Song and dance act led by foremost of artistes (3)
I believe the answer is:
ado
'song and dance' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'act led by foremost of artistes' is the wordplay.
'act' becomes 'do' (I've seen this in other clues**).
'led by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'foremost of' indicates taking the first letters.
The first letter of 'artistes' is 'a'.
'do' put after 'a' is 'ADO'.
(Other definitions for ado that I've seen before include "agitation" , "Goings-on" , "Flurry" , "flapping" , "Pother" .)