Morgan Wallen Tops Multiple ‘Billboard’ Year-End Charts Despite His 2021 Controversies

To put it lightly, 2021 was an up-and-down year for Morgan Wallen. The story starts towards the end of 2020, though, when he was filmed maskless at a party and was consequently relieved of his duties as Saturday Night Live musical guest. That December, though, he did end up on SNL and even acted in a sketch about that party. Things got worse from there, when he was caught using a racial slur in early 2021. He later received criticism for reportedly not making good on promises to donate to Black-led groups.

Despite the controversies, country music fans stuck with Wallen, so much so that Dangerous: The Double Album was one of the year’s biggest musical releases, thanks largely to the success it enjoyed post-controversy. Actually, Dangerous wasn’t one of 2021’s biggest albums: It was the biggest album.

Billboard shared some year-end charts today, and Dangerous is No. 1 on the Billboard 200 Albums list, ahead of Olivia Rodrigo’s Sour, Pop Smoke’s Shoot For The Stars Aim For The Moon, Taylor Swift’s Evermore, and Drake’s Certified Lover Boy. Furthermore, Wallen was the year’s top country artist and the No. 5 artist overall, after Drake, Rodrigo, The Weeknd, and Swift.

Overall, Dangerous spent ten weeks at No. 1, the most weeks at No. 1 since Drake’s Views had 13 in 2016. Even on the current Billboard 200 dated December 4, Dangerous sits at No. 5.

Billboard notes of the methodology used to create the year-end charts, “Billboard‘s year-end music recaps represent aggregated metrics for each artist, title, label, and music contributor on the weekly charts dated Nov. 21, 2020, through Nov. 13, 2021. The rankings for MRC Data-based recaps reflect equivalent album units, airplay, sales, or streaming during the weeks that the titles appeared on a respective chart during the tracking year. Any activity registered before or after a title’s chart run isn’t considered in these rankings.”

Check out all of the year-end charts here.