FINDLAY — Marie Osmond called The Blade at precisely 2:30 p.m., her warm, familiar voice eliciting salutations. 

“Call me Marie.”

To hear Marie Osmond’s voice is to hear more than a half century of American pop culture history. Boomers swooned to Marie and her brother Donny throughout the groovy ‘70s with the success of their popular variety show Donny and Marie. To Gen-Xers, Osmond sold them Hawaiian Punch via a series of YouTube-worthy commercials circa the early ‘80s. 

At age 12 in 1973, she became the youngest female to have her debut solo record Paper Roses reach the number one spot on two Billboard charts, a record that still holds to this day.

Yet in 2023, a typical Marie Osmond show consists of four generations scattered throughout her nationwide sold-out crowds. And this makes Osmond, now 63, extremely flattered and happy. 

Osmond will perform on Friday at Marathon Center for the Performing Arts, 200 W. Main Cross St. in Findlay.

Osmond’s latest album is the aptly titled Unexpected, which finds the performer/singer/entrepreneur singing in different languages and performing opera. The album opened at number one on Billboard’s Classical Crossover Albums in December, 2021.

“This is my sixth decade of working and to be a female that’s been able to work every year consistently has just been mind-boggling to me and very much appreciated by my fans,” she said over the phone. “This album I did strictly to push myself. Some people play multiple instruments, I do multiple singing styles.”

Osmond said that although she is best known as a country singer, she loves all different styles of music and wanted to feature them on her new album.

“As a child I was the weird Osmond, because I enjoyed all different kinds of music,” said the singer. “Yes, I’m country; that’s what I chose to be, but it was very easy for me to sing pop because my brothers did. But I loved country and I loved the realism and the lyrics and I loved that women could have lives and children and families and still have a career.

“But as I have grown and I did Broadway and all different kinds of things, I fell in love with that style. [Unexpected] was recorded in Prague and it has 17 songs but it’s been my biggest album. It debuted at #1 on Billboard — I’ve had number one albums but never a debut — and it’s been one of those many surprises.”

Throughout her career, Osmond has had a close relationship with Las Vegas. For more than a decade the Vegas show she did with Donny was the number one show in town. Yet, despite being a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, she said she’s never been tempted by the decadent nature of Sin City.

“Well, the last stint that I was in Vegas with [Donny Osmond], we were there for 11 years and the big headline was that we took ‘sin city’ and made it ‘sincere city.’ Entertainment is entertainment. People liked the show, it was number one for years. I think the most important thing is that you’re true to who you are and not a seed blowing in the wind. People know that I’m a very family-oriented person and I work hard,” she said.

Now entering her sixth decade of performing, Marie Osmond has advice for other performers: Show up and do the job no matter what.

“I’m in for longevity. I learned from the greats. They were incredible people who taught me it was about work ethic and delivering and night after night if I didn’t feel good, it didn’t matter,” she said. “People don’t care if your voice is 100 percent. They came to see you and they want to have a good time. It’s not my job to go up there and say ‘I’m sorry, I can’t sing very well tonight.’ No, you do the best you can and you show up.

“One of the reasons I’m touring right now instead of doing a residency is I believe with the economy the way it is, it’s tough for people to get out and have a good time. So I’ve made the effort to come to you and I think people want to come see a show that helps them remember the good times in their lives or bring back positive memories and create new ones. I’m not doing a lot of shows anymore. I look at the map and I feel where I’m supposed to go and I felt I was supposed to be [in Findlay].”

In addition to singing and acting, Marie Osmond also earned worldwide acclaim as a dollmaker, sculpting and designing a line of dolls for 25 years. She is no longer in the doll business, but remains proud of them.

“I couldn’t make [the dolls] anymore because I really prided myself on making them affordable and they are really works of art, but I couldn’t do it anymore with the quality I wanted to maintain and 25 years is a really good run,” she said. 

While the entertainer has not seen the Barbie movie, she holds a special place in Barbie history as the first celebrity Barbie doll. 

“Mattel came over to the set of Donny and Marie and measured my face and body and did the doll,” she recalled. “Me and Barbie are the same age and Barbie is aging better than I am and that kind of ticks me off, but it’s OK.”

In 1983, Osmond co-founded the children’s hospital charity Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals with Dukes of Hazzard actor John Schneider. According to Osmond, the charity helps more than 12 million children a year and in the last 40 years has raised more that $9 billion. Locally, Nationwide Children’s Hospital Toledo, formerly Mercy Children’s Hospital, is affiliated with the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.

“In Ohio, if you donate to the Children’s Miracle Network, all the money stays in Ohio where it goes to your local children’s hospital,” Ms. Osmond said. “When you give that dollar or that five dollars or you round it up at the cash register, all that money goes to your local children’s hospital. I had two children who were saved at children’s hospitals and I had two granddaughters’ lives who were saved at children’s hospitals as well.”

Marathon Center for the Performing Arts executive director Heather Clow expressed her excitement via email about the venue hosting Osmond.

“MCPA is excited to kick off the 23/24 season with a concert with Marie Osmond,” wrote Clow. “Not only is she extremely talented with a career that has spanned decades, but she is a philanthropist and genuinely lovely person. She the perfect fit for our stage and community.”

First Published September 22, 2023, 12:00 p.m.