No “Southern pride” or sedition here. The CMA Festival has announced that Confederate flags will officially be banned from the annual event, which is scheduled to take place in Nashville next week. The new rule is noted by event organizers on the festival’s official website, with “Confederate flag imagery of any kind” listed among other objects prohibited on festival grounds including bikes, drones, fireworks, and drug paraphernalia. The news was first reported by Variety. “This year’s CMA Fest is our first major fan-facing event in nearly three years,” the Country Music Association said in a statement. “We have always had policies in place that protect the safety of our fans and ban discrimination, but we felt it was important to further refine our language to explicitly outline what will...
One year after a camera caught Morgan Wallen shouting the N-word, the country superstar took the stage at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards on Sunday (May 15th). In light of Saturday’s shooting at a Buffalo grocery store, where a white supremacist shot and killed 10 people and wounded three others, one could argue that Morgan making a public repudiation of racism at the Billboard Music Awards would be pretty impactful. He is, after all, the biggest artist in country music. Yet, Wallen made no mention of his past behavior during his two-song performance of “Wasted on You” and “Don’t Thank Jesus.” Nor did he say anything when he took the stage to accept his Billboard award for Top Country Male Artist. Instead, after awkwardly shaking the hand of presenter Pusha-T, he opted for a lengthy list o...