Morgan Wallen is up for two American Music Awards this year, but there is a catch — the country music star has been banned from attending the event.
The nominees were announced Thursday, and Wallen's name has made it into the categories for favorite male country artist and favorite country album for his best-selling project "Dangerous: The Double Album." Rather than celebrate though, the singer has to sit this one out.
A statement on behalf of MRC Live & Alternative, which was cited by Variety, explains that Wallen was a nominee because of charting but "as his conduct does not align with our core values, we will not be including him on the show in any capacity (performing, presenting, accepting)."
Wallen caused a stir in February when video emerged of him using a racial slur. He offered an apology and later pledged to donate $500,000 in donations to black-led groups while also getting more involved in the Black community. These commitments may be his ticket back into the AMAs.
"We plan to evaluate his progress in doing meaningful work as an ally to the Black community and will consider his participation in future shows," the statement continued.
As for why Wallen was even up for any nominations despite being banned from the event, the statement explained that AMA nominees "are determined by performance on the Billboard Charts and are not chosen by a voting committee or membership organization." This means that AMA nominees "are based on key fan interactions with music (including streaming, album sales, song sales, radio airplay, social engagement), tracked by Billboard and its data partner MRC Data."
Earlier this year Wallen was also ruled ineligible at the Academy of Country Music Awards and barred from the CMAs, which recently announced that he would still be eligible for awards in categories that honor artistic works, according to Billboard.
This includes categories for singles, songs, albums, musical events, and music videos of the year. He would just not be eligible for individual artistic categories such as entertainer and male vocalist of the year.
Wallen was also banned from attending this year's Billboard Music Awards, though he was allowed to be nominated for, and won, top country artist, top country male artist, and top country album for "Dangerous: The Double Album."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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