supremo Peter V’landys claimed talks about headlining the grand final’s pre-game show broke down over her apparent unwillingness to perform the breakout hit.

Tones and I’s management cited prior commitments and said she was only asked at the start of September.

Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today

Tones herself later teased Western Australian tour dates with a pointed message: “PSA: Will be singing all songs.”

The NRL took one last shot at the singer during the grand final, piping Dance Monkey through the speakers after the first try of the game.

But she had more to say after performing the song herself over the weekend in regional NSW.

“Dance monkey 🤝🏼 @deniutemuster,” Tones wrote alongside footage on Monday, the handshake emoji seemingly one last jab at the NRL.

“What a weekend 🤠.

“MWA 💋.”

The NRL leaned on a tribute act for its pre-game show at the grand final.

The broken talks with Tones and I ensured Sunday’s show didn’t have the wow factor of global icon Kylie Minogue’s performance at the AFL decider a week earlier.

After the late reset, V’landys decided instead to direct $1 million to junior rugby league and opted to shine a light on former NRL star Jai Arrow and former Wallabies hooker Nathan Charles.

Both are suffering from MND, with Charles diagnosed last month on top of a life-long battle with cystic fibrosis.

Despite the pared=back offering, Sunday night’s entertainment still proved popular with fans at Accor Stadium before the title decider between Newcastle and the Sydney Roosters.

Wearing lit-up wrist bands, the crowd were urged to stand and raise their arms to make an arrow shape as the entertainment kicked off.

Arrow, 31, and Charles were driven on a slow lap around the stadium, with local performers singing a compilation of hits.

Amy Shark opened the performance with a rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, which was also sung at Arrow’s 100th and last Rabbitohs match.

Dave Gleeson from The Screaming Jets chimed in with the 4 Non Blondes song ‘What’s up’ from 1993 before Phil Jamieson of Grinspoon sang Tina Turner’s NRL anthem ‘Simply the Best’.

Why Tones and I ‘loathes’ Dance Monkey

Tones and I has been open in the past about why she no longer enjoys performing Dance Monkey.

In a 2022 interview with radio host Kent “Smallzy” Small, she said she believed the song has cornered her into one category with many potential collaborators.

“They do this thing in Los Angeles where they put you in a room with a different person every day,” she said.

“I was in the room with men every day, which is fine, but there were a few of them that had all worked together heaps before and so they just kind of start going off on a tangent.

“And, usually, it was directed at Dance Monkey like, ‘OK, this girl had a hit with this kind of song, like, let’s go there’.”

At the time, the singer said while she still felt Dance Monkey was a “great” song, she doesn’t “want to go there anymore”.

“I wrote that song on my own, not trying to do a single thing, and it happened,” she said.

“I loathe that song a lot of the time. A lot of times I don’t want to sing it. I’m not gonna write another song like it ... I just want to tell people how I’m feeling.”