Marie Osmond

Olive Marie Osmond was born on October 13, 1959, in Ogden, Utah, the eighth of nine children born to Olive May and George Virl Osmond. The only daughter in the family, she grew up alongside brothers Virl, Tom, Alan, Wayne, Merrill, Jay, Donny, and Jimmy. Raised as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, she made her first televised appearance at age four on The Andy Williams Show, the same program that had brought her brothers to national attention in the 1960s.

At 13, Osmond pursued a solo recording career in country music, a genre she chose in part because it allowed women to balance family and professional life. After recording a demo tape performing Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," she was signed to MGM Records' Nashville division by Don Ovens, who enlisted country artist Sonny James to produce her debut session. In June 1973, she traveled to Nashville and recorded nine songs, including "Paper Roses," which was released as her debut single in August of that year. The track reached number one on both the US and Canadian country charts, crossed over to number five on the US Hot 100, and peaked at number two in the United Kingdom. At 14, she became the youngest female country artist to reach number one on the US country chart with a debut single. Her self-titled debut album, released in September 1973, topped the US country albums chart.

Her collaborative work with brother Donny began in 1974 when she joined him in the studio to sing harmony on "I'm Leaving It All Up to You," a track that reached number four on the US Hot 100 and cracked the top five in Canada, the Netherlands, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The accompanying album sold over 500,000 copies in the US and produced another international top-ten single, "Morning Side of the Mountain." As a duo, Donny and Marie placed five additional singles in the US top 40 through 1978, including "Deep Purple," "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing," and "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration." From 1976 to 1979, the siblings hosted their own network variety show, also called Donny & Marie, during which they released three studio albums on MGM, two of which were certified gold in the US.

Osmond returned to country music in the mid-1980s after signing with Capitol Records under Nashville label head Jim Foglesong. Her 1985 duet with Dan Seals, "Meet Me in Montana," reached number one on the US country chart and won the Vocal Duo of the Year award at the Country Music Association Awards. Between 1985 and 1986, she placed three additional singles at number one on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart: "There's No Stopping Your Heart," "Meet Me in Montana," and "You're Still New to Me." Her Capitol debut album, There's No Stopping Your Heart, was released in 1985.

Osmond's Broadway career spanned from 1993 to 2010. She made her Broadway debut in The King and I in 1994, and subsequently appeared in The Sound of Music. She also performed in the Broadway production of Donny & Marie. In addition to her stage work, she reunited professionally with Donny between 1998 and 2000 for the network talk show Donny & Marie, and the two later launched a residency at the Flamingo hotel in Las Vegas that ran from 2008 to 2019, producing a duets album in 2009.

Beyond performing, Osmond established a doll collection sold through QVC in the 1990s, co-hosted The Talk from 2019 to 2020, and appeared in Lifetime television films including The Christmas Edition in 2020. She released the solo studio album I Can Do This in 2010, the country album Music Is Medicine in 2016, and the classical album Unexpected in 2021. She has also authored several books, including Behind the Smile: My Journey Out of Postpartum Depression, in which she addressed her public discussion of postpartum depression, and she co-founded the Children's Miracle Network.