The ongoing conflict between Morgan Wallen and the Academy continues: “Who’s They?”
“‘Who’s They?’: Morgan Wallen Takes Another Shot At The ACM Awards In HARDY’s Instagram Comments”
The ongoing feud continues.
You can love him or hate him, but there’s really no denying that Morgan Wallen is arguably the biggest country artist of all time at this point. From a commercial perspective, of course. In addition to consistently selling out stadiums nationwide over the past few years, he’s also the highest-selling country artist of all time (and 3rd all-genre), the reigning Billboard Top Artist of the Year and owned the most-listened-to album on Apple Music globally last year in 2025.
Coming into the 61st ACM Awards this past Sunday, Wallen only received three nominations: Entertainer of the Year, Album of the Year for his I’m The Problem record and Artist-Songwriter of the Year. Though he was, for all intents and purposes, the frontrunner for EOTY, he came away from the night with nothing.
This was actually the “Whiskey Glasses” singer’s fourth consecutive nomination for the ACM Entertainer of the Year. Fun fact? He’s never won it. It was also his third nomination for Album of the Year, and he’s only ever won that one for his 2021 project, Dangerous: The Double Album.
Unsurprisingly, Wallen was not in attendance once again, marking the third consecutive year he’s been absent. While you can make the argument that it’s his duty as an ambassador of the genre and one of its biggest stars to date, you almost can’t blame him at this point. What’s the point of participating if you’re selling out stadiums, shattering chart records and selling millions of albums and you’re never going to be rewarded for it?
At this point in his career, it’s pretty clear that Wallen has little to no desire to engage with either the ACM or CMA Awards. Famously, back in 2024 when he took home his first and only Entertainer of the Year at the CMAs, he was not only not present at the ceremony but also barely acknowledged the win itself. Instead of thanking the CMAs or making a post celebrating the win, Wallen would instead post a sideways photo of the trophy on the seventh slide of an Instagram post four months after winning.
After being shut out at the CMAs last November and the ACMs on Sunday, Wallen is back to throwing some shade at the award shows — the ACMs in particular.
Last night, his good friend, co-writer and collaborator, HARDY, would take to Instagram to upload a series of concert photos and videos chronicling his current COUNTRY! COUNTRY! TOUR. In the caption, he’d subtly defend Wallen’s EOTY snub and throw shade at the ACMs in the caption, which reads:
“They got a category for this…?”
Clearly picking up on the shade towards the Academy, Wallen himself would take to the comments, which is a rare occurrence considering he’s not very active on social media save for concert recaps and announcements, and throw a jab with the simple comment:
“Who’s they”
Given the continued shade and absence from Wallen at both the ACMs and CMAs, it’s becoming pretty clear that he’s all but done engaging with them. And, in turn, will more than likely continue to be snubbed year-in and year-out.
While fans will continue to be up in arms about it annually, it seems as if Wallen is pretty content at this point selling out stadiums and breaking records without the stamp of approval from the industry at large.
