Donnie Demers is an American musician and multi-platinum selling songwriter. Donnie's songs have been recorded and performed by various artists from around the world, including

Amir Haddad Laurent Amir Khlifa Khedider Haddad (; born 20 June 1984), better known as Amir Haddad () or simply as Amir, is a French people, French-Israeli singer-songwriter and actor. He took part in 2006 in the Israeli music competition ''Kokhav Nolad'', ...

and

Joanna Forest Joanna Forest is an English soprano. Early life Forest trained at The Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts. Career Soprano In 2014, Forest first performed as a solo soprano at Busting to Sing in the West End in aid of breast cancer awareness ...

Life and work

Born with

muscular dystrophy Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...

and raised in

Worcester, Massachusetts Worcester ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Massachusetts, second-most populous city in the U.S. state of Massachusetts and the list of United States cities by population, 113th most populous city in the United States. Named after Worcester ...

, Donnie began playing the piano when he was just four years old. His first taste of "show biz" was during his apprenticeship as

Poster child A poster child (sometimes poster boy or poster girl) is, according to the original meaning of the term, a child afflicted by some disease or deformity whose picture is used on posters or other media as part of a campaign to raise money or enlis ...

for the

Muscular Dystrophy Association Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) is an American nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting people living with muscular dystrophy, ALS, and related Neuromuscular disease, neuromuscular diseases. Founded in 1950 by Paul Cohen, who lived wi ...

for the state of

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. He attended

Doherty Memorial High School Doherty Memorial High School is a public high school located in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It opened its doors in the fall of 1966, replacing two closing schools: Worcester Classical High School and Worcester Commerce High School. ...

, where his interests in songwriting began to flourish and furthered his musical studies at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. In 1982, Donnie made his first national television appearance on the "

Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon The ''MDA Labor Day Telethon'' was an annual telethon held on (starting the night before and throughout) Labor Day in the United States to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). The Muscular Dystrophy Association was founded i ...

" broadcast. He performed his song, "If We Fell in Love Again," receiving a standing ovation that prompted

Jerry Lewis Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...

to hold an unscheduled interview with the young composer. In 1983, producers of the Jerry Lewis Telethon commissioned Donnie to write their national jingle promoting the annual Labor Day broadcast. That jingle, "Labor Day Is America's Day (for MDA)" premiered over television and radio stations nationwide from 1983 to 1984 during pre-Telethon promotion. In 1992, Donnie's song, "Second Chance" appeared in the film "Double Trouble" directed by

John Paragon John Dixon Paragon (December 9, 1954 – April 3, 2021) was an American actor, writer and director. He was best known for his work on the television series '' Pee-wee's Playhouse'', where he portrayed Jambi the Genie and voiced Pterri the Ptero ...

and starred David Paul, Peter Paul,

Roddy McDowall Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (17 September 1928 – 3 October 1998) was a British-American actor whose career spanned over 270 screen and stage roles across over 60 years. Born in London, he began his acting career as a child in his n ...

and

David Carradine David Carradine ( ; born John Arthur Carradine Jr.; December 8, 1936 – June 3, 2009) was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage. He was widely known ...

. The song was performed by Donnie and Pepper MaShay. On October 11, 2007, Donnie was a special guest artist at the Closing Ceremony of the 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, China where he performed and premiered his original composition, "Benediction (Let The Best of You Go Free)" written especially for the 2009 World Winter Games of the Special Olympics In 2008, Donnie Demers appeared as Arranger, Art Director, composer, Executive Producer, Package Designer, Pianist and Vocal Producer on the

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

release of the debut album " Dream a Little by his brother

Jimmy Demers Jimmy Demers is an American singer-songwriter, best known as "the original voice" of the " Always Coca-Cola" ad campaign. He is a contributor to ''The Huffington Post''. Demers was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts. He moved to Los An ...

