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Tag: Morgan Wallen

  • Travis Scott, Morgan Wallen hit Billboard Music Awards stage

    By Associated Press

    Travis Scott and Morgan Wallen made controversial returns on the Billboard Music Awards stage on Sunday, while Mary J. Blige was honored for her musical excellence.

    Wallen performed in his first major awards show after he was caught on camera more than a year ago using a racial slur. After not receiving a verbal introduction, the country star sat alongside his four-piece band and performed “Don’t Think Jesus” then his chart-topping “Wasted on You,” a single from his popular project “Dangerous: The Double Album.”

    Shortly after his performance, rapper Pusha T presented Wallen with the top country artist award.

    “I want to say, ‘Thank God.’ And thank my fans. I got the best damn fans,” said Wallen, who acknowledged his mother for accompanying him as his date to show. He also thanked for Billboard for inviting him. He did not mention last year’s incident, which once found the disgraced singer rebuked by the music industry.

    “Thank you to my little boy,” he continued. “You inspire me every single day.”

    Scott made his first televised performance since a massive crowd surge killed 10 people and injured thousands at his Astroworld Festival in Houston in November last year. The rapper performed his single “Mafia” in an icy, polar-themed set with heavily censored lyrics.

    Mary J. Blige received the Icon Award for being an influential music maker. The singer, known as the Queen of Hip-Hop Soul, was presented the award by Janet Jackson and escorted on stage by Sean “Diddy” Combs – who emceed the show, which was broadcasted live on NBC from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

    Blige said she was in a “dream right now” after she received the honor. She spoke about the journey of becoming an icon not being an easy feat during her stellar career.

    “I’ve been on this journey for a long time, one that didn’t always look the way you see me now, one that is filled with a lot of heartache and pain,” she said. “But God helped me to channel those experiences and emotions in my music, which is where I started in music.”

    Blige was honored through a video montage with appearances from Queen Latifah, Gabrielle Union and Taraji P. Henson. Previous award recipients include Prince, Steve Wonder, Mariah Carey, Neil Diamond, Jennifer Lopez, Garth Brooks, Pink, Celine Dion and Janet Jackson.

    “I was ghetto fabulous and I still am,” said Blige, whose Dr. Dre-produced single “Family Affair” topped the Billboard Hot 100 in 2001 and had four No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200. “So ghetto and so fabulous and people were threatened by that. Now, everybody wants to be ghetto fabulous.”

    Maxwell paid homage to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in a performance that celebrated the 40th anniversary of the King of Pop’s 1982 album. The singer took the stage with sparkling black gloves and a jacket before he performed the heartfelt jam “The Lady in My Life.”

    Combs honored activist Tamika Mallory with the Revolt Black Excellence Award. He applauded Mallory’s efforts as an organizer of the Women’s March in 2017, being an advocate for gun control and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement.

    “You fight for us on the front lines, and we just have to pay so much respect for you, queen,” Combs said before calling her “fearless.”

    After hearing Combs’ gracious remarks, Mallory was almost moved to tears. She then took the opportunity to bring up the deadly mass shooting Saturday that left 10 dead in Buffalo, New York.

    The white gunman was arrested on a murder charge after the supermarket attack, in what police called a hate crime, where most of the victims were Black.

    “While they arrested the person who did the killing, they haven’t arrested the hate,” Mallory said. “They haven’t arrested the harm and the pain. And if you are not doing anything at this time, you’re actually doing something by being silent. I ask you tonight: Get involved, fight for justice.”

    Earlier, Drake was named top artist, male artist, rap artist, rap male artist and rap album for “Certified Lover Boy.” The rapper extended his record as the most decorated winner in the history of the awards show with 34 wins.

    Olivia Rodrigo and Kanye West, known as Ye, took home the most awards with six during a non-televised ceremony. Rodrigo was awarded best new artist.

    Ye made his mark in the faith-based categories – again: The rapper won top Christian artist for the first time, but he claimed top gospel artist and gospel song for a third year in a row. He also received top gospel album for the second time.

    The Kid LAROI became a first-time winner, taking home five wins for his song “Stay” with Justin Bieber – whose Billboard Music Awards win count rose to 26.

    Doja Cat came away with four awards. She won top R&B artist and R&B female artist for the second consecutive year, along with top R&B album and female artist.

    Taylor Swift – who has the second most-ever award show wins with 29 – won four awards. Bad Bunny received two wins while R&B duo Silk Sonic, comprised of Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak, won their first-ever award for top R&B song for “Leave the Door Open.”

