Susan Boyle and Donny Osmond are both fantastic performers, giving their audience a great show wherever they go. But to be honest, it’s safe to say that there are probably no two singers who have had more different paths towards singing their way into millions of people’s hearts.
While Susan Boyle was a massive fan of Donny Osmond and his brothers growing up, she went her own way through Britain’s Got Talent, where her life changed forever. Today, the two are great friends and even perform together.
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Weeks ago, Donny surprised his Glasgow fans when he invited Susan Boyle up on stage to sing a duet. When the outstanding performance ended, Donny wanted to show his appreciation for Susan on stage. He did it most wonderfully and intimately, and it’s an understatement to say that the two have an extraordinary connection. Let’s take a closer look at their incredible bond.
Susan Boyle and Donny Osmond are two very different people. But on stage, the two create magic with their voices.
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Susan Boyle adored Donny Osmond as a teenager
Since she was a young girl, Susan Boyle has been a fan of Donny and his brothers. In 2013, she performed in Las Vegas for the first time – and got to perform with her childhood idol.
“It was my first time in Vegas and it was great fun, especially since I got to perform with Donny Osmond. If someone told me years ago I’d be performing on stage with him, I’d have laughed at them. He’s been my idol since I was 13, so I feel like I’ve grown up with him in a way. It’s all been a bit mind-blowing,” Boyle told the Daily Mail.
Her fans in the US call themselves the Red Scarf Brigade in honor of her trademark red scarf. However, even though they are very dedicated, they aren’t fanatics.
“Some people think they’re a bit mad, but they’re not. They’re very kind to me and they made me a blanket with Donny’s face on which I still have on my bed because it keeps me warm. This time they made a blanket with my face on it and gave it to him,” Susan Boyle said.
“I think people relate to me in some way,” she added. “Maybe they think, ‘If she can do it in her late stage in life, maybe I can too.’”
Susan Boyle might have hardcore fans. However, it is nothing like what Donny Osmond has experienced. And one time, things almost ended in an immense tragedy.
On October 21, 1973, when Danny was 16 years of age, The Osmonds were met by a hysterical crowd of 10,000 fans as their plane landed at Heathrow Airport in London, England. The same scenes were seen when The Beatles arrived in various countries during the 1960s.
The infamous Heathrow accident
Like how Beatlemania spread across the globe, the day The Osmonds arrived at Heathrow ended up being a serious incident that could’ve had some pretty dire consequences.
When Donny and his siblings’ plane landed, more than 10,000 fans packed the roof garden at the Queen’s Building at Heathrow Airport. However, too many people had been let onto the viewing site, and part of the balcony railing and wall collapsed. It was a slight miracle that only 18 girls were slightly injured, with four being treated at the hospital.
As reported by The Guardian at the time, after further inspection, it turned out that a 15-foot section of the railing and wall had collapsed 12 feet from an upper balcony to a lower one. The fact that many teenagers pressed forward toward an outer rail to get a glimpse of the Osmond brothers might have saved some.
“The worst problem was hysteria,” a helper at the Queen’s Building medical center, where first aid was provided, said 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 didn’t know what had happened at the time. They waved and smiled towards the thousands of fans that had turned up to greet them and left the airport in cars. However, when they arrived at the hotel room, they quickly understood what had happened.
“It was pretty cool, the screaming and the adulation, but I remember a moment right after the Heathrow experience where the balcony collapsed and we were banned from the airports,” Donny Osmond remembered in an interview with the Standard.
“I was in the hotel room with my brother Alan and we turn the television on that night and there was this programme with three people on – 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. My brother turned to me and said, ‘You remember this moment because this never happens’. It was such a cool moment.”
The trip to London evidently didn’t start well. But as mentioned, there weren’t any casualties, fortunately. Just like The Beatles – and many other celebrities – they had to run from crazy fans.
Donny Osmond almost lost an eye
Donny Osmond remembers one moment when “screaming girls” chased him and his brothers into an underground car park of the hotel. Security had to use a firehose to keep them out.
