Country Music Star Remains Uncancellable, Accomplishes Something No One Else Has Ever Done Before
When the cancel culture mob came for Morgan Wallen, it apparently didn’t realize just who it was up against.
Two years after a private video of Wallen using problematic language had the pitchfork-wielders out for the country singer’s career, he broke another chart record — this time putting every song off of his new album, “One Thing at a Time,” on the Billboard Hot 100 singles list.
Billboard reported Tuesday that having the 36 songs from the album on the list represents a single-week record.
“Of those 36 songs, 27 are debuts, also a new one-week record,” the outlet reported.
Wallen bested several previous big-name record-holders in that department, including Taylor Swift and Drake.
In a Jan. 30 article regarding its announcement, Billboard called the sprawling album, released on March 3, “genre-blending.”
“This record represents the last few years of my life, the highs and the lows,” Wallen said in a news release.
“It also brings together the musical influences that have shaped me as an artist – country, alternative and hip-hop,” he said. “There are 36 songs on this album because we just kept exploring with fresh lyrics, music and production ideas and these are the songs that felt right to me.
“It was a blast to create, and I was so grateful to be back in the studio to lay this out for my fans.”
Now, as for the lows, it’s impossible to ignore the one thing that threatened to derail Wallen’s career as one of the most explosive country crossover stars since Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.
In February 2021, video of Wallen — in a state of obvious insobriety — emerged in which he used the N-word to describe a similarly well-served friend after a night out in Nashville.
In the video, taken outside his house and broken to the wider world by TMZ, a stumbling Wallen told a member of his posse, “Take care of this “p****-a** motherf***er,” before adding, “Take care of this p****-a** n*****.”
Wallen profusely apologized. “I’m embarrassed and sorry,” he said. “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.”
Nevertheless, CNN noted that radio conglomerates dropped his music from airplay and the Country Music Association disqualified him from the 2021 ACM Awards.
However, a funny thing happened: Even though the usual prostrations before the woke mob (including a half-million dollar donation to a series of black music organizations) didn’t propitiate the lefty gatekeepers at CNN and their ilk, the cancelation didn’t stick.
Shortly after the cancel-culture mob set upon him, Wallen’s fans began buying, downloading and streaming his albums to show support for the embattled star, entrenching it at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 album charts.
And now he holds 36 positions on the Billboard Hot 100 — and, naturally, the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart with “One Thing at a Time.”
As for his showing on the Hot 100, No. 1 was “Last Night,” the most popular single off of the new album.
“Morgan Wallen triples up at No. 1 on the Billboard Artist 100, Billboard Hot 100 and Billboard 200 charts (dated March 18), ruling as the top musical act with both the No. 1 song and album in the United States for the first time,” the Billboard report said.
“Thought You Should Know” was at No. 7 on the Hot 100, “You Proof” at No. 8 and “Thinkin’ Bout Me” at No. 9.
The 36-song record extends all the way to No. 77, with “Don’t Think Jesus” closing out the list.
Perhaps most impressive, Wallen has 62 Hot 100 hits in his career, starting in 2018 with “Up Down.” That means well over half of his Hot 100 hits are from the first album he released since the incident that almost got him canceled.
Now, in an ideal world, second chances like this would be second nature. Sadly, they’re not — and when they happen, they aren’t handed out, they’re hard-won.
In Wallen’s case, beating cancel culture was doubly hard; as a country music star, he became the face of a genre the left identifies with all things conservative, Southern, retrograde and noxious. And with all that, he’s setting records.
It’s not just that Morgan Wallen is uncancellable. It’s how much he’s had to endure to earn that status.
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