Founder of Black Country music collective Holly G criticises Grand Ole Opry's decision to let Morgan Wallen perform | Daily Music Roll

Founder of Black Country music collective Holly G criticises Grand Ole Opry’s decision to let Morgan Wallen perform

Alicia Parker
Published :

Morgan Wallen drew widespread backlash last year after he was filmed using a racial slur, but he's since enjoyed commercial success. John Shearer/Getty Images


Morgan Wallen
Morgan Wallen drew widespread backlash last year after he was filmed using a racial slur, but he’s since enjoyed commercial success. John Shearer/Getty Images

The country venue of The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville on allowing singer MorganWallen perform was heavily criticized after the singer got caught on tape last year using race.

Criticism towards Wallen’s performance generated from social media from people including singer-songwriter Jason Isbell- towards Grand Ole Opry, which renown’s itself as “the show that made country music famous”.

The founder of Black Opry, which is a platform for black country musicians, Holly G conveyed her message in a letter stating that Wallen’s attendance was confusing and “a slap in the face” to people of color.

She further stated, “A stage that was once a dream destination for many Black artists has now cemented itself as one of the many Nashville stages on which we know we are not respected.”

She also went on to mention a tweet about the event last June stating that “Racism is real. It is unacceptable. And it has no place at The Grand Ole Opry.”

Adding to that, she said “This clear and direct statement is completely undermined by your decision to debut Wallen who recently described the rightful criticism of his actions as ‘noise,'”

Morgan’s initial performance at the venue was way back in 2017. His Saturday’s performance was part of the Grand debut of another artist ERNEST.

Last February, Morgan was caught using the N-word.

Morgan has won three country music awards at the Billboards in May.

Big Loud records, his recording agency, suspended his contract as several radio stations also took his tracks out of their playlists. Wallen’s latest album named ‘Dangerous: The Double Album’ with 3.2 million units sold was a super hit, as confirmed by music data firm MRC.

Wallen went on to apologize last year but also stated the backlash as ‘noise’ on one of his Instagram posts.

Holly was quite upset with Grand Ole Opry’s decision to host Wallen and has no interest in taking her brand there anymore as stated by her.

Holly has gone on to work with 200 musicians across 15 cities. She said that the launch of the platform last April was due to the reason that she felt black fans and artists were not accepted in the country music scene.

She met with Grand Ole Opry’s talent coordinators and got to know that the show organizer is very selective regarding whom it allows performing on stage.

The Grand Ole Opry refused to comment instantly on Insider’s request.

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