Morgan Wallen Banned From 2021 American Music Awards Despite Being Nominated
The 2021 American Music Awards announced that they won’t have controversial country artist Morgan Wallen appearing at this year’s show. Wallen is nominated for “Favorite Male Country Artist” and “Favorite Country Album” at the AMAs this year.
Show producer MRC Live & Alternative posted Wallen’s name on its nomination release with a side note explaining the decision to have Wallen nominated despite the fact that he’s not being invited to the event over his racist comments made in a video posted in February.
The show producers statement read, “American Music Awards (AMA) nominees are determined by performance on the Billboard Charts and are not chosen by a voting committee or membership organization.”
“AMA nominees are based on key fan interactions with music (including streaming, album sales, song sales, radio airplay, social engagement), tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data. The AMA winners are voted entirely by fans.”
“Morgan Wallen is a nominee this year based on charting. As his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting),” the statement continued.
“We plan to evaluate Wallen’s progress in doing meaningful work as an ally to the Black community and will consider his participation in future shows.”
Wallen has already been banned from various award shows and radio stations in wake of the February 2021 video which shows Wallen using a racial slur.
After a few months Wallen went on an “apology tour” which included working with several Black organizations about his mistake and the harmful impact it has. Wallen has since been reinstated to his record label after a hiatus of several months as well.
On July 23, Wallen publicly spoke of his racial comment on Good Morning America, saying that “[he] was around some of [his] friends, and [they] say dumb stuff together” and said that “he was wrong” to express those words.
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
