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Utah's native son and former pop idol Donny Osmond was crowned the top dancer of ABC's blockbuster reality television series "Dancing With the Stars" -- earning bragging rights that likely will annoy his sister Marie for years to come.
With confetti falling and Osmond hoisting the mirrored ball trophy in the air during Tuesday's episode, the 51-year-old music icon then brought his sister to the stage to share in the moment.
"We got it! We got it! We're bringing it back to Utah!" he told local ABC affiliate KTVX Channel 4 after the episode.
Osmond beat out Kelly Osbourne and Grammy winner My´a.
Osmond is the third Utahn to win the competition, which is now in its ninth season. Dancer and country singer Julianne Hough, who grew up in Park City, won the fifth season with race car driver Helio Castroneves while her brother Derek won the seventh cycle with model/talk show host Brooke Burke.
"I couldn't be more proud of him," sister Marie Osmond told KTVX. "Bless his heart. But now I'm going to have to keep him humbled."
The former pop idol -- who lives in Provo -- was one of five Utahns to grace this season's dance floor on the hit ABC show, which consistently landed in the top five highest-rated programs each week.
Louis van Amstel, the owner of a dance studio in Orem and one of the first professional ballroom dancers to perform on the series (this was his fifth season), was paired with finalist Osbourne.
Chelsie Hightower, an Orem dancer who once competed on Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance," appeared for her second season with partner and snowboarder Louis Vito, who also lives in Utah.
They were eliminated Oct. 27.
Derek Hough was partnered with model Joanna Krupa. Both were eliminated Nov. 17.
While Utah's pool of toe-tapping professional dancers has made up the vast majority of local talent to appear on the show's nine seasons, Osmond and his equally-popular sister, Marie, are the most prominent Utah celebs to waltz on the ABC stage.
And it was his willingness to equal or best his sister in the competition (she came in third in the show's fifth season two years ago) that kept his feet humming along the floorboards.
"I want to win this mirror ball [trophy] so badly," he said on the show before his final performance this week. "Because if you had a sister named Marie, and she was going to rub it in your face for the rest of your life, you would want to win it, too."
Hightower said she's "not surprised one bit" Osmond was in the finals. "He's got a great family and a great work ethic," she said during rehearsals Monday. "He's been in show business his whole life, and I hope he does really well this week. Even with the low scores [he and partner Johnson got the lowest scores the last two weeks], he's still doing great. He definitely deserves to be there."
Osmond's journey on the show has been more of a roller-coaster ride, from scoring as little as 20 in the first week (out of 30 from three judges) to amassing a perfect score during last Monday's freestyle competition.
And last week, Osmond and his partner were faulted by the judges when the bottom of Johnson's dress began to unravel during one routine. Osmond, however, appeared unruffled.
"I don't have the physique of a [UFC fighter] Chuck Liddell," Osmond said. "I don't have the youth of an [singer] Aaron Carter. But what I do have is experience. And our strategy is simple -- dance well."
And that he did.
