Morgan Wallen sat for a big “redemption” interview on Good Morning America in July. It was his first major interview after being caught using the N-word on video.
“Before this incident, my album was already doing well; it was already being well-received by critics and by fans,” he told host Michael Strahan, five months after the video surfaced. “Me and my team noticed that whenever this whole incident happened, that there was a spike in my sales. So we tried to calculate … how much it had spiked from this incident. We got to a number somewhere around $500,000, and we decided to donate that money to some organizations, BMAC [the Black Music Action Coalition] being the first one.”
BMAC calls the $500,000 figure “exceptionally misleading”
However, Rolling Stone magazine did some snooping around, and could not track the money down. In a statement to RS, BMAC criticized the country singer and The Voice alum, saying they were “disappointed that Morgan has not used his platform to support any anti-racism endeavors.” The group did receive some money from Morgan. But they said the $500,000 figure “seems exceptionally misleading.”
Rolling Stone also reached out to 56 other state, regional and national Black-led or Black-founded charities. None reported receiving any money from Morgan. The BMAC was the only organization that Morgan namechecked during the interview.
Corporate America may have “canceled” Morgan Wallen, but not his fans
After the video surfaced, Morgan got dropped by his booking agent, WME, The Academy of Country Music didn’t nominate him for any awards, The Country Music Association disqualified him for individual awards (his album Dangerous: The Double Album is nominated in the album category). His label, Big Loud Records, “suspended” his contract, but reinstated him in May. Radio companies pulled him off the air (But radio stations are playing his music again, including new single “Sand in My Boots”). He’s been off the road, but has played a few surprise performances, including showing up on stage during Luke Bryan’s Nashville tour stop this summer.
However, since the controversy erupted, his record sales have been through the roof. Rolling Stone reports that the singer’s album sales increased 1,220 percent the day after the video’s release, while his song sales were up 327 percent, according to Alpha Data. Dangerous: The Double Album remains one of the biggest-selling albums of 2021, beating out stars like Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, and Harry Styles.
This report from Rolling Stone will serve to shame Morgan into finally making some big contributions. As well he should. Although his fans don’t seem to be bothered in the least by the incident, Morgan has to keep his word to woo corporate America back.
UPDATE: Morgan has good managers who stay on top of things. USA Today reports that the country singer gave $135K to the BMAC, the organization he namechecked in the GMA interview. He’s also donated to a bunch of other organizations, which USA Today details HERE.
