Morgan Wallen won Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music awards after previously being suspended for his use of a racial slur.
As a result of the controversy, Wallen was made ineligible for last year’s awards, had his music removed from radio stations and was suspended by his record label for four months.
But this year, Wallen went home with the Album of the Year prize for Dangerous: The Double Album, which spent 10 weeks at number one in the US.
During his winner’s speech, Wallen did not directly address the incident but thanked those who had “shown me grace along the way”.
The decision to award Wallen was criticised by many on social media. One user wrote: “Morgan Wallen winning anything goes to show you country music has no issues with racists and celebrates then. He's trash and those that like him are too.”
Another said: “By awarding Morgan Wallen Album of the Year tonight the Academy of Country Music voters are saying they don’t take racism very seriously. They’re saying they don’t care about 1) the black fans of country music or 2) potentially gaining black fans of country music. It’s despicable.”
In the video that was filmed last February, Wallen could be seen repeatedly shouting a racial slur. He later apologised for his use of the word, saying he was on “72 of a 72-hour bender”.
In his apology video, which ran for five minutes, Wallen also said: “Who knows if I’ll be able to live down all the mistakes I’ve made, but I’m certainly going to try. I’m going to spend some time taking back control of living healthy and being proud of my actions.”
Wallen also claims to be sober since the incident.
