After a string of debatable events, the artist is more popular than ever before

Morgan Wallen had been popular for quite some time now. Over the past year, he’s slowly risen to the status of a household name amongst country music fans. After collaborations with popular producers such as Diplo on “Heartless”, the artist ascended to new heights in pop music as well. While it looks like his career can only go up from here, he’s found himself in some bad publicity as of late.

A few months ago, Wallen was scheduled to make his ‘Saturday Night Live’ debut as the headline performer. However, ‘SNL’ temporarily canceled and replaced him with alternative singer Jack White, before eventually allowing him to perform weeks later due to immense public demand and popularity. The reason he was shifted to a different date is due to a viral video of him partying in an extremely large crowd and kissing multiple women – all without face masks of any form.

More recently, a video went viral of Wallen outside of his home in which he was caught using the “N-Word” by TMZ. The video was seen by hundreds of thousands of people within the day as he faced immediate backlash.

Wallen’s music was dropped from some of the largest radio networks, as well as radio streaming platforms SiriusXM and Pandora. Furthermore, Wallen was denounced by dozens of other country artists in the music industry for his actions.

After all of these controversial events surrounding him, Wallen has found himself at the top of nearly every music purchasing and streaming chart online, as well as just over 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify. This raises the question: Is all publicity really good publicity?

While Wallen’s situation looks very damaging to his reputation, there’s no guarantee that these consequences will last. Radio companies have yet to specify whether the removal of his music was a temporary or permanent move, and only time will tell if the musicians that denounced his actions with collaborate will him in the future.

While actions from artists are seldom seen to the extent of TMZ’s recent viral video, this is on par with Justin Bieber’s situation he found himself in a few years ago. The pop singer was found in a handful of antics that included a pet monkey, the house of Anne Frank, and speeding tickets, along with much more.

While no situation is permanent and there’s a heavy chance that Wallen will be in good graces with the public soon, he seems to be receiving plenty of attention that translates to him making a profit off of his music. As he reaches new heights every day that passes by, fans will be forced in due time to consider what they favor more – his music or him facing justified consequences.