Say what you want about Morgan Wallen and/or his fans… they’re as loyal as they come.
As you may or may not know, the Billboard Music Awards are set to take place this coming Sunday, May 23rd, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
And while Morgan secured six nominations this year, the BBMAs announced that he would not be allowed to participate.
The BBMAs released the following statement about his participation:
“Unique among awards shows, Billboard Music Awards (BBMA) finalists are determined by performance on the Billboard charts, and are not chosen by a voting committee or membership organization.
BBMA finalists and winners are based on key fan interactions with music (including album and digital song sales, streaming, radio airplay, social engagement), tracked by Billboard and its data partners, including MRC Data.
So long story short… he had to be nominated.
They continued…
“With our content reaching millions of viewers, dcp and MRC have the privilege and responsibility to effect change by creating a more inclusive dialogue in our productions and across the industry.
Morgan Wallen is a finalist this year based on charting. As his recent conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting).
It is heartening and encouraging to hear that Morgan is taking steps in his anti-racist journey and starting to do some meaningful work. We plan to evaluate his progress and will consider his participation in future shows.”
After Morgan was booted from the ACM Awards earlier this spring, loyal fans took to the streets, pooling money together to create six different billboards in downtown Nashville.
A protest of sorts, the billboards were designed to support Morgan.
According to Music Mayhem Magazine, an anonymous group of fans planned on raising enough money for just one billboard, but they wound up with enough cash for SIX whole billboards.
“This idea was really our way of trying to ‘right the wrong’ of cancel culture. We just wanted to ‘Wallen-Paper’ Nashville during the week of ACMs to show our support for Morgan.
We love him and his music and we wanted to do the right thing. He is an incredibly talented young man and doesn’t deserve what he’s going through right now.”
And now, in light of the BBMAs announcement regarding Morgan, they’re at it again.
The same group of fans, spearheaded by Darleen Ingram, commissioned a Morgan Wallen billboard along the highway near the exit to the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles.
According to Music City Mayhem, the move was prompted after the announcement, but also because the Billboard website chose to use a blue box instead of Morgan’s picture in their awards show materials.
Darleen Ingram once again explained the statement they wanted to make:
“Behind that blue box is a human being.
A living, breathing, human being. He has feelings just the same as you and I do, so to represent him as a “blue box” is degrading and uncalled for.
Cancel Culture needs to see that Morgan’s fans aren’t going anywhere. We’re here to stay just like him. It’s time that either everyone endures the same consequences or no one does.”
This TikTok from Amy Womack Cornman depicts the billboard as well as the blue square on Billboard.com.
Of course, all of this is obviously a result of the racial slur video that was released back in February.
Morgan has since issued an apology, however he did cancel all of his festival appearances and tour dates for the rest of the summer. It remains to be seen if he’ll begin touring again this fall.