    Becky G, who released the album “Esquemas” on Friday, performed her hit song “MAMIII,” which topped the Billboard’s Hot Latin Songs chart. Ed Sheeran delivered a remote performance from Northern Ireland, where he is on tour.

    Other acts who took the stage include Miranda Lambert, Meghan Thee Stallion and Grammy Awards darlings Silk Sonic.

    Nominees are determined by Billboard chart rankings and winners are selected based on several criteria, including their album and digital song sales, airplay and streaming success and touring.

  • ACMs 2022: Morgan Wallen bags first major award after racial slur controversy

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Country music star Morgan Wallen returned to his first award show since being embroiled in a racial slur controversy. Apart from attending the 2022 ACM Awards, he also took home Album of the Year.

    As per Variety, Wallen bagged the award for his album ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’, marking his first major country music award since his 2021 N-word scandal.

    In his acceptance speech, the singer said, “When I started this album, I was a kid. By the time I put it out, I was a father. And that’s become more important to me than anything else.” He also thanked his fans and those who have shown him “grace.”

    Wallen further said, “To my son, this album would signify that his daddy was a fighter and he chased his dreams and worked hard to make them a reality. I want to say a special thank you to all the songwriters, producers and musicians that played on this album. I wish you were standing here next to me, this project would not be complete without all of you.”

    ALSO READ | Morgan Wallen banned from 2021 American Music Awards despite two nominations

    For months following the scandal in 2021, Wallen’s music was dropped by top radio chains including Cumulus Media, iHeartRadio and Entercom, the cable network CMT, the satellite service SiriusXM and the streaming service Pandora. His music catalog was also removed from any visible spots on DSPs like Spotify and Apple Music.

    Wallen has since apologised on several different occasions and revealed to Good Morning America’s Michael Strahan in July 2021 that he checked into a rehabilitation centre after the incident.

    While Wallen came under fire after he was caught using the racial slur in a video last year, his award prospects and position on country music charts did not suffer much.

    Last year, Wallen won three Billboard Music Awards despite being banned from the award ceremony. In December, his collaboration with rapper Lil Durk, titled ‘Broadway Girls’ landed the country singer at No. 1 on Billboard’s R&B/hip-hop chart.

    Talking about this year’s ACM Awards ceremony, it was hosted by Dolly Parton, Jimmie Allen and Gabby Barrett. The event broadcasted live from Las Vegas on Prime Video.

  • Morgan Wallen banned from 2021 American Music Awards despite two nominations

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Country music star Morgan Wallen was banned from attending the 2021 American Music Awards despite being nominated for two awards at the ceremony.

    “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),” read a statement attributed to MRC Live & Alternative, which is producing the show, reported Variety.

    The statement went on to suggest that they’re leaving the door half-open, but still aren’t satisfied with the statements the country superstar made since he was caught saying the N-word on video in March.

    “We plan to evaluate his progress in doing meaningful work as an ally to the Black community and will consider his participation in future shows,” the statement said.

    It also offered an explanation of why the AMAs as an awards show with nominations based on data and not qualitative judgments, did not feel there was any way to leave Wallen out of his rightfully earned nominations.

    “Unique among awards shows, 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 statement read.

    But, it also noted, “The AMA winners are voted entirely by fans” — which leaves the door wide open for a pair of Wallen wins, since he has the most popular album of the year so far in any genre, and its massive success has been unaffected by the shame heaped on him by large swaths of the music industry.

    Almost needless to say, the two categories for which Wallen is up — favourite country album and favourite male country artist — are highly likely to be presented on-air.

    The AMAs’ decision marks a seeming sweep of Wallen being barred from awards shows this year. He was ruled ineligible at the Academy of Country Music Awards in the spring and CMT Music Awards in the summer.

    The Country Music Association issued a split decision and said he could contend in categories that would go both to him and his collaborators, but the organisation still said he would not be invited to next month’s CMAs. In any case, he’s up for album of the year there.

    At the Billboard Music Awards in May, which are data-driven from start to finish, Wallen won three awards out of the six he was nominated for, after also being banned there.

    The Grammys, meanwhile, has accepted all his submitted records for the first ballot. There’s been no indication from producers about whether he would be invited to the show if he makes the final run of nominees.

    Wallen has been easing back into performing and public life since doing an interview on ‘Good Morning America’ in July for which both he and anchor Michael Strahan were widely panned for insufficiently addressing his follow-up from the incident and racism in country music generally. 

