by By: Julianna Harney
A total of 60,000 fans packed the Vaught Hemingway Stadium in Oxford Mississippi on Sunday, April 23 to watch Morgan Wallen take the stage for his One Thing At A Time world tour. Being his biggest tour yet and traveling with three different popular openers, fans were beyond excited to attend, as tickets were almost impossible to get. Dedicated fans lined up hours before the stadium gates opened at 4:30PM in order to get the perfect spot in front of the stage and some even flew from different parts of the country and drove hours to be there.
Openers, Bailey Zimmerman, Ernest, and HARDY all performed as regularly scheduled and everything seemed to be going as planned. Wallen was scheduled to come out around 9PM and the excitement began to fill the stadium as the last opening act exited the stage and workers began setting for his act.
Just minutes before he was supposed to appear on stage, a long message popped up on the big screens stating that Wallen had lost his voice and that he was unable to perform, forcing fans to leave the stadium, and offering refunds for the tickets. Fans stood there in shock and even booed at the message as the stadium lights came on.
This is when the Morgan Wallen social media slander began…
TikTok and Instagram were flooded with videos of fans leaving the stadium angry and confused. Some fans were even seen burning their merchandise outside. Rumors spread shortly after a video of a security guard who worked at the stadium was posted on social media, making false claims about why Wallen really didn’t perform. The guard said that he didn’t actually lose his voice and that he was hungover and partied so hard he had to be taken to the hospital.
Although this was false, fans took this information and ran with it. Many of his fans were saying on social media that they would never listen to his music ever again and that they had lost all respect for him. They even tried to cancel him for “lying” about the reason he couldn’t perform.
This isn’t a first in the world of music and concerts, but it proves how easily rumors spread on social media, and that not everything is always truthful. The stadium management made a post a day later, stating that they don’t stand behind what their employee was telling fans and they apologized on his behalf for spreading false information about the artist.
Although fans were refunded for their tickets, many still suffered the extra costs of hotel, food, and travel expenses. While it is understandable to be upset about this situation, attacking the artist for something totally out of his control was not the right response. Wallen apologized for the inconvenience he caused everyone that attended the show that night and said he had canceled the rest of his shows for the week, at the orders of his doctors and vocal coach.
Unfortunately the social media hate didn’t stop there. A woman who attended the concert attempted to sue Wallen for “breach of contract and negligence in a class-action lawsuit.” She stated that Wallen has broken his own refund terms by canceling the event and that they were entitled refunds for their out-of-pocket expenses connected to the canceled performance. However, this lawsuit was shortly dismissed according to Wallens publicist.
Julianna,
I found your post to be extremely interesting. I am a huge Morgan Wallen fan myself and am attending a concert this summer. With that being said, for the past week the concert controversy has been flooding all of my social media apps, but mostly TikTok. I am wondering if there have been any actions taken against the guard who started the original rumor.
I think this is a great example of how fast things can spread on social media and change the narrative of something. And once that narrative is changed, it’s hard to obtain the same reputation that person once had, no matter how false the information was. Social media allows word to spread so fast and that snowball effect can be detrimental. It is definitely a scary thing to think about and there is no denying that social media has affected the way information travels, good or bad.
I hadn’t heard of the controversy before reading this post. I am not a huge country fan nor do I know much about Morgan Wallen. All I can say is cancelling on 60,000 fans would create a huge controversy and it forsure did. Things like this can hurt a celebrity’s image not forever but for a long time. As a fan of other artists I have dealt with this pain. Last year May of 2022, I wanted to go see the rapper Lil Tecca in Seattle. I spent $100 On the ticket, drove four hours to go see him, and paid for parking. I was met with a paper sign on the door saying he rescheduled for two days later. That meant I had wasted four hours of my time and was gonna waste another four driving back to Eugene, and I would miss school if I had went back to Seattle two days later. He did mention the reschedule on his media feed or issue an apology. I did not receive a refund either. So I completely understand why the crowd was upset. I’m sure the singer had his reasons but still issuing out the cancellation earlier would of benefited him more.
I thought this was a really interesting post, especially as someone who is not a fan of Morgan Wallen. I did see some posts about this but I didn’t know any of the background info or why he cancelled. I think it’s definitely disappointing and I understand why people are upset, but I also get why he had to cancel. It reminds me of what happened recently with Sabrina Carpenter in Portland.
It’s unfortunate that Morgan Wallen lost his voice and was unable to perform for his fans at the Vaught Hemingway Stadium. It’s understandable that fans were disappointed and upset, especially after waiting in line for hours and traveling from different parts of the country to attend the concert. However, it’s not right to attack the artist for something out of his control or to spread false rumors on social media.
It’s important to remember that artists are human and sometimes unexpected circumstances can arise. Wallen apologized for the inconvenience and canceled the rest of his shows for the week on the orders of his doctors and vocal coach.
While it’s understandable that fans incurred extra costs due to the canceled performance, it’s not reasonable to sue the artist for breach of contract and negligence. The lawsuit was quickly dismissed according to Wallen’s publicist.
It’s important to handle these situations with understanding and compassion, rather than anger and hatred. Social media can quickly spread false information, so it’s important to fact-check before jumping to conclusions or attacking someone online.
Hi Julianna,
I had heard about this through the grapevine and was happy when I stumbled across this to get the full story. Comparing what I had heard and read about this whole thing to your post gives clarity and an explanation for how the rumor got turned around. It’s amazing how you can almost piece together your own story through all the outlets, and we may never know what’s actually the truth. I heard there was a photo going around of him passed out on a college live-out couch the morning of the concert… who knows what actually happened and what caused him to cancel his show.
Julianna,
I had 5 friends from Sacramento, CA fly all the way to that concert. They spent thousands of dollars flying across the country and staying in hotels and were extremely disappointed. They were glad the openers performed still, but didn’t feel like a refund compensated for the lack of warning on what seems to be a predictable problem. I personally think that they shouldn’t have flown that far for a concert without knowing that a show could get canceled for many reasons. It was interesting to see the different responses people posted on social media, especially given Morgan Wallen’s past on social media.