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US country star Morgan Wallen (2019): How racist are country musicians?
Photo: Rick Kern / Getty Images
Actually, 2021 should have been the year of 27-year-old country musician Morgan Wallen.
His name may be largely unknown in this country, but in the USA he is a shooting star: his record "Dangerous - The Double Album" has been number one in the charts for four weeks - a country record that Garth Brooks recently hit The 1990s succeeded.
Now, however, Wallen is faced with a major problem: more than 400 Cumulus Media country radio stations took his songs off their programs after neighbors filmed him using the word "nigger" while drunk.
On Apple Music and Spotify, his songs disappeared from best-of lists with country music.
The context in which Wallen uttered the word is not apparent from the 30-second clip recorded by neighbors.
In the meantime, Wallen apologized with a statement: “I'm embarrassed and sorry.
(...) There can be no excuse for this kind of language. "
It's not the first time that Wallen has hit the headlines negatively: In October, he was unloaded by the TV show "Saturday Night Live" after partying at a party without a mask.
After his apology, the show went with him on the screens in December.
In May he was briefly arrested for public drunkenness and misconduct.
The scandal hits the country scene in the United States at a time when it is publicly dealing with allegations that it is based on racism.
White singer Kelsea Ballerini tweeted that Wallen's slip did not represent country music as a whole.
Black country stars, who are slowly becoming more noticed in the mainstream, see it differently.
The singer Mickey Guyton commented accordingly:
"The hatred goes deep," she wrote on Twitter.
And: »We know that this is not the first time that (a country musician) uses racist expressions.
So what exactly are you going to do about it? "
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