Morgan Wallen Shut Out Of GRAMMY Awards, Despite Having One of the Best-Selling Albums of 2021

Nominees 64th Annual GRAMMY Awards were revealed on Tuesday (Nov. 23) and despite being submitted for inclusion in several GRAMMYs categories, Morgan Wallen and his record-breaking sophomore project, Dangerous: The Double Album, were excluded from the list of nominees. 

The news comes after Wallen’s label partners, Big Loud and Republic, confirmed to Billboard that he was submitted for eight categories, including four country categories and all-genre categories such as Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Song of the Year (for “7 Summers’).

Despite their submissions, Wallen was completely shut out of every category. 

The 30-track project was the best-selling album of all genres for the first part of 2021 and topped the Billboard 200 for a whopping 10 consecutive weeks upon its release. Dangerous was recently certified Double Platinum by the Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA), signifying 2 million equivalent units sold. 

Given the album’s massive chart success, some music fans expected Wallen and/or Dangerous to be recognized during “Music’s Biggest Night.” 

Dangerous, which was produced by Joey Moi, features his latest single “Sand In My Boots,” as well as fan-favorite hits like “Wasted On You,” “7 Summers,” “More Than My Hometown,” “Cover Me Up,” “865,” “Somebody’s Problem” and more.

Upon hearing the news of Wallen’s snub, hundreds of fans took to Twitter to express their feelings on the situation.

“I can’t believe @MorganWallen didn’t get any Grammy nominations. He had one of the best albums,” one fan tweeted, while another fan added, “I am boycotting the GRAMMYs because @MorganWallen wasn’t nominated. That’s my one tweet for the year, bye!”

Another upset fan shared, “Morgan Wallen shut out… Zero nominations…” and another declared, “I can’t believe Morgan Wallen got 0 nominations.” 

This year’s GRAMMY nominees were voted on by over 11,000 Recording Academy voting members from nearly 22,000 eligible entries. According to a press release, the nominees “reflect the wide range of artistic innovation that defined the year in music (Sept. 1, 2020–Sept. 30, 2021).”

The GRAMMYs snub comes nearly 10 months after Wallen came under fire for using a racial slur outside his home in Nashville. 

Wallen quickly apologized for his use of the n-word, however, controversy ensued as his music was pulled from radio playlists and streaming platforms worldwide. He was quickly dropped by his booking agent and suspended from his record label. 

Wallen took time away from the spotlight to work on himself and ultimately decided to cancel all concerts he had planned for the Summer of 2021, including his spot on Luke Bryan’s Proud To Be Right Here Tour. 

Wallen was excluded from the 2021 ACM Awards and 2021 CMT Music Awards. He was nominated for the 2021 Billboard Awards and 2021 CMA Awards, however was forbidden to participate in either show.  

Wallen pledged to donate $500,000 in profits from his Dangerous album to the Black Music Action Coalition (BMAC) and other Black-led or owned organizations. According to his manager, Seth England, via USA TODAY, $400,000 of the $500,000 has been distributed as of September 22, 2021.

The remaining funds were promised to be distributed to Black-led organizations in Tennessee by the end of 2021, according to England.

The news comes just days after Wallen announced his massive 46+ date headlining arena tour dubbed The Dangerous Tour, which supports the chart-topping project.