CMT Blog: Archive

If you were in New York City a couple of weeks ago, you may have noticed some random acts of kindness. Both from strangers as well as Julianne Hough. It was all part of MasterCard's Overjoy of Giving campaign, and Hough told me it was very cool. Really really cold, but very cool. "You'd see somebody hail a cab for someone or giving a donation to Salvation Army, and you want to give back to those people," she said.

So she did. She and some other generous people from MasterCard and The Home Depot gave away bags and bags of gift cards. "We were all over. We were on 5th Avenue, over by Saks, and by Rockefeller and near Central Park," Hough said. And how did all these kind people react to being rewarded for their niceties by a celeb? "It was funny. A lot of people were like ‘Oh, my gosh.' But some from Italy had no idea who I was," she laughed. When I asked her if people recognize her more from her Dancing With the Stars fame or her music career, she said in the past it was more because of dancing. "But now, it's like ‘Oh, you're that country singer,'" she said. "It's cool to see that transition."

The whole event helped get Hough in the Christmas spirit of giving. But then again, so did recording her holiday album Sounds of the Season. "It really gets you in the mood," she said, referring to classics like "Jingle Bell Rock" and "Santa Baby." But her duet with Phil Vassar, "It Wasn't His Child/Mary Did You Know," is one that really shows off the more powerful, less twangy side of her voice. Even her nonholiday current single, "My Hallelujah Song," is very faith-filled ("I never was by myself/There were angels helping all along"). It's a good time of year to let Hough's music and her actions inspire the kindness in all of us.