It's not all that difficult to point to when we began to witness the rise of Blake Shelton to A-List celebrity status. It was in 2008. Twitter was becoming the thing for celebrities to do and Blake Shelton used his Twitter account (@BlakeShelton) to showcase his off-kilter sense of humor and positioned himself as the good-natured guy he portrayed on hits like "The More I Drink," "Some Beach" and "Playboys of The Southwestern World."
This was also not long after he became part of country music's #1 power couple with Miranda Lambert while also smartly chosen to record Michael Buble's "Home," a song which returned him to #1 for the first time since 2004's "Some Beach." and also began a string of 9 out of 10 Number One hits over the past four years. Somewhere in this time frame, Shelton also scored a new personal management and his label experienced their own Executive Management change and brought him to work with A&R guru and producer Scott Hendricks, all of these developments helped focus Blake Shelton and his immense talent on great songs and cultivating his charming personality.
These factors all helped him land what arguably has contributed to his big rise to fame, a gig as one of the four Coaches on NBC's "The Voice" (the show, which returns Monday September 10 at 8pm Eastern & Western). Blake's country charm and ease in front of a camera (he once judged one of the 5 years the "Nashville Star" show was on TV) and an instant rapport with Maroon 5's Adam Lavine, Cee Lo Green and Christina Aguilera helped turn the unique show into the break-out hit of 2011 in both the spring and 2011/2012 seasons.
On The Voice's first season, Blake helped coach Dia Frampton to a runner-up finish while coaching country contestants Gwen Sebastian and newly-signed Republic Nashville artist RaeLyn on the second season along with guiding Jermaine Paul to the winner's slot.
While powerful label and management partners helped him land the "The Voice" gig, there's no doubt in my mind that his personable personality cultivated through Twitter helped Blake Shelton the most. Without Twitter, it's safe to say that Blake Shelton would not be the superstar A-list talent he is. He'd likely still have country music success but even there, he'd likely have been relegated to B-list country star. Instead, we have a major personality who is unafraid to both laugh at himself and to say stupid things all in the sake of good fun, something that's clearly not the normal celebrity thing where stars routinely take themselves too seriously.
Follow Blake on Twitter at @blakeshelton and The Voice at @Nbcthevoice
“This post is sponsored by The Voice on NBC. Begins Tonight 8/7c”
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