"The Voice," Reba McEntire-Blake Shelton Oklahoma tornado relief benefits nominated for Do Something Awards
Oklahoma country music stars Reba McEntire and Blake Shelton have received a Do Something Award nomination for their pair of home state charity concerts that raised $500,000 for tornado relief efforts in Tushka.
In addition, the hit NBC reality TV show “The Voice,” which features Shelton as one of its four superstar coaches and included McEntire among its first-season celebrity advisers, has been nominated for a Do Something Award.
DoSomething.org, which bills itself as one of the largest organizations in the U.S. that helps young people rock causes they care about and a driving force in creating a culture of volunteerism, announced the nominees for this year’s Do Something Awards this morning.
The Tushka tornado relief shows are nominated for the Do Something Concert award, along with “CMT Presents Jimmy Buffett & Friends: Live From the Gulf Coast,” featuring Kenny Chesney and the Zac Brown Band; the “Kokua For Japan” benefit show featuring Willie Nelson and Jack Johnson; “Music Builds: The CMT Disaster Relief Concert” with Keith Urban and Alan Jackson; and Taylor Swift’s “Speak Now Tour to Benefit Tornado Victims.”
“The Voice” has been nominated for the Do Something Reality TV Show award, along with “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition,” “America’s Best Dance Crew: Season 5,” “The Buried Life: Season 2″ and “Whale Wars: Season 3.” The nomination singles out “The Voice” for its innovative blind auditions that open the singing competition, noting that the show “is built on the premise that judges base talent solely on the contestant’s voice; the message is that age and looks don’t matter – just talent.”
The fan-voted awards show aims to honor favorite celebrities, along with their wares, who do good works and who inspire young people to do good works, too. The official voting period for the 2011 Do Something Awards opened this morning at www.DoSomething.VH1.com and extends through 8 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 14.
The 2011 Do Something Awards will be hosted by “Glee” star Jane Lynch at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. They will be taped Aug. 14. The awards show will air at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 18 on VH1.
In addition to announcing the celebrity winners, one young “do-er,” aged 25 or younger, will receive a grand prize of $100,000 for their cause. This is the largest and most prestigious prize in the world for young people and social change.
“This is not your grandma’s award show,” said Nancy Lublin, the CEO and Chief Old Person of DoSomething.org, in nominations announcement. “There will be no violins and no ballgowns.”
The EF3 tornado that hit Tushka the evening of April 14 killed two women, injured more than 40 people and destroyed 150 homes, businesses and public buildings, including the school. On May 25-26, Shelton and McEntire performed two sold-out benefit shows at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant. The concerts raised $500,000 for the Tushka Disaster Relief Fund.
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