Wonder how much Morgan cares about the awards ceremonies?
Of course Morgan Wallen has had a checkered past when it comes to the CMA Awards. In 2021, the country music superstar was banned from the ceremony after he was caught on video earlier that year dropping a racial slur. And the past two years, fans have sounded off after believing Morgan was snubbed from the night’s top prize, losing to Luke Combs in 2022 and Lainey Wilson in 2023.
But tonight, after three years of being nominated, Morgan finally took home Entertainer of the Year. Except he wasn’t there to…you know, actually take home the trophy.
Morgan wasn’t in attendance at this year’s awards, despite being nominated for Entertainer of the Year, along with Male Vocalist of the Year, Single of the Year, Song of the Year, and twice for Musical Event of the Year.
At the end of the night, he only won in one of the categories he was nominated for – but it was the one that everyone wants to win.
In a hilarious moment, actor Jeff Bridges announced the winner of the night’s final award…and mispronounced Morgan’s name, calling him “Morgan Waylon.” Probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Waylon reference on the CMA Awards so I guess I’ll take it.
But anyway, the night’s hosts, Lainey Wilson, Luke Bryan and Peyton Manning accepted the award on Morgan’s behalf. And Lainey herself was nominated in the category, widely considered a favorite to repeat after winning last year.
It was hard to deny that Morgan was deserving of the award though. He recently wrapped up his One Night At A Time tour, which ended as the highest-selling country tour of all time. And over the past year, he’s scored five #1 songs, including his monster hit “I Had Some Help” with Post Malone that sat at the top of the all-genre Billboard Hot 100 chart for six weeks.
Say what you want about his music, and debate whether he’s “country” or not, but Morgan is one of the biggest names in the genre right now – so it would have been foolish for the awards shows to continue to pretend otherwise.
Even if Jeff Bridges can’t say his name right…
