For the second year running, Entertainer of the Year nominee Morgan Wallen has sat out the CMA Awards.
The I’m the Problem singer was nowhere to be seen as the 2025 awards show got started. He was not listed to perform or present, but was still nominated for three awards.
Leading up to the awards show, Wallen’s close friend and frequent collaborator Ernest shed some light on why the singer is skipping awards shows.
In conversation with Taste of Country, Ernest named Lainey Wilson as his pick for Entertainer of the Year, and then said Wallen wouldn’t mind him saying that.
“He don’t give a s**t. Since when is Morgan giving a s**t?” Ernest asked.
“Who’s making more money doing this than Morgan Wallen?” he pointed out. “He doesn’t give a f**k about this award. I wouldn’t either, if I was Morgan Wallen.”
Earlier this month, Wallen was a surprise guest at Ella Langley’s Ryman Auditorium show in downtown Nashville. He cracked a joke about skipping the CMAs, saying it “takes a lot more than an awards show to get me out to Broadway these days”.
Wallen did not attend last year’s show. He was also absent from the 2021 CMAs after he was banned from attending after being embroiled in a racial slur scandal.
“I’m embarrassed and sorry. I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back,” Wallen said in a statement given to ET at the time. “There are no excuses to use this type of language, ever. I want to sincerely apologise for using the word. I promise to do better.”
