Marie Osmond promises her show with the PSO will lift your holiday spirit

PITTSBURGH – She's a true renaissance woman ― singing star, philanthropist, talk show host, best-selling author, product spokeswoman, doll designer ― but before getting too deep into any of that, Marie Osmond tossed a question last week at her western Pennsylvania interviewer.

"I've been doing press all day, so I didn't get a chance to look it up," Osmond asked. "Did Pittsburgh win yesterday?

Nope, the Steelers lost 37-30.

"Aw, shoot," Osmond said, explaining she's a longtime Steelers fan.

Really?

"Oh, I wave my yellow towel," Osmond convincingly said.

Osmond will look radiant in Christmas red when she stars Dec. 20 in a Heinz Hall holiday concert backed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra.

"A Marie Osmond Symphonic Christmas" will be one performance only, at 7:30 p.m., spreading the holiday spirit and enchanting audiences with holiday classics, songs from her chart-topping "Unexpected" album, and the breakout hit that preceded her late-1970s days on TV's popular "Donny & Marie" variety show.

"This is my sixth decade performing. I've had a crazy career, especially being a woman," an ebullient Osmond said. "I have worked every year of my life. I wasn't going to do a Christmas tour this year. But then it dawned on me people need a little lift this year and a chance to get together and remember happy times."

If it's like her other shows, the Heinz Hall audience will span the generations.

A former host on CBS' "The Talk" and a Nutrisystem commercial spokeswoman, Osmond gained insight into her widespread popularity when she was in a showbiz office recently.

"The young women there had heard my new album. I mean, they were like 25-year-olds, and I asked 'You heard my new album? And you like symphonic music?' And they said 'Absolutely,'" Osmond said. "Though they hadn't known I was a singer until they YouTubed me. They said, 'Oh, we just thought you were that diet lady. We didn't know you sang."

Osmond. 63, has sung in Christmas shows since age 12, in a Bob Hope USO tour, then with beloved holiday crooner Andy Williams.

"So, I'll be using what I've learned in a six-decade career. And with the Pittsburgh Symphony? That talented of an orchestra? C'mon, wait until you see this show," Osmond said. "The music will be a buffet. There'll be a little jazz, a little opera, some classics. It'll be very interesting."

Osmond spent a few decades honing her operatic singing for her "Unexpected" album released last December. She began training in the early 1990s, as a Richard and Hammerstein fan offered the dream job of appearing in a stage production of "The Sound of Music."

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Osmond recalled, "I couldn't sing 'The Hills Are Alive' with a country accent. Well, I could have, but that would have been a slap in the face to them. The lady who taught me said 'You're a high soprano, and if you want to learn opera, I can teach you.'

"And since then, I've spent 20-plus years learning to sing that way."

The multi-genre "Unexpected" includes her operatic performances on songs like "Nessun Dorma," and "Lascia ChâIo Pianga," alongside standards like "What a Wonderful World" and "Somewhere Over The Rainbow."

The album achieved commercial and critical success.

"And 'Unexpected' was the perfect name," Osmond said. "I didn't think it would be able to do anything. I did it for me. So that success was very unexpected.

"My brothers and I are very competitive. You couldn't have guessed that, right?" she says, laughing. "So, it felt good when they were telling me, 'Wow, you kicked our butts.'"

Interacting with her audiences, Osmond's concerts include her telling a few family stories between songs.

She's got ample material, having grown up in Utah as the eighth of nine children (and lone sister) to the Osmond Brothers entertainment act.

But don't expect a foxtrot, mambo or tango routine at Heinz Hall, like the ones she successfully performed on her way to third place in Season 5 of ABC's "Dancing With The Stars."

"Not this year," Osmond said. "Though there will be a little bit of what you'd probably expect to see from me. It's a lot of Christmas; a lot of fun. It's got my Good Housekeeping Stamp of Approval: You'll leave there feeling full of the holiday spirit."

Her brother Donny won Season 9 of "Dancing With The Stars."

