Country artist Morgan Wallen has been disqualified from performing or receiving any recognition during the upcoming Country Music Academy Awards, the organization announced Wednesday, as the star continues to face reaction from a viral video showing him throwing a racial insensitivity in front of friends.
The first round of voting for the awards ceremony, which is scheduled to take place on April 18, has now closed. According to the ACM, Wallen’s name will be removed from the second round of voting for the contest, which will open on February 10th.
“The Country Music Academy will stop Morgan Wallen’s potential participation and eligibility for this year’s 56thth Country Music Academy Awards Series ” it is called a statement from the Academy.
“The Academy does not accept or support intolerance or behavior that does not conform to our commitment and dedication to diversity and inclusion.”
The ACM, which hosts the two major country music awards behind the November Country Music Association Awards, also announced that it would remove all of Wallen’s digital content from its website.
The 27-year-old won the CMA Award for “Best New Artist” last year.
Wallen was also suspended “indefinitely” for his record label early Wednesday after TMZ first reported on a video showing the Tennessee native saying the word N after a night of drinking in Nashville.
Its radio broadcast was a huge success this week after the scandal: it fell close to 80 percent after iHeartRadio and Cumulus Media, the country’s two largest radio stations, instructed their stations to stop. of playing Wallen’s music, according to a report published in Variety.
Wallen apologized for the incident Wednesday and considered his actions “unacceptable and inappropriate.”
“It simply came to our notice then. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial insult that I wish I could recover, “he said in a statement to Entertainment Tonight.” There are never any excuses for using this kind of language. I sincerely apologize for using the word. I promise to do it better ”.
It’s still unclear if Wallen won’t be able to participate in future awards shows, including this year’s CMA Awards.