Elvis showed the world just how passionate a fanbase can be.
“But then The Beatles come out and suddenly you have an option of 4 Elvises,” Yve Blake, who wrote the musical “Fangirls,” says in a new documentary about boybands streaming on Paramount+. “You have four different archetypes. You can express your identity by deciding which one it is that you like the most.”
The popularity of boybands — and the unwavering fans who keep these boybands in the spotlight — is explored in the new MTV Entertainment Studios documentary “Larger Than Life: Reign of the Boybands.” Unsurprisingly, a large portion of the documentary focuses on the Backstreet Boys and NSYNC dynamic of the 1990s; but it also shifts forward to talk about the explosion of K-Pop, and looks back to some of the earliest boyband influences.
And for some of the singers who appear in the documentary — like Michael Bivins of the 1980s boyband New Edition — The Osmonds and The Jackson 5 were some of their earliest inspirations, the groups they looked to as they were starting their own rise to fame.
Throughout the 95-minute film, Donny Osmond reflects on the height of his stardom in the 1970s, his unique bond with King of Pop Michael Jackson and how he has survived 60 years in the entertainment industry.
Donny Osmond on 1970s fandom
Osmond — who is currently in his fourth year of a solo Las Vegas residency — appears early on in “Larger Than Life” to reflect on his time performing with his brothers. He laughs as he recalls The Osmonds’ first big show in Vegas — the beginning of their popularity as a boy band in the ‘70s.
“We run on stage, massive screams are taking place,” he says. “I think to myself as I look out, ‘Somebody’s hurt. They’re screaming that something’s happened out there,’ and then I realized, ‘They’re screaming for us!’ It was like, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ I’ve gotta do this the rest of my life.’”
The 66-year-old entertainer reflected on how he would walk to the edge of the stage and extend his hand to the crowd, where young girls and women would grab his wrist. His older brother, Alan, would take note of what was happening and pull Osmond back to the safety of the stage.
“Two things went through my head: ‘Alan, save me. Alan, let me go,’” Osmond said with a laugh. “I wanted so badly to have them pull me in the audience and just rip me apart.”
“One Bad Apple,” The Osmonds’ first No. 1 hit, was originally written with The Jackson 5 in mind. Every boyband has a rivalry, and in the ‘70s, it was The Osmonds and The Jackson 5 — “the competition ... was real,” Osmond said.
But the similarities between the two families also forged a one-of-a-kind bond between Jackson and Osmond.
Donny Osmond on his friendship with Michael Jackson
As Osmond tells it, the similarities between the Jacksons and Osmonds are “uncanny.”
Both families had nine children — and Osmond and Jackson were both the seventh child. Their moms had the same birthday. Osmond and Jackson were the same age. They both rose to fame in family bands, managed by their fathers. And they both went on to have massively successful solo careers.
“We’d get together and we would just laugh and reminisce about the comparisons and the similarities,” Osmond said, adding that Jackson once told him: “Donny, you are the only person on this planet that knows what my childhood was like.”
Osmond said Jackson would also tell him stories about his father/manager, Joe Jackson.
“I think having a very strong father figure was very important for our success,” he said. “However, it can go a little overboard.”
Donny Osmond on his family
The “Puppy Love” singer praised his own father, George Osmond, for pushing his children to work hard.
“The work ethic my father instilled in all of us was second to none,” he said. “I remember as a tiny little kind, my brothers in front of that piano playing and learning the parts and harmonizing to where it was perfect. My dad was an army sergeant and so that kind of infiltrated how he raised us. I never wanted to disappoint my father. When we hit big, my father said, ‘Back in the rehearsal hall. Learn a new number. Keep this engine going.’”
But for all of the discipline, there was just as much love and support — something Osmond has clung to since his earliest days in the entertainment industry, when he was a 5-year-old singing alongside his brothers on “The Andy Williams Show.”
“When you look at the dangers of show business in general, whether you’re a single artist or a boyband, I don’t know if I could’ve been able to survive show business if I didn’t have my family,” he said.
What is Donny Osmond up to now?
The documentary is one of several projects Osmond has taken on recently.
Next month he’ll return to a pillar of his career, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” — but instead of starring as Joseph, he’ll take on the role of Pharaoh. It’ll be a three-week gig at Scotland’s Edinburgh Playhouse.
But Osmond’s primary focus right now is his solo Las Vegas residency at Harrah’s. He launched it in 2021, and it’s still going strong. Five nights a week, he puts on a 90-minute show that explores his 60 years in show business.
The fast-paced show is as informative as it is entertaining, featuring songs from the height of his stardom, tributes to his brothers and a montage of clips from “The Donny and Marie Show.” There’s a 20-minute audience request segment and a 10-minute rap — called an “auto-rap-ography” — where he takes fans through the ups and downs of his career.
With a five-piece band, eight dancers, several dance routines and outfit changes, he is essentially running a marathon on the stage at Harrah’s. And while he did physically prepare himself to do this, he’s been pleasantly surprised by his stamina.
But he knows it’s not something he can keep up forever.
Osmond is quick to shut down the idea that he could do what he does for another 20 years. He can visualize the end of his career.
“I have set a certain standard for my shows,” he recently told the Deseret News. “I do a show that’s full of production, because that’s what I was raised with, that’s the type of show I like to put on. ... As soon as the day comes where I can’t give 100% like I give every night, that curtain’s not going to go back up. I never want to be the entertainer where you go out on stage and you hear people say, ‘Oh, it’s time to give it up.’ I never want that to happen.
“It’s nowhere near right now,” he added. “I don’t know how close it is, but I see the end of the tunnel.”