Kenny Chesney Named ‘Artist Humanitarian’ for Charity Efforts
He'll be recognized for a career of giving back.
Superstar Kenny Chesney will receive a public “thank you” from the Country Radio Broadcasters organization next year. He’ll be given the 2020 Artist Humanitarian Award to honor his career-long focus on giving back.
Sponsored by Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, Chesney will receive his latest award at the Kickoff Luncheon of the 2020 Country Radio Seminar, where a group of industry pros will highlight just a few of his good deeds.
Topping the list of Chesney’s humanitarian efforts is his Love for Love City Foundation, which helped spearhead the rebuilding of St. John following the devastating twin Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. Chesney’s team not only worked to physically clean up and rebuild, but also rescued and relocated more than 2,000 displaced pets to no-kill shelters and loving families in the U.S.
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Even after all that, the icon wasn’t done. When his recent Songs for the Saints album came out, Chesney donated all of his proceeds to the foundation — which has amounted to over $1.1 million so far — and he also restocked the St. John School for the Arts with musical instruments. Meanwhile, he’s continued to spread positivity with PassItOn.Org campaigns, raised money for amputee survivors of the Boston Marathon Bombing with his Spread the Love Fund, and his No Shoes Reefs has supported coastal conservation in Florida, among other big-hearted initiatives.
“I was raised to lend a hand where I could, but also to reach out quietly and keep the focus on the people who need the help,” Chesney says in a statement. “I’ve always tried to do the right thing where I could, but this award really belongs to all the people I’ve met over the years who are rebuilding their lives, their homes, their world. Watching them come together – the courage, the hours and strength they give to these things – my award is getting to be inspired by what these people have accomplished.”
“It’s as if this CRS award was created for Kenny Chesney,” says CRS/CRB Board President, Kurt Johnson. “Artists with his career span are rare. Among them, artists who do as much good as he does, for as long as he has, without calling attention to it, are particularly singular. Here’s to you, Kenny.”
The CRB Artist Humanitarian Award was created in 1990. Past recipients include Blake Shelton, Carrie Underwood, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Garth Brooks and more. Chesney’s latest single is the salt-and-sugar anthem “Tip of My Tongue.”
