Donny Osmond

Entering the world of entertainment at an age when most youngsters are still settling into their first school routines, Donny Osmond has forged a presence across more than sixty years in nearly every corner of modern show business, from music and stage work to motion pictures, radio, and television. Blessed with a powerful, adaptable voice that suits both mainstream pop and theatrical productions, he has demonstrated an ability to evolve and deepen his craft while retaining the clean-cut, family-oriented image long associated with his public profile. A 1992 anthology titled Greatest Hits: Donny Osmond captures highlights from his 1970s successes, the 1989 album Donny Osmond refreshed his sonic approach and brought him back onto the pop listings, and the 2021 project Start Again ventured into fresh territory as a songwriter and producer, incorporating R&B and hip-hop elements.

Born Donald Clark Osmond on December 9, 1957, as the seventh of nine children to George and Olive Osmond, a devout Mormon pair from Ogden, Utah, he grew up in a household where his father made his living in real estate and insurance yet nurtured a passion for singing. When the boys showed interest in music, George encouraged them to form a barbershop quartet that began appearing regularly throughout Utah and secured an audition for The Lawrence Welk Show. Although Welk declined to book the Osmond Brothers, George brought the youngsters to Disneyland while they were in California, where their spontaneous harmonies with a strolling barbershop group caught the ear of park officials and eventually Walt Disney himself. Selected to perform on the 1962 television special Disneyland After Dark, the group earned a recurring role on The Andy Williams Show beginning later that year. Donny joined his older brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay in the act in 1963, remaining part of the Williams program until 1969 and also appearing often on Jerry Lewis’ comedy-variety series that aired from 1967 to 1969.

As the Osmond Brothers matured and popular music shifted, the siblings sought broader contemporary appeal by reinventing themselves as a sleek pop/rock ensemble in which the members played instruments alongside their vocals. Mike Curb brought the newly named Osmonds to MGM Records, sending them to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, to work with producer Rick Hall, whose résumé already included sessions with Wilson Pickett, Etta James, Tommy Roe, and Paul Anka. Hall’s inaugural single with the group, 1971’s “One Bad Apple,” topped the charts and launched a run of further successes.

Frequent features in teen publications such as 16 and Tiger Beat followed from the appeal of their carefully shaped recordings and energetic performances, with Donny frequently highlighted as a wholesome heartthrob thanks to his fresh-faced appearance. MGM quickly capitalized on that image by issuing his debut solo single, “Sweet and Innocent,” in 1971; it climbed to number seven on the Billboard pop charts, while the follow-up, “Go Away, Little Girl,” reached the summit. Donny sustained his solo momentum even as he continued recording and touring with the Osmonds, who pushed their studio ambitions further by exploring harder rock on 1972’s Crazy Horses and crafting a spiritually themed concept album with 1973’s The Plan.

Marie, the sole Osmond sister, launched her recording career in 1973 with a hit cover of “Paper Roses.” Although the Osmonds’ teen-pop dominance waned by the mid-1970s amid shifting tastes, Donny and Marie became hosts of a weekly television variety series in 1976, with the other siblings making regular guest appearances throughout its run. The program Donny & Marie achieved strong ratings, leading to a 1978 feature film, Goin’ Coconuts, yet audience interest slipped during the third season, prompting cancellation midway through the fourth season in 1979.

The 1980s brought a quieter period for Donny, underscored when a 1982 Broadway revival of George M. Cohan’s Little Johnny Jones, starring Osmond, shuttered after one performance. Determined to recast his persona in more modern terms, he made brief appearances in Jeff Beck’s 1985 video for “Ambitious” and Luis Cardenas’ 1986 clip for “Runaway.” In 1989 he recorded a new album after Peter Gabriel, whom Osmond had met at a charity event, granted him access to Real World Studios in Bath, England. The resulting self-titled Donny Osmond offered polished, dance-oriented contemporary pop, yet management and the label worried that his earlier bubblegum reputation might hinder reception, leading them to promote the lead single “Soldier of Love” as the work of an anonymous newcomer. The strategy succeeded, propelling the track to major success and carrying the album into the upper chart reaches.

Osmond followed with another contemporary pop effort, 1990’s Eyes Don't Lie, which charted respectably though less strongly than its predecessor. Returning to the stage in 1992, he portrayed Joseph in the Toronto production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; the run proved both critically and commercially rewarding, with Osmond completing more than two thousand performances between 1992 and 1997. When Webber later adapted the musical for a 1999 television film, Osmond reprised the role opposite Richard Attenborough and Joan Collins. That same year he supplied the singing voice of Shang for Disney’s animated feature Mulan. In fall 1998 he and Marie launched a daytime talk show that continued until spring 2000, while he also recorded the holiday collection Christmas at Home and released the autobiography Life Is Just What You Make It, candidly addressing career fluctuations, the weight of his public image, and his experiences with panic disorder.

The 2001 album This Is the Moment emphasized Broadway material, and the 2002 release Somewhere in Time gathered love songs that included a fresh recording of “Puppy Love,” a 1972 solo hit, plus “No One Has to Be Alone,” recorded for The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water. Osmond took over hosting duties for the long-running game show Pyramid in 2002. In 2004 he returned to pop with What I Meant to Say, his first album of predominantly original material since Eyes Don't Lie; the single “Breeze on By” reached the British Top Ten.

He played Gaston in the 2006 Broadway staging of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast to favorable notices, then joined Entertainment Tonight as a guest commentator in 2007 just as Marie competed on the fifth season of Dancing with the Stars, finishing third. Their renewed joint performances led to a 2008 revue at Las Vegas’s Flamingo Hotel and Donny’s supporting turn in the Martin Lawrence comedy College Road Trip. After winning the 2009 season of Dancing with the Stars, he issued the eclectic 2010 album The Entertainer, blending reinterpretations of earlier hits and standards with several new tracks.

That year he began hosting the syndicated radio program The Donny Osmond Show, characterized as a lifestyle-oriented music broadcast heard in both the United States and the United Kingdom. In 2011 Donny & Marie recorded their first joint album since 1978, titled simply Donny & Marie. Three years later he released The Soundtrack of My Life, a set of personally significant covers. November 2017 brought the live album Best of One Night Only. Revealed in February 2019 as a contestant on The Masked Singer, Osmond performed as the Peacock and placed second behind T-Pain’s Monster. Later that November the Donny & Marie Las Vegas residency concluded after eleven years, having earned the Flamingo Hotel the distinction of renaming its showroom the Donny & Marie Theater. In 2020 he collaborated with rap star Lil Yachty on “Start the Par-dee,” created for a Chef Boyardee promotional campaign. For the 2021 album Start Again, Osmond produced and co-wrote all twelve tracks, which featured guest contributions from Charlie Wilson and Pierre Bensusan.