From 1976-79, Donny and Marie starred in an ABC Friday night variety show. Each "Donny & Marie" episode began with an ice skating number, followed by comedy skits and a brother-sister routine where they alternated between Marie singing country songs and Donny rocking and rolling. They famously began the music segment with Marie singing "I'm a little bit country," followed by heartthrob Donny's "I'm a little bit rock and roll."

Declaring herself a country fan at a time when disco was sweeping the nation was a risky career move, though may ultimately have been a bit trailblazing.

"Yeah, I was the person who was saying it is cool to be country," Osmond said. "I know Barbara Mandrell sang 'I Was Country Before It Was Cool,' but I told her once, 'You may have come up with that after hearing me.' She laughed."

Marie indeed was a country fan, having topped the country chart three years prior to "Donny & Marie," several months shy of her 14th birthday, with a cover of Anita Bryant's "Paper Roses."

"I do a very short version of 'Paper Roses' in this show," Osmond said. "Wait till you see how I weave that in. I think people will enjoy that."

"I know some celebrities would say, 'Oh, don't talk about that song. That was 100 years ago.' But that song is a part of my life," Osmond said. "It wasn't 'Donny & Marie' that got me started; it was 'Paper Roses.' It was country music and Loretta Lynn that got me interested in a singing career. I just noticed there were these women like Loretta Lynn who had husbands and families, but they were still able to do their music, That concept wasn't alien to country music, and I realized I could have a long career. Whereas, in pop music, you might get three to five years. Though it would have been easier in the short run to go the pop route. Though like I said, it's been a crazy, awesome career."

A career that's seen other chart-topping country singles, including 1985's "There's No Stopping Your Heart" and a Dan Seals duet "Meet Me in Montana," and 1986's "You're Still New to Me," a duet with Paul Davis.

"For duets, I might belong in the Guinness Book of World Records. I've done over 600 of them," Osmond said. "And to still be a woman working this many years, and have my last album debut at No. 1, is pretty amazing.

"I've been blessed to have amazing fans," Osmond said. "When I think about all the support I've received, I get teary."

Sounding genuinely choked up at that part of the phone conversation, Osmond reported "Unexpected" has climbed back into the Top-10 a few dozen times.

"That blows me away. The fact that kids who grew up watching me now have kids who are fans. And now the younger ones are finding me."

For years, fans needed to travel to Las Vegas to see her live.

"It's nice for me now to meet them where they live," Osmond said.

That includes Pittsburgh, and that PSO show conducted by Brent Havens and featuring Osmond's nephew, professional singer David Osmond, as a guest vocalist.

Tickets range from $40 to $75, with eight $125 Zone 1 seats still left, all available at pittsburghsymphony.org or calling 412-392-4900.

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Shortly after headlining Heinz Hall, Osmond will fly to Orlando, to serve as the celebrity narrator for the Dec. 24-26 “Candlelight Processional” at Disney World's Epcot.

"All my kids and grandkids are going to fly in for that," Osmond said.

She will continue posting on Facebook and Instagram her popular Sunday Message inspirational life lessons.

"Really, truly I don't care what your religious beliefs are," Osmond said. "I just like to spread hope. I don't like to push religion, but I feel people need to hear stories about hope."

What career mountain is left for her to conquer?

"I don't know, I think most people are the same way I am," Osmond said. "I'm a voracious reader, I love learning new things. I want to keep getting educated. That always leads to something."

But first, she's leading a holiday concert tour lushly backed by symphony orchestras.

"It's powerful when you hear the music," Osmond said. "I could have brought my band and done a great Christmas show. But what an experience this is. I tell you, it's magical. Like my previous album, 'Music is Medicine.' This show is magical. I don't know about you, but I don't remember what gifts I got five years ago. But I do remember the times I spent with friends and family. That's what I hope this does for families. They'll make memories. We need to be back out there with each other. Let's be together and love each other. We need more of that."

Scott Tady is entertainment editor at The Times and easy to reach at stady@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Marie Osmond talks holiday show with the PSO ready to make memories