With the name of Morgan Wallen currently an anematics in the country music industry, it is not surprising that the biggest star of the moment would fall from any performance slot that could possibly be aired for April’s Academy of Country Music Awards. But the ACMs go beyond that – the scandal-ridden star is incapable of even competing for the awards.
The ACM Awards will be held on April 18, which will be broadcast on CBS in a format not yet announced. Voting for members in the first round is closed. January 26th. The second round of voting begins on February 10 and Wallen’s name is nowhere to be seen.
“The Academy of Country Music will put Morgan Wallen’s possible involvement and eligibility for this year’s 56 stopde Academy of Country Music Awards cycle, ”the ACM said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the day after Morgan’s use of the N-word exploded in a major news story. “We have made his management team aware of this decision.”
– ACM Awards (@ACMawards) 3 February 2021
“The Academy does not tolerate or support intolerance or conduct that is inconsistent with our commitment and commitment to diversity and inclusion,” the statement continued. “In the coming weeks, the Academy will accelerate the supply of long-planned resources for diversity training for our ACM membership, board, staff and the Country Music artist community, made available by our task force Diversity + Inclusion, established in 2018. As a result of this unprecedented situation, the Academy will review our award and admissions process and ensure that our nominees consistently reflect the integrity of the Academy. ”
The Country Music Association is only holding its CMA Awards in November, so it looks like the organization has a much longer time to consider whether Wallen – who won their best award for new artists just less than three months ago – will be allowed to to compete again there. But the tea leaves do not look good there, based on the actions taken by the CMA on Wednesday.
“In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent use of racial exhaustion,” the CMA said in a statement, “CMA is removing its digital content from our platforms. We support our Country Music partners to perform fast. We will further consult with our board to review additional measures and will continue to investigate the inclusion efforts of our industry. ”
– CMA Boeremusiek (@CountryMusic) 3 February 2021
Wallen’s airplay suffered a severe blow on Wednesday, as would be expected with major chains, including iHeartRadio, Cumulus and Entercom, all instructing to drop its music late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.
The country’s tip list Country Aircheck, which looked at Mediabase data, reported that airplay for Wallen at country stations had dropped by a total of 80% by Wednesday afternoon. The trade further noted that airplay declined as the day progressed, suggesting that the decline might have been even steeper if it had not been average in periods in the morning when some stations had not yet made adjustments. His current single, “7 Summers,” dropped from 701 turns on Tuesday to 168 today, a 76% drop, “with the decline … accelerating as the day progresses.” The vast majority of his turn comes in the hours before 10 a.m. instead of afterward, Country Aircheck said.
In conversations that took place during radio processions on Wednesday, many people said they did not address the issue of Wallen’s banishment on the air, preferring to keep their airtime positive and allow listeners to find out the news themselves. The best comparison is when the Dixie chicks were expelled from the air as a result of a political statement in 2003. But many programmers say they responded to an angry audience with the Chicks 18 years ago, but in this case there is previously made decisions. most listeners were even aware of the controversy, and some may not have been.
The difficult day for Wallen includes the artist dropping out of the iHeartRadio, Cumulus and Entercom radio chains, among others. CMT, SiriusXM and Pandora also removed his music. Spotify and Apple Music have removed it from spots on their landing pages and own playlists, though on-demand customers can still search and call by customers.
His label, Big Loud, in Nashville, said he was suspending his contract “indefinitely” with the support of distributor Republic Records.
So far, Wallen has only addressed the matter with a statement Tuesday night that said, ‘I am embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate race loss that I wish I could take back. There are never excuses to use this type of language. I sincerely apologize for the use of the word. I promise to do better. The controversy exploded after TMZ posted a video of Wallen shouting the N-word as he said goodbye to friends in front of his house after a night’s party.