There’s been all sorts of anti-Mormon hate speech floating around the sporting blogosphere recently (hello, Ric Bucher and those dudes from The Uncut Sports Show), and with that in mind, I thought it was important to cut & paste an item that portrays the Latter Day Saints in a more favorable light. From the Salt Lake Tribune’s David Burger :
Now that Utah’s own singing cultural icons, The Osmonds, are riding a wave of pop culture attention, locals can sign up for a drawing in hopes of scoring tickets to see them perform in a rare joint appearance with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir – on Pioneer Day.
“Our mother really wanted us to do this,” said lead vocalist Merrill Osmond of Olive, the family matriarch, who died in 2004. “The family got together to look at our priorities. This has been in the works for several years.”
After 50 years in show business, Utah’s first family of pop music are a cultural draw again, as indicated by Marie’s long run last fall on the popular TV reality show “Dancing With The Stars”. Currently the family is touring Europe on an anniversary tour, which includes two sold-out concerts in London’s Wembley Stadium. As part of the tour, the family has teamed up with Utah’s GeneTree.com, a family networking Web site, to meet long-lost relatives. Concertgoers are invited to look at the Osmonds family tree on the free Web site, or take a $149 DNA test to see if they’re related.