Donny Osmond was born to perform. The little kid had already become a star alongside his brother in The Osmonds before he was a teenager, and his life would never be the same again.
Donny Osmond’s fame took him all over the world, allowing him to meet fans wherever he went, earn a lot of money, and do anything he wanted… There were, however, a number of drawbacks. He has suffered with mental health concerns, and when touring with The Osmonds, he witnessed the devastating effects of Osmondmania.
When supporters rushed to welcome him, a balcony at Heathrow crumbled in an instant. And, as Donny Osmond just disclosed, he nearly lost one of his eyes on another occasion.
Donny Osmond was born in Odgen, Utah on December 9, 1957. He was a performer from the start, performing with his elder brothers as part of The Osmonds as a young boy.
Alan, Wayne Merrill, and Jay, Donny’s older siblings, were established artists by the time he was born and had been performing together for many years. He was accepted into the organization, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Donny Osmond’s meteoric climb
Donny was the seventh kid in a family of nine. His parents had always wished for a large family, and Donny grew up in a religious household. That meant severe discipline, but it also meant a lot of music.
His parents, Olive and George, were also singers, and the entire family gathered together every Friday night to sing, play saxophone, and discuss about what was going on in the world.
Donny and his family left Utah when he was three years old to pursue their vast career in show business. The following stop was Hollywood.
While it was originally “traumatic,” Donny Osmond and his siblings earned their big break at the age of 5 when they began performing on The Andy Williams Show.
“I went from being an innocent child to becoming a national television star.” “My career took on a life of its own,” he said.
The Osmond brothers performed in front of tens of thousands of screaming fans across the United States and even in Europe. It became known as Osmondmania, and it became too much for both fans and the brothers to handle in the UK.
On October 21, 1973, when Danny was 16, The Osmonds were greeted by a raucous mob of 10,000 admirers as their jet touched down at Heathrow Airport in London, England. The similar images could be observed when The Beatles visited numerous nations in the 1960s.

The day The Osmonds landed at Heathrow ended up being a major situation with potentially grave implications, similar to how Beatlemania swept over the world.
The notorious Heathrow crash
When Donny and his siblings’ jet touched down, more than 10,000 admirers crammed the roof garden of Heathrow Airport’s Queen’s Building. However, because too many people were allowed into the observation area, a portion of the balcony railing and wall fell. It was a minor miracle that just 18 girls were harmed, with four requiring hospitalization.
According to The Guardian, additional investigation revealed that a 15-foot portion of the fence and wall had collapsed 12 feet from an upper balcony to a lower one. Many teens may have been saved because they surged forward near an outer rail to catch a sight of the Osmond brothers.
“The worst problem was hysteria,” a worker at the Queen’s Building medical facility, which supplied first assistance, recalled at the time. “It was difficult at first to distinguish between girls who had been hurt and girls who were screaming and weeping from fright or from disappointment at missing a sight of the group.”
Donny Osmond and his siblings were unaware of what had occurred. They waved and grinned at the thousands of admirers who had gathered to see them as they drove away from the airport. When they arrived at the hotel room, however, they instantly realized what had occurred.
“It was pretty cool, the screaming and adulation, but I remember a moment right after the Heathrow experience where the balcony collapsed and we were banned from airports,” Donny Osmond said in an interview with the Standard.
“I was in the hotel room with my brother Alan, and that night we turned on the television, and there was this programme on with three people on it – the presenter, a person from Scotland Yard, and a child psychiatrist, and they were debating whether or not Donny Osmond should be deported from England because of what he’s doing to all of our young kids.” ‘You remember this moment because it never occurs,’ my brother replied to me. It was a really great moment.”

The vacation to London clearly did not begin well. However, as previously stated, there were no casualties. The Beatles, like many other superstars, had to flee from crazed followers.
Donny Osmond nearly lost an eye.
Donny Osmond recalls a time when “screaming girls” followed him and his siblings into the hotel’s subterranean parking garage. To keep them out, security had to deploy a fire hose.
“I had the time of my life!” Osmond remembered. “Hundreds and hundreds of fans were able to get into the parking structure, and they were just surrounding us at the time because I had long hair.” Our security guy noticed me and believed I was one of the fans because of my long hair, so he pushed me back into the crowd and realized what he had done, but he couldn’t get to me because of all the crowds. So I got on the floor and was creeping to the hotel’s door when one of the other security guys mistook me for a fan and grabbed me and flung me back into the fans. It was fantastic!”
While nothing catastrophic happened when supporters chased the Osmonds beneath their hotel, Donny Osmond has been extremely near to suffering a major injury as a result of fans.
Donny told Metro about a day in Manchester, in the midst of “crazy Osmondmania,” when he nearly lost an eye.
“I was walking into this hotel when all these fans rushed towards me.” And one girl was making a beeline for it. She approached me with an autograph book in one hand and a pen in the other, and she just wrapped her arms around me as tightly as she could, and the pen came around and whacked me square in the eye. “I almost took my eye out,” Osmond said.

“And back then, cameras had flashbulbs, and she held it up that close to my eye, and I still have a mark in my eye from where the flashbulb went off – it kind of burned the retina a little bit.” I recall that moment because I see it on a daily basis. She had no notion; she was simply overwhelmed at the time. She had no idea what she was doing; she was simply happy to be there. But I was extremely fortunate in that I did not lose one eye and became blind in the other. It was on the verge of being a calamity.”
Donny Osmond is a family man.
Donny Osmond did not lose an eye, and he was able to carry on with his extremely successful career as if nothing had occurred.
Today, the iconic singer has accomplished about everything imaginable, including two Las Vegas residencies and raising a great family with his wife, Debbie. They were married in 1978 and have six children and fourteen grandkids.
“It’s such a wonderful warm feeling to see your child become a parent and see them raise their own children and carry on the family traditions that Debbie and I started.” It’s a wonderful dynamic to watch your children become parents. “They graduate into that echelon of life just finding their own feet, finding their own wings,” Osmond said earlier in 2023 to People.
Despite touring and working on many projects at the same time, Osmond makes time for his children and grandchildren.
As his grandkids grow older, one of whom is now an adult, he realizes how wild his own life has been.
“What’s really fun is that now I’ve got an 18-year-old grandson, and I remember doing the Donny & Marie show when I was his age,” Donny said. “For instance, I started singing at 4, professionally at 5 and when I look at these grandkids of mine, I think to myself, ‘How in the world did I get on stage and perform with my brothers at that age?'”

Everybody would not have handled stardom as effectively as Donny Osmond has. While he has struggled with anxiety and mental health concerns, the former child star is still very busy and healthy, bringing his fans new music and thrilling shows to this day.
“I’ve always tried to do my best”
Donny Osmond has had to make several critical decisions that have shaped his profession and life during his career.
But, looking back, he wouldn’t change a thing.
“There are certain things I think about, such as why I wore purple socks.” Even so, it was cool since it was my signature. There were certain songs I wish they had given me more time with or that I had done a better performance on, but I’ve come to the conclusion that I can’t regret anything I’ve done because I’ve always tried my hardest,” Osmond told Metro.
“Even when I was making the transition from teenybopper to adult performer,” he said. “There were certain songs and aspects of my career that I did not want to revisit.” I didn’t want to sing Puppy Love anymore since I was trying to get away from it all. And then I grew up, looked back, and accepted it. Even Justin Bieber will do it one of these days. He’ll go back and sing, ‘Baby, baby, baby ooh!’ and have a good time.”
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