Performing since he first walked onto the Andy Williams Show soundstage at age five, Donny Osmond has literally grown up before our eyes.

Joining his brothers' act, with hits like "One Bad Apple" and "Down By The Lazy River", then recording his first solo album, The Donny Osmond Album, along with some hits of his own like "Puppy Love" and "Go Away Little Girl" cemented his status as one of the biggest teen idols in the 1970s.

Then, with his sister Marie, became the youngest host ever of a prime time variety show, The Donny And Marie Show. It's popularity was instantaneous, and the show lasted for four seasons on ABC.

Since then, Donny has never stopped. Recordings, concert tours, TV appearances, racing cars, penning an autobiography, and performing in musical theater,Donny has proven his versatility and has always been unafraid to meet a new challenge when he's faced with it.

Donny met a lovely young cheerleader from Provo named Debra Glenn in 1975, and the two dated off an on gradually getting more serious. Donny knew he wanted to marry Debbie, but there were concerns about what it would do to his popularity. He did what was right, and the two married on May 8, 1978. The couple have five children, all sons, and are preparing to celebrate their 27th anniversary in 2005.

After the Donny And Marie Show left the air, Donny laid low and tried to decide what it was he was going to do next. He surfaced again in 1982 in the George M. Cohan musical "Little Johnny Jones" on Broadway. The musical closed the very night it opened.

After a painful bashing by the critics, Donny retreated to Utah. He made several demos, knocked on doors, but was finding that the industry just wasn't shaking that "Donny Osmond - teen idol" image.

A chance meeting with Peter Gabriel at a UNICEF benefit changed all that. Peter recognized Donny's talent, showed a belief in him, and offered to let Donny come to England and do some recording at his studio in Bath. Peter was there throughout the project, albeit peripherally, throwing a random idea out to Donny and giving him the incentive to try new and different things musically, that he might not have tried before.

Peter Gabriel convinced the label he was working on at the time, Virgin, to sign Donny, and they did. The album "Donny Osmond" was released, and Donny worked over there promoting it and making some videos to go with the singles, like "Soldier Of Love", "If It's Love That You Want", and "Groove".

After he came back to the States, and found that Virgin had dropped him, he was almost ready to call it quits.

Donny recieved a call from his manager who told him that a very influential radio station, WPLJ out of New York City, was playing "Soldier Of Love" albeit not saying who the artist was, only saying "mystery artist". The phones were going crazy. Who sings that? What is that song? I love it! Were the common remarks, and the requests for it poured in.

WPLJ decided that it was time to unveil the mystery artist. Donny was a bit nervous about this because he didn't want to kill the requests. But he did go on and reveal himself and quite the opposite happened. The requests kept coming in even when it was revealed that "Soldier Of Love" was by none other than Donny Osmond.

Then the album and single were released here, on Capitol Records, and everything changed. The single went to #2 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and the beautiful ballad "Sacred Emotion" also claimed a top forty spot on the AC charts.

Donny was back, and starting a fresh new phase of his career. And success was even sweeter the second time around, because Donny worked very hard to achieve it, and his fans rejoiced right along with him. He was finally back on the radio, touring, and he found himself hot property again.

In 1990, Donny released the follow up to "Donny Osmond". Called "Eyes Don't Lie", it contained more songs written by him along with returning producers / songwriters Evan Rogers and Carl Sturken, and adding producers Dave Gamson and Ric Wake to the mix.

This outing was primarily funk and R&B, with a couple of beautiful ballads as well, the strongest of which was "Love Will Survive". Donny toured to promote the release as well as filmed videos for "My Love Is A Fire" and "Sure Lookin'".

In 1992, Donny joined the North American cast of "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", taking on the lead role of Joseph in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical about the biblical story of Jacob and his sons. Donny had wanted to get back into a musical, and the glowing reviews of the musical and of his performance all but made up for the 1982 Little Johnny Jones debacle.

Donny remained in the role for five years, and he filmed the movie version, which was released on video and DVD worldwide in 2000. Now that the video version is all filmed and released, Donny has said that he's "retiring the loincloth". Bidding adieu to a role that he took and made all his much like Michael Crawford did with The Phantom Of The Opera.

Donny posesses a wild sense of humor and has always been known as the practical joker of the family. Quite the daredevil as well, Donny has been known to fly into arenas hanging on the outside of a helicopter or fly on wires high over the audience's heads!