  • Justin Bieber apologises for endorsing Morgan Wallen’s music following racial slur scandal

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, on Wednesday, shared a social media apology for his endorsement of country music star Morgan Wallen’s song, six months after a video was leaked of Wallen drunkenly using the N-word with his friends.

    In a now-deleted post, Bieber had shared a screenshot of Wallen’s ‘Sand In My Boots’ from ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’, writing “Love this album”, alongside it. Not long after, the ‘Sorry’ singer deleted the post and penned an apology on his Instagram Stories.

    Apologising to the people he unknowingly hurt due to the incident, Bieber wrote, “I had no idea that the guy’s music i posted was recently found saying racist comments. As you know i dont support or tolerate any sort of racism or discrimination. I had no idea, I sincerely apologize to anyone i offended.”

    The ‘Peaches’ singer nodded to his own past with the slur by adding, “When I was a kid, I was incredibly ignorant and said some very hurtful racist jokes that clearly were not funny. I hurt a lot of people especially the Black people in my life but was fortunate enough to have had them educate me on the horrifying origin of the n-word. This brings those painful memories back up; I will always take ownership for my ignorance and my past because I know I am not that person.”

    In March, Bieber had revealed that he doesn’t own a cellphone and instead opts to use an iPad. Hence it’s at least somewhat plausible that he missed the controversy surrounding the country star.

    Wallen was on ‘Good Morning America’ in July talking about the incident but seems like Bieber is not the target audience for that show.

    In February, Wallen faced enormous social media backlash after TMZ published a video of him telling a friend to “take care of this p–y-ass n–a” when they returned home from a night out in Nashville.

    He immediately issued an apology, saying he was “embarrassed and sorry,” but months later, he revealed it wasn’t the first time he’s used the word.

    As per Fox News, Big Loud, Wallen’s record label suspended him in February but has since reinstated him. Either way, the controversy hasn’t dented his album sales. Wallen’s ‘Dangerous’ album has been No. 1 on the Billboard country album chart for 26 weeks.

  • Morgan Wallen suspended from label after singer used racial slur

    By ANI
    WASHINGTON: American singer Morgan Wallen is facing swift consequences after a video surfaced of the singer using a racial slur. Following the incident, Wallen’s record label Big Loud Records suspended his contract indefinitely.

    As per Variety, Wallen’s record label Big Loud, which releases his music jointly with Republic Records, announced on Wednesday that the singer’s recording contract is being suspended “indefinitely.”

    Big Loud Records said in the statement, “In the wake of recent events, Big Loud Records has made the decision to suspend Morgan Wallen’s contract indefinitely.”

    Republic Records, which he is co-signed to, said it “fully supports Big Loud’s decision and agrees such behavior will not be tolerated.”

    Wallen, whose new track ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’ is about to have a fourth week at the top of the charts, saw his music yanked from major radio networks and streaming service playlists within hours of the video being published on TMZ on Tuesday night.

    Cumulus, which is powerful in the country radio sphere, sent out a directive to the program directors of all of its 400-plus stations with the header “MORGAN WALLEN — EXTREMELY IMPORTANT.”

    The message read, “Team, unfortunately, country music star Morgan Wallen was captured on video Sunday evening using a racial slur. Effective immediately we request that all of Morgan Wallen’s music be removed from our playlists without exception. More to follow.”

    Radio giants like iHeartMedia and Entercom soon followed suit, as did the country music television network CMT. His music has been pulled from the satellite service SiriusXM and the streaming service Pandora, as well as being removed from any visible spots on Spotify and Apple Music.

    The video reportedly recorded by Wallen’s neighbors, shows him yelling profanities after a night out in Nashville, including the N-word.

    Wallen issued a statement on Tuesday night after TMZ first reported the incident, saying, “I am embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”

    However, some fans pointed out that Wallen appeared to be using the term as a “term of endearment” among friends and not as an invective.

    Wallen has a history of having used the N-word on social media, quoting rap lyrics. In 2012, he tweeted a lyric by rapper Meek Mill, “I burn bread I ain’t talkin toast n—.” (That tweet was deleted from Wallen’s account on Wednesday morning.)

    The move follows a similar one involving singer Marilyn Manson earlier this week, where Loma Vista Records, which distributed his last three albums, announced that it has parted ways with the artist. In 2019, Sony Music dropped R Kelly after multiple allegations of sexual assault and abuse against the singer.