Despite his racist rant earlier this year, country singer Morgan Wallen had the biggest selling album of 2021, boxing out efforts from Olivia Rodrigo, Drake, and even Adele. Many fans are in disbelief that he was able to successfully bounce back from the incident.
Wallen’s latest album Dangerous: The Double Album sold over 3 million copies, effortlessly eclipsing Rodrigo’s critically acclaimed Sour album and Drake’s highly anticipated Certified Lover Boy project. The biggest upset came after he outsold Adele’s 30 album, which pulled in 1.4M sales.
His racist outburst stemmed from a “72-hour bender”, which resulted in him checking into a rehabilitation center for 30 days for substance abuse after his rant went viral. His behavior led to his label, Big Loud Records, suspending his contract and a handful of major music networks pulling his songs from rotation - he was even banned from both the AMAs and the CMAs for the outburst.
Unfortunately, the repercussions only boosted his notoriety, leading to a 1,220% increase in digital album sales and a 327% increase in song sales immediately following the incident. Wallen told Good Morning America, “Before this incident, my album was already doing well. It was already being well received by critics and fans. Me and my team noticed that whenever this whole incident happened that there were spikes in my sales”.
It seems that all you have to do to boost your sales is go on a racist rant. The country singer even made a collaboration with Chicago-native Lil Durk for the song “Broadway Girls”.
Wallen has since made an apology on Instagram for his outburst.
[Via]