The singer continues to bear the brunt of the controversy he caused earlier this year
Country singer Morgan Wallen is officially banned from attending the 2021 American Music Awards at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theatre. This becomes a big loss for him since he landed two nominations for the awards. The awards officially made a public announcement regarding the “Whiskey Glasses” singer’s ban on Thursday.
How did it begin? Wallen stirred up controversy earlier this year after he was filmed saying the N-word. He is also banned from the Country Music Association Awards that is coming up in November.
Wallen’s nominations
Wallen’s musical journey became official in 2014 after he took part in the sixth season of The Voice, where he was originally part of Usher’s team, and later went to Adam Levine’s team.
The AMA’s is an award function where winners are declared by votes of fans. About Wallen’s ban, the officials stated that he won’t be part of the show in “any capacity.” This means he can’t attend, perform, present, or accept.
The 28-year-old was nominated recently for Male Country Artist and Country Album. Nominations are always determined by analysing the artists’ performances on radio play, music streaming, music sales, and Billboard Charts.
Wallen’s racial slur incident took place in February, but ended up winning three Billboard Music Awards for “Dangerous: The Double Album.” He promised to donate $500,000 of the earnings to social justice organizations like Black Music Action Coalition. However, the organization revealed to Rolling Stone that they remained disappointed with his actions, and for not using his platform to support anti-racism endeavours.
AMA’s future decisions
The AMA’s also added that they will continue to monitor Wallen’s contributions to the Black community and see if he does anything meaningful. This can determine whether he’s allowed back into music shows.
The AMAs will air Nov. 21 on ABC at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.