Marie Osmond to serenade Kilmarnock fans

FORTY years after her version of the song reached No 2 in the UK charts, Marie Osmond will serenade Kilmarnock fans with Paper Roses a week today. The Ayrshire club’s support adopted the song as their anthem in the 1970s because the lyrics – about a failed romance – reflected their opinion of the team’s football, attractive but usually ending in disappointment.

Marie, 53, only discovered the Killie connection when a fan, Robert Morton, paid £370 for “meet & greet” tickets to her show at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas so that she could sign his strip.

Now she is heading for the Caprington Suite of the Park Hotel, opposite the club’s Rugby Park stadium, on Friday where she will hold a Q&A session for 400 fans and sing the song they have claimed as their own.

Manager Kenny Shiels and his players will be there for the afternoon show before Marie and brother Donny perform at Glasgow’s SECC later that evening, supported by Susan Boyle.

“She seems game for a laugh,” explained club secretary Kirsten Callaghan. “Unfortunately, Donny will not be coming down and there are a few ladies in the office who are distraught about that.”