. This was the first major record label that the brothers worked on together. In February 2009, Donnie Demers performed "Benediction (Let the Best of You Go Free)", the theme song that he wrote for the

2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games The 2009 Special Olympics World Winter Games was held in the state of Idaho, USA from February 7 through February 13, 2009. Nearly 2,500 athletes from over 100 countries participated in the games. Dignitaries included actors, musicians, athlete ...

Boise, Idaho Boise ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities in Idaho, most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, there were 235,685 people residing in the city. Loca ...

. He performed the song with his brother Jimmy, along with a full orchestra and choir live at the Ford Idaho Center for the Opening Ceremonies. The Demers brothers also performed

Over the Rainbow "Over the Rainbow", also known as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", is a ballad by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. It was written for the 1939 film '' The Wizard of Oz'', in which it was sung by actress Judy Garland in her starring role ...

at the Closing Ceremonies." On September 27, 2014, Donnie's song, "Save Your Love For Me" premiered in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, at the 2014 David Foster Foundation Miracle Concert under the musical direction of

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...

. Donnie (who attended the event) was introduced to the audience by Foster. On April 22–25, 2015, Donnie's song, "Inspire the World" (co-written by Terry Coffey) was featured throughout the

FIRST Robotics Competition FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is an international high school robotics competition operated by ''FIRST''®. Each year, teams of high school students, coaches, and mentors work to build robots capable of competing in that year's game. Robots c ...

St Louis St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ...

Edward Jones Dome The Dome at America's Center is a multi-purpose stadium used for concerts, major conventions, and sporting events in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Previously known as the Trans World Dome from 1995 to 2001 and the Edward Jones Dom ...

. The song was commissioned by the founders of 'FIRST'

Dean Kamen Dean Lawrence Kamen (; born April 5, 1951) is an American engineer, inventor, and businessman. He is known for his invention of the Segway PT, Segway and iBOT, as well as founding the non-profit organization For Inspiration and Recognition of Sc ...

and

Woodie Flowers Woodie Claude Flowers (November 18, 1943 – October 11, 2019) was a professor of mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His specialty areas were engineering design and product development; he held the Pappalardo Pr ...

. Donnie and his brother Jimmy Demers performed the song at the opening ceremony. On April 29, 2016, Donnie's song, "Broken Heart" (co written by Benoit Poher) was released on the second studio album ''

Au cœur de moi ''Au cœur de moi'' (At the core of my heart) is the second studio album and debut major label album by French-Israeli singer Amir Haddad. It was released on 29 April 2016 in France through Warner Music Group. The album includes the singles "Oasis ...

'' (English: ''At the Heart of Me'') from French-Israeli singer

through

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp., commonly abbreviated as WMG, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York City. It is one of the "Record label#M ...

. The album was certified 2× Platinum earning Donnie a Double Platinum award and as of September 2018, it has been certified triple platinum in France, gold in Switzerland and gold in Belgium. On March 10, 2017, Donnie's original song, "My Everything" was released by British soprano

on her debut album, '' Stars Are Rising'' – The track was recorded in Prague with the

City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech: ''Filharmonici města Prahy'') is a classical orchestra, predominantly composed of Czech classical, jazz and guest musicians. The history of the orchestra goes back to the Film Symphony Orchest ...

. The album went to number one on

iTunes iTunes is a media player, media library, and mobile device management (MDM) utility developed by Apple. It is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating s ...

Stars Are Rising by Joanna Forest on Apple Music
/ref> where Donnie's song landed in the No. 1 position digitally. The album has also hit No. 1 on

List of Classical Artist Albums Chart number ones of the 2010s A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...

Proclamation

* 1983 September 5, "Donnie Demers Day" in the city of Worcester, Massachusetts present by Mayor Sara Robertson for rising to "inspirational heights as a composer, lyricist and musician.

References

External links

Billboard.com: Discography – Jimmy Demers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Demers, Donnie Record producers from California Living people Musicians from Los Angeles Musicians from Worcester, Massachusetts People with muscular dystrophy Singers from Massachusetts Songwriters from Massachusetts Year of birth missing (living people) Singers from California Songwriters from California