Morgan Wallen keeps getting nominated for awards but can’t attend the actual shows

How do you solve a problem like Morgan Wallen? The music industry clearly doesn’t know the answer to that just yet. 

After attracting huge controversy at the start of this year after being caught using a racial slur, his music was removed from several U.S. radio stations and streaming playlists, yet his record sales skyrocketed. He then announced he was taking time away from music to think about what he’d done, yet has appeared in several comeback gigs since then.

All in all, Wallen remains a powerful and popular country music artist but a very wayward one. As per Rolling Stone, Wallen has been banned from attending The American Music Awards (AMAs), despite being nominated for two awards. That means there’s the real possibility of the singer winning Favourite Country Album (Dangerous: The Double Album) and Favourite Male Artist while not being allowed to collect the awards.

MRC Live & Alternative, the group that produces the AMAs, claims that the nature of the AMAs made Wallen’s nominations inevitable. The AMAss are determined more by an artist’s popularity rather than their musical merit.

“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,” a statement read.

“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). 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 AMAs aren’t the only awards show to find issue with Wallen: he’s also been banned from attending this year’s Country Music Association Awards (CMAs), despite being nominated for Album of the Year for Dangerous: The Double Album.

For more on this topic, follow the Country Music Observer.

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