Morgan Wallen is facing a major impact on country radio after his video using the “word n” appears on TMZ.
According to a report in VarietyCumulus Media has directed its more than 400 stations across the country to remove Wallen’s songs from spin. “Team, unfortunately country music star Morgan Wallen was captured on video Sunday night using racial slander. With immediate effect, we request that all Morgan Wallen songs be removed from our playlists, without exception. More to follow, ”said the message. It was signed by Brian Philips, EVP of programming, and John Dimick, head of programming operations at Cumulus.
iHeartMedia quickly followed suit. An iHeart spokesman said Rolling Stone, “In light of Morgan Wallen’s recent actions involving the use of racial injury, we made the decision to remove his music and content from our stations with immediate effect.” iHeartMedia has more than 800 stations.
Wallen’s video is supposedly from Sunday night in Nashville and captures the star of country music streaming – whose Dangerous: the double album overcame Rolling Stoneon the company’s 200 chart for the past three weeks – looking drunk and shouting bad words, including racial slurs, to a group of friends. In response to the video, Wallen issued a statement late on Tuesday saying he was “ashamed and sorry”.
“I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slander that I would like to be able to 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, ”said Wallen, who also issued an apology in October, when he was expelled. Saturday Night Live for breaking Covid-19 security protocols in the draft series. He went on to make his SNL opens two months later.
Wallen’s distance from the incident extended to streaming services. As of Wednesday morning, Wallen’s songs were noticeably absent from Apple Music’s country playlist, Today’s Country and Spotify’s Hot Country Songs. The fact that country radio and streaming services are, at least temporarily, preventing the rotation of Wallen’s songs is a remarkable development, given the emergence of the Tennessee native as the next superstar of the genre.
The condemnation of Wallen’s colleagues came quickly on social media. “Nashville news tonight doesn’t represent country music, ”Kelsea Ballerini tweeted, requesting Maren Morris to answer, “In fact, it is representative of our city because this is not his first ‘fight’ and he just demolished a huge streaming record last month independently. We all know that it was not the first time that he used that word. We keep them rich and protected at all costs, without resources ”.
After a supporter of Ballerini tweeted that “if a female artist did 5% of the shit he did, she would be immediately discarded by everyone ”, Morris answered, “Yes. We would be discarded, lost endorsements, social outcasts of the musical line.”
Mickey Guyton commented on a news about Wallen with “The hate is deep”, before adding, “How many passes will you continue to give? Asking for a friend. Nobody deserves to be canceled [but] This is unacceptable … This is not the first time he has used that ‘unacceptable’ racial slander and all of us [know] This one. So, what exactly are you going to do about it. The crickets will not work this time. “
Country radio personalities, who are always the genre’s cheerleaders and their stars, also express their discontent. Elaina Smith, host of Cumulus’ Nights with Elaina, tweeted that she “broke up” with Wallen. “After a long night of work in an industry that I continue to fight for … trying to contribute to making it a better and more inclusive space, according to a man who is backing everyone’s work in 20 years. I’m disgusted. “