Donny Osmond

Donny Osmond, born Donald Clark Osmond on December 9, 1957, in Ogden, Utah, is an American singer, dancer, actor, and television host. The seventh child of Olive May and George Virl Osmond, he was raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints alongside his siblings, which include Virl, Tom, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Marie, and Jimmy. Osmond was born with situs inversus, a rare congenital condition in which major organs such as the heart are positioned on the opposite side of the body from their typical location. In his youth, he held a ham radio license under the call sign KA7EVD.

Osmond's professional career began in childhood when his older brothers Alan, Wayne, Merrill, and Jay performed as a barbershop quartet at Disneyland, where they were seen by Jay Emerson Williams, father of entertainer Andy Williams. The group was subsequently invited to audition for The Andy Williams Show, eventually becoming regulars. Osmond made his own debut on the program in 1963 at age six, performing "You Are My Sunshine." He joined his brothers as a full member of the Osmonds, and the group earned multiple top ten hits and gold albums. In the early 1970s, Osmond launched a solo career that produced a string of charting singles, including a cover of "Sweet and Innocent," which reached number seven in the United States in 1971, followed by "Go Away Little Girl," which reached number one, and "Puppy Love," which peaked at number three.

Osmond co-hosted The Mike Douglas Show with his sister Marie for a week in 1974, which led ABC entertainment chief Fred Silverman to offer them their own program. The Donny and Marie Show aired on ABC from 1976 to 1979 as a television variety series. The siblings also released a series of top ten hits and gold albums together. They later co-hosted a syndicated talk show from 1998 to 2000 that received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination. In recognition of their cultural impact, Donny and Marie received the Pop Culture Award at the 2015 TV Land Awards.

Osmond's Broadway career spanned from 1982 to 2010. During that period he starred in Little Johnny Jones and Donny and Marie, and also appeared in the musical The Sleeping Beauty and the Beast. His stage work reflected a broader effort in the 1980s to reach a more adult audience, a shift shared by his brothers, though Osmond simultaneously pursued a revival of his popular music career. Working with music and entertainment figure Steven Machat and English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel, Osmond returned to the American charts in 1989 with "Soldier of Love," which reached number two on the Billboard Hot 100, followed by the top twenty single "Sacred Emotion." He supported the Eyes Don't Lie record with an extensive tour featuring guitarist Dick Smith, who had worked with Earth Wind and Fire and Kenny Loggins, alongside keyboardist Mark Jackson.

In the 1990s, Osmond contributed vocals to Dweezil Zappa's recording of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive," which appeared on Zappa's 1991 album Confessions. He also recorded "No One Has to Be Alone" for the film The Land Before Time IX: Journey to Big Water and sang "I'll Make a Man Out of You" for Disney's Mulan. In the early 2000s, he released an album of Broadway songs and a compilation of popular love songs. In 2004, he returned to the UK top ten for the first time as a solo artist since 1973 with "Breeze On By," a track co-written with Gary Barlow of Take That that sampled George Benson and reached number eight on the UK charts. His 17th solo album, The Soundtrack of My Life, was released in 2014 and featured cover songs of personal significance, including a track on which Stevie Wonder played harmonica.

Osmond hosted the game show Pyramid from 2002 to 2004. He won season nine of Dancing with the Stars and finished as runner-up in season one of The Masked Singer. Following Marie Osmond's appearance on Dancing with the Stars in 2007, the siblings reunited for performances at MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre in Las Vegas in July 2008, their first Las Vegas engagement since 1979. The success of those shows led to a residency at the Flamingo Hotel beginning in September 2008, which was extended repeatedly and ran for eleven years, totaling 1,730 performances through November 9, 2019. The 90-minute show featured the pair performing together at the opening and close, with solo segments in between, backed by eight dancers and a nine-piece band. The Flamingo Showroom was renamed the Donny and Marie Showroom in 2014. Osmond and the show received three of the Las Vegas Review-Journal's Best of Las Vegas Awards in 2012, including Best Show, Best All-Around Performer, and Best Singer, and Osmond earned Best Singer again in 2013.