“I had the time of my life!” Osmond recalled. “Hundreds and hundreds of fans were able to get into the parking structure, and [because] I had long hair at the time, they were just surrounding us. Our security guard, he saw me, and because of my long hair, he thought I was one of the fans so he threw me back into the fans and realised what he had done, but he couldn’t get to me because of all the fans. So I got on the floor, and I was sneaking to the entrance of the hotel, and one of the other security guards thought I was a fan and grabbed me and threw me back into the fans. It was awesome!”
While nothing serious happened when the fans chased the Osmonds beneath their hotel, there have been times when Donny Osmond has been very close to getting a severe injury because of fans.
When speaking with Metro, Donny recalled one time in Manchester, in the center of the “crazy Osmondmania,” when he almost lost an eye.
“I was walking into this hotel, and all these fans started rushing towards me. And one girl was just making a beeline. She had an autograph book in one hand and a pen in the other, and she gets to me and just wraps her arms around me as hard as she could, and the pen came around and hits me right [in the eye]. Almost took my eye out,” Osmond said.
“And back then, there were flashbulbs on cameras, she held it up that far from my eye, and I still have a mark in my eye from where the flashbulb went off – it kind of burnt the retina a little bit. I remember that moment because I see it every day. She had no idea, she was just overwhelmed in the moment. She didn’t know what she did, she was just excited to be there. But I was very lucky, I didn’t lose one eye and get blinded in the other. It was close to a disaster.”
Susan Boyle’s incredible career
Donny Osmond didn’t lose an eye, and luckily, he was able to continue his very successful career as if nothing had happened.
When Susan Boyle became known worldwide in 2009, she wasn’t quite experiencing the “Osmondmania” her good friend Donny went through. However, one might argue that the two are on the same level when it comes to becoming a celebrity overnight.
After quite a dramatic and turbulent life, where Susan Boyle had to go through being bullied at school and not getting the breakthrough as a singer she so much dreamed of, in 2009, she took the stage for the Britain’s Got Talent audition.
When walking on stage, saying she was to sing opera, no one could’ve imagined what the then 47-year-old was to do. Not least, jury member Simon Cowell looked like he had just heard something most people on stage had said: that they are a great talent and can sing.
Two minutes later, Susan Boyle’s life had changed forever. She blew everyone away with her rendition of I Dreamed a Dream, received a standing ovation, and the rest is history.
Even though Susan Boyle didn’t win – she came second in Britain’s Got Talent – her career got a crazy start. Her debut album, released in November 2009, sold over two million copies during the first week, making it the fastest-selling debut album by a female artist in UK history.
Now, 14 years later, Boyle has sold more than 25 million albums. She’s received two Grammy nominations, broken 3 Guinness World Records, had No.1 albums in 40 plus countries, 128 platinum and gold album certifications, and three or more number-one albums in the UK.
It’s safe to say that Susan Boyle turned her life around pretty solidly. She is said to have a net worth of $40 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.
Donny Osmond & Susan Boyle perform duet in Glasgow
Some weeks ago, Donny Osmond performed in front of a packed house in Glasgow. The show was, of course, very appreciated by the crowd. But one moment would turn it into a magical night.
Suddenly, Donny spotted Susan Boyle in the crowd and invited her onstage. The duo performed a version of This Is the Moment, which they recorded together in 2012.
In a video posted on social media by Catherine Chisholm, Osmond held Susan Boylee’s hand, smiling, before giving her a big hug.
After the number was done, Osmond thanked Susan and kissed her on her head.
“That was a treat – thank you, Susan. I love that woman,” Donny Osmond said in the video posted on social media by Catherine Chisholm.
On Instagram after the show, Donny Osmond posted a picture of him and Susan, praising her.
“In Glasgow, Scotland and low and behold, guess who showed up to my concert? My dear friend, Susan Boyle! She was waiting in one of the dressing rooms backstage to go out to the audience and I heard this angel voice in the hallway. I walked up to the door and…,” Donny Osmond wrote.
