During country singer Morgan Wallen’s canceled Madison Square Garden concert, fans erupted in chants of “Let’s go Brandon” and “f*** Joe Biden” as the controversial singer returned to the stage Wednesday.
As Wallen, 28, performed during the sold-out show, fans raised their fists in unison inside the darkened arena and cheered for him, many shouting anti-Biden chants.
The show has kicked off its Dangerous Tour, a 54-performance stint that follows a controversial year for The Voice alumni, who were widely condemned last year after they were filmed using the n-word.
Die-hard supporters of the Up Down Hitmaker said they were unfazed by his scandalous past.
It doesn’t matter, said Molly Devine. Rolling Stone. ‘We love him.’
Her friend Erin Harkins added, “I love this guy. I think he deserves the world.”
Morgan Wallen performed to a sold-out New York City crowd Wednesday during the opening show of his Dangerous Tour, with fans shouting “Let’s go Brandon” and “F*** Joe Biden!”
The “let’s go Brandon” the crowd was chanting is a reference to a populist anti-Biden slogan that began last October after a reporter covering a NASCAR race mishandled what the crowd was shouting at.
Onlookers were shouting “f*** Joe Biden,” but she mistakenly informed them that they said “let’s go Brandon,” referring to winning driver Brandon Brown.
A month after debuting “Dangerous: The Double Album” in January 2021, Wallen was caught using racist language after a wild night out with friends.
He can be heard on video yelling from his driveway in Tennessee to another friend to “take care of that p*** ya** n****.”
The singer later claimed he uttered the slur after his “72-hour bender” and checked into a rehab facility for 30 days after the accident.
Despite his remorse and apology, the musician was banned from the American Music Awards and the Country Music Awards, both of which he was nominated for.
Fans can be seen raising their fists in solidarity during the Madison Square Garden show
Wallen promised to atone for his hurtful language last July when he announced he would donate $500,000 to various groups, but it was later revealed by Rolling Stone that as of September, he has made a single donation of $165,000 to the Black Music Action Coalition.
However, his Dangerous album sold more than three million copies last year, making it the best-selling record of the year.
Wallen’s album was outdone by Adele’s 30, which was expected to be one of the best-selling albums but it only sold 1.4 million copies and came in sixth.
According to Billboard, Wallen’s second album Dangerous was the first to spend its first ten weeks at number one since 1987.
Wallen’s second album, released in January 2021, was last year’s biggest hit, beating Adele’s No. 30 album, Kanye West’s Donda.
His popularity only increased after the n-word scandal, he told Good Morning America host Michael Strahan last July, five months after the video emerged.
“My team and I noticed that whenever this whole incident happened, there was a spike in my sales,” Whalen said. So we tried to calculate… how far this incident had escalated. We got to a figure of almost $500,000, and we decided to donate that money to some organization, BMAC (Black Music Action Alliance) being the first.
The sales jump after Wallen’s use of the n-word came as the industry did its best to reprimand him, with streaming platforms pulling his songs from playlists and award shows deeming him ineligible for awards.
His label Big Loud Records suspended him. Although the exact nature of the “hold” was not clear. Booking agent WME dropped him, CMT pulled his music videos from the air, and the Academy of Country Music deemed him ineligible for last year’s ACM Awards.
Wallen is scheduled to perform at Madison Square Garden again Thursday night before moving to Columbia, South Carolina, on February 24.
