Donny Osmond at the Birmingham Resorts World Arena

Let us start by saying that we can’t call ourselves a Donny Osmond fans, but being a certain age, the Osmond’s and Donny have been part of our youth growing up. We all know how big they were, and the success that they achieved, and not being American you don’t know all the rest of the story, but we go along to see him in Birmingham with the thought that an artist career can’t last over six decades without having something special going on, just look at the Stones. And not visiting the UK regularly, to book into the Resorts World Arena, is confidence indeed.

It was obvious from the off that he has something special, the first number ‘Soldier of Love’, I’d never heard before and I loved it and looked round at his adoring fans, mostly women going ape. Obviously, he is a consummate entertainer, and still has an excellent voice. Yes, some of the show was very “Vegassy”, and sometimes sentimental, but he pulls it off with great humour and it was great to see on the large screen clips and extracts from he and his family’s stellar past. Especially the tribute to the late great Andy Williams, who gave the Osmond’s their break in the U.S.A and it was obvious of the deep respect and love that he had for the ‘Moon River’ singer.

A big surprise was that the show wasn’t just packed with Donny and Osmond tunes. This wasn’t just a greatest hits night and had a fair few new songs off the latest album ‘Start Again’, unbelievably his 65th album! And a few covers thrown in, ‘I’ll Never Say Goodbye’, ‘In My Life’, and the afore mentioned ‘Moon River’ for good measure. It is obvious to even the short of sight that he has an incredible affection for his fans, and during the first act, he got into the audience for a request segment, and he kept popping up all over the arena, and even climbed up to meet the fans in both sides. While clambering over rails he actually fell over, with security looking worried, but he carried on and to be honest he was a brave man. I thought he might never have been seen again, with the ladies grabbing and hugging him so much.

It was Donny’s birthday tonight, 66! And it was nice to see his son and lots of his grandchildren in the row behind us and to our right in the audience, one even wearing a very English flat cap! Class. And although we can’t call ourselves Donny fans, you can see why he is still packing them in and will do so for as long as he wants, and judging from his enthusiastic persona, will not be hanging up his mike for a long time yet. Mr Entertainment.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe