On a star-studded night that included Chris Stapleton winning Single and Song of the Year for “White Horse” and Male Vocalist of the Year, Carrie Underwood making a surprise appearance with Cody Johnson to perform “I’m Gonna Love You” and Old Dominion winning Group of the Year for seemingly the billionth time, all eyes were on who would win the biggest award of the night, Entertainer of the Year.
With stacked competition that included Stapleton himself, Cody Johnson, Jelly Roll, Lainey Wilson and Luke Combs, it was none other than Morgan Wallen who finally brought home the award after shockingly being shut out last year despite leading with seven nominations.
Wallen was not present to accept the award.
It should come as no surprise that Wallen was awarded CMA Entertainer of the Year given the record-setting year he’s had. The 31-year-old singer/songwriter recently made history, becoming the first artist ever to earn five #1s on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart in a calendar year with “Mamaw’s House,” “Man Made A Bar,” “I Had Some Help,” “Cowgirls” and “Lies Lies Lies.”
Additionally, the “Last Night” singer also became the second artist and the first since 1974 to score back-to-back Billboard Songs of the Summer with “I Had Some Help” and “Last Night” receiving the honor in subsequent years.
Wallen also broke multiple records across the globe in terms of attendance over the past year. On July 4th, he broke the record for the most attended country concert in the U.K. during his performance at BST Hyde Park which saw a crowd of over 50,000 people. He also set Neyland Stadium’s record previously held by the Jackson 5 for the largest-attended weekend with over 150,000 attendees across his two nights at the stadium.
Love him or hate him, there’s no denying the absolute juggernaut that Wallen is. While numbers aren’t inherently everything, just look at some of the songs that are dominating the charts – there’s simply no way to argue that Wallen was not the most successful artist in the genre this year. From his record-breaking chart success to his album sales to his sold-out stadium shows, no one in the genre is close to being on his level at the moment.