One only had to attend a performance of "Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" to see how much Donny enjoyed the bit where he got to "fly" at the end of the musical! :)

Donny's also a master electrician. He's had a fascination with electricity from a very young age, and started by working on heath kits, evolving to wiring an entire recording studio. He did all the wiring in he and Debbie's home in Utah himself as well.

Did I say Donny was a daredevil? Well, Donny also found he had a love for car racing! He won two races,The Toyota Pro/Celebrity Grand Prix in Long Beach California, and the Texaco/Havoline Grand Prix in Denver Colorado. He was even approached by Chevy and asked to race on the professional circuit, and he was this close to doing it when the opportunity in Joseph came along. He even had a pit crew assembled! I'm sure his wife was very happy he chose the musical over the pro racing career! :-D

In his autobiography "Life Is Just What You Make It: My Story So Far", released in 1999 by Hyperion, Donny revealed that during his run in "Joseph..." and for some time before, he'd been suffering from Social Phobia. Social Phobia is an extreme fear of social and public situations. The sufferer fears being judged by others, being ridiculed or doing or saying something that may embarrass him or her. For instance, to someone who suffers from social phobia, the mere thought of going to the grocery store or the mall will cause a panic attack to come on. Donny was introduced to Dr. Jerilyn Ross, the same therapist that helped Barbra Streisand overcome her stage fright and perform before live audiences again. Dr. Ross, through different techniques helped Donny overcome his fears, too. You are never really cured, Donny will probably always suffer a twinge of anxiety from time to time, but... you learn to control your thoughts and feelings in situations that cause this reaction, and are able to face them again.

Having overcome this obstacle, Donny did something he'd wanted to do for awhile... record a Christmas album. Titled "Christmas At Home", and released in 1997 on Donny's own Nightstar label, it was produced by Darrell Brown. The release contained an eclectic mix of contemporary and traditional holiday music. Donny made a couple of appearances on QVC shopping network even performing a couple of numbers from it, and the CD was well recieved.

In 1998, Donny and Marie came back to TV with a whole new show, titled.... well... what else? Donny And Marie! It was talk show this time out,and lasted two seasons. Though the ratings were growing and the show was finding it's niche, even having been nominated for five Emmy awards in it's second year, Columbia Tri-Star decided to cancel it.

After the talk show ended, Donny got down to work again in the recording studio. This time, with reknowned and respected producer Phil Ramone. The result? An album of classic and contemporary Broadway tunes, but with a pop slant and Donny's indelible style. Called "This Is The Moment", the songs were culled from such popular shows as Jekyll And Hyde, Riverdance On Broadway, Saturday Night Fever, Rent, Guys And Dolls, Sweeney Todd, and Little Johnny Jones. Also included was a brand new Andrew Lloyd Webber tune from his newest work The Beautiful Game, called "Our Kind Of Love".

Donny taped a concert special for PBS (Public Broadcasting) to showcase the new release, as well having embarked upon his first real tour since he toured with "Eyes Don't Lie" in the early 90s. The shows were well recieved. The tour continued into the spring of 2002.

Other things that Donny has been doing: he made an interesting and funny guest appearance on the TV comedy "Daddio", joined talented Windham Hill artist Jim Brickman for two years in a row with the holiday portion of Brickman's U.S. tour, popping up on the NBC show "Fear Factor", has hosted the Miss America Pageant with sister Marie, and is slated to host the updated version of the classic game show "The $100,000 Pyramid" starting in fall 2002 in syndication. He's also had the honor of carrying the Olympic torch as it made it's way to Salt Lake City to kick off the 2002 winter games.

In late 2002, Donny released a brand new CD. Titled "Somewhere In Time", it contained covers of favorite love songs such as "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)", "Without You", and "Happy Together" as well as a remake of the old Osmond Brothers hit "Crazy Horses". The CD went Platinum in the UK.

2005 was another busy year for Donny, touring both the U.S. and the UK to support his CD, "What I Meant To Say". Which was released in the U.S at the beginning of the year. This release is his most personal to date, containing his own original material. The first single, "Breeze On By" was his first top 10 single in the UK in 30 years.

Donny hit a very special milestone in August 2005. His son Jeremy and daugter-in-law Melisa gave birth to a beautiful little boy, making Donny a grandfather!

With an incredible career spanning four decades and still going strong, Donny Osmond continues to delight and entertain a whole new generation of fans.