Country music performer Morgan Wallen is doing well for a performer who was barred from this year’s Academy of Country Music Awards, dropped from radio playlists across the nation and indefinitely suspended from his record label, following video showing Wallen shouting the N-word. His sales have increased over 300 percent since the wake of the incident, and now his latest record Dangerous: The Double Album, has topped the Billboard 200 for the fourth week in a row.
Wallen is now the first country performer since 2003 to spend four weeks at the top of the Billboard 200, a feat previously claimed by Shania Twain’s Up!. Following his record label suspension, Wallen apologized, publicly stating: “I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back. There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do better.”
Although Wallen is currently being kept off of most major country radio stations in the United States, the performer is still scheduled for music festivals and Midwest tour dates this summer and fall, despite the pandemic. Diplo also played his 2019 collaboration with Wallen “Heartless” during non-socially distanced Superbowl pre-game party at the WTR Tampa Pool, in Tampa, Florida over the weekend.
Wallen’s post-racial slur reception from country music consumers has been in stark contrast from the outrage directed at The Chicks (formerly known as The Dixie Chicks), following their criticism of George Bush during the 2000s. During one notable incident in Bossier City, Louisiana, protesters used tractor to destroy the band’s CDs and other merchandise.
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