With Morgan Wallen’s name anathema to the moment in the country music industry, it is not surprising that the biggest star of the moment was pulled from any performance track that could have been scheduled for the Academy of Country Music Awards broadcast in April . But the YMCAs are going beyond that – the star plagued by scandals has been disqualified even to compete for the awards.
The ACM awards will be held on April 18, to be broadcast on CBS in a format to be announced. Voting for the first round for members ended on 26 January. The second round of voting will open on February 10, and Wallen’s name will be nowhere.
“The Country Music Academy will stop Morgan Wallen’s potential involvement and eligibility for 56º Academy of Country Music Awards cycle, ”said the ACM in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, the day after Morgan’s use of the word N exploded in big news. “We informed your management team about this decision.”
– ACM Awards (@ACMawards) February 3, 2021
“The Academy does not tolerate or support intolerance or behavior that is not in line with our commitment and dedication to diversity and inclusion,” continues the statement. “In the coming weeks, the Academy will streamline the provision of long-planned diversity training resources for the community of ACM members, directors, staff and country music artists, made available through our Diversity + Inclusion Task Force, created in 2018. As a result of this unprecedented situation, the Academy will be reviewing our eligibility for awards and the application process, ensuring that our nominees consistently reflect the integrity of the Academy. “
The Country Music Association doesn’t hold its CMA Awards until November, so it looks like that organization has a lot more time to consider whether Wallen – who just won the best new artist award less than three months ago – will be allowed to compete there again. But the tea leaves don’t look good there, based on the action the CMA took on Wednesday.
“In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent use of a racial slur,” said the CMA in a statement, “the CMA is removing its digital content from our platforms. We support our Country Music partners for quick action. We will later check with our Board of Directors to review additional measures and continue to review our industry’s inclusion efforts. “
– CMA Country Music (@CountryMusic) February 3, 2021
Wallen’s airplay suffered a heavy blow on Wednesday, as expected, with major chains, including iHeartRadio, Cumulus and Entercom, all instructing their stations to drop their music on Tuesday or Wednesday morning.
The Country Aircheck industry cheat sheet, analyzing Mediabase data, reported that Wallen’s airplay at stations across the country dropped 80% in mid-Wednesday afternoon. The trade also noted that airplay dropped over the course of the day, suggesting that the drop could have been even more pronounced had it not averaged in the mornings, when some seasons had not yet made adjustments. Her current single, “7 Summers”, dropped from 701 spins on Tuesday to 168 today, down 76%, “with the decrease … accelerating as the day progressed”. The vast majority of his spins came in the hours before 10 am, instead of after, said Country Aircheck.
In discussions that took place between radio professionals on Wednesday, many said they had not addressed the issue of Wallen’s ban on the air, preferring to keep their broadcast time positive and let listeners discover the news on their own. The closest comparison is when the Dixie Chicks were taken down as a result of a political statement in 2003. But many programmers say they were reacting to a furious audience with the Chicks 18 years ago, but in this case, decisions were made before most listeners were even aware of the controversy, and some may still not be.
The difficult day for Wallen included the artist being pulled from the radio stations iHeartRadio, Cumulus and Entercom, among others. CMT, SiriusXM and Pandora also removed their music. Spotify and Apple Music removed it from places on their landing pages and internal playlists, although their music can still be searched and accessed by customers on demand.
Its Nashville-based label Big Loud said it was “suspending” its contract “indefinitely”, with support from distributor Republic Records.
So far, Wallen only addressed the problem with a statement Tuesday night that said, “I’m ashamed and I’m sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slander that I wish I could remove. There is no excuse for using this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using that word. I promise to do better. The controversy broke out after TMZ posted a video of Wallen shouting the word with N as he said goodbye to friends in front of his house after a night of partying.