Tag Archives: American Red Cross

Lopez Launches “J.Lo’s Christmas Gift” Drive

Posted on by
Reply

Jennifer Lopez isn’t looking forward to getting Christmas gifts this year… She’s actually excited about giving them.

“I love going and shopping for Christmas presents for everybody and making gifts for people and seeing their faces light up and surprising them; that’s where I get my joy,” says Lopez.

Jennifer Lopez

That’s why la Lopez launched her “J.Lo’s Christmas Gift” drive, asking her fans to donate to her three favorite charities (the Boys & Girls Club, the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and the American Red Cross). In exchange, she’ll give someone two tickets to the last show of her Dance Again world tour in Puerto Rico on Saturday; she’ll even pay their airfare and hotel costs.

“It’s just that kind of doing something nice for somebody, and they do something nice back and kind of paying it forward,” she.

The contest, which was promoted on Twitter with the hashtag JLOSCHRISTMASGIFT, ended Monday.  She got the idea to use social media to encourage her fans to give back since becoming more involved in platforms like Twitter and Facebook and seeing how much response she’s received when she’s had contests.

“I thought, `What if every person I tweeted and asked for a follow donated a dollar?’ I have 13 1/2 million followers (on Twitter),” she said. “We can collect a lot of money for these charities that I work with that are literally close to my heart.”

Part of the reason Lopez chose the Red Cross is because of its relief work in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which devastated parts of New York City, where Lopez grew up. She hasn’t been back to New York since the October storm but her ex-husband, Marc Anthony, was affected.

“My babies (4-year-old twins Max and Emme) had to go there and visit their dad shortly after, and it was like, kind of a scary proposition to send them because I didn’t know what it was going to be like,” she said. “He was saying how his house had a tree fall in his front yard, and he couldn’t stay there and there was no electricity. Just knowing how so many people were affected by it and when you really hear the stats of it … there’s not enough you can do.”

Lopez will be heading home for the holidays; and she feels blessed to have been able to stage her first world tour, particularly spending much of it with her family: “It’s just been an amazing year.”

Juanes to Launch North American Tour Next May

Posted on by
Reply

Following his highly successful MTV special, Juanes is taking his unplugged show on the road in North America…

The 40-year-old Colombian rockero will be performing  in smaller U.S. and Canadian venues next spring.

Juanes

The U.S. leg of Juanes’ Loud and Unplugged Tour will kick-off on Sunday, May 26 at Humphreys Concerts By the Bay in San Diego. The Colombian singer-songwriter will then continue on to Grand Prairie, Texas; Toronto, and Montreal, and performs at Philadelphia’s historic Trocadero Theatre on June 21. Additional dates in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York and others cities are expected to be announced soon.

The tour follows the success of Juanes MTV Unplugged special, which received five Latin Grammy Award nominations. The Unplugged special, released last May, returned the soul to a spectacular career that Juanes had acknowledged was “at a crossroads.”

“I’m trying to remember who I was,” he said during a Q&A at SXSW last March. “All those dreams and all those ideas I had when I started in music.”

The Loud and Unplugged concerts will echo the intimate yet celebratory tone of the record, on which Juanes is joined by his Latin roots rock band, as well as guests likes tropical music star Juan Luis Guerra, who produced the album, and legendary Spanish balladeer Joaquin Sabina.

Last week, Juanes and Guerra announced that they’ll donate 100% of the proceeds of their previously planned November 24 concert at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn to The American Red Cross to help victims of Hurricane Sandy.

Juanes Concert Dates (and Venues):

May 26: San Diego (Humphrey’s Concerts By the Bay)
June 6: Grand Prairie, TX (Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie)
June 15: Toronto, (Massey Hall)
June 16: Montreal (Metropolis)
June 21: Philadelphia (Trocadero Theatre)

Aguilera to Perform on NBC’s Hurricane Sandy Benefit Telethon

Posted on by
1

Following the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast, Christina Aguilera is stepping up to help.

The 31-year-old half-Ecuadorian American singer and The Voice coach, who was born in Staten Island, will perform at Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together, a one-hour live benefit telethon organized by the networks of NBCUniversal — including NBC, Bravo, CNBC, E!, G4, MSNBC, Style, Syfy and USA.

Christina Aguilera

Hosted by Today anchor Matt Lauer, the telethon will be broadcast from NBC’s the New York studios at 30 Rockefeller Plaza. It’ll air live across the East Coast and tape-delayed on the West. Additional networks could join the broadcast of the telethon prior to airtime.

Along with Aguilera, the list of performers includes: Jon Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen and Sting. Additionally, the telethon will feature appearances by Jimmy Fallon and NBC News’ Brian Williams.

Money collected will be donated to the American Red Cross relief efforts for Hurricane Sandy.

Hurricane Sandy: Coming Together will be broadcast live on Friday, November 2 at 8:00 pm ET.

To donate, people can visit http://www.redcross.org/, call 1-800-RED-CROSS or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation.