If Morgan Wallen watched the 2024 CMA Awards on TV last week, for most of the show, he probably felt he’d made the right decision to stay away from the proceedings at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. He lost six awards in a row, including male vocalist, single and song of the year. The night was shaping up to be a replay of the 2022 CMA Awards, where he went 0-2 or the 2023 show, where he went 0-3. Voters, it seemed, were reluctant to honor an artist who had been caught on video using a racial slur.
Then Jeff Bridges came onstage to present the evening’s final award. This time, Wallen won. Bridges mispronounced Wallen’s last name, but that clumsy move didn’t change the fact that Wallen had just won the biggest award in country music – and he wasn’t there to accept it.
Suddenly, Wallen’s decision to stay away looked very different. He had just been received an award that has gone to many of the greatest country stars of the past six decades – and he wasn’t there to accept it. If he had shown up, he could have thanked his fans and the country music community for their loyalty and for giving him a second chance. Instead, all we remember from that moment is an actor’s botched pronunciation of his last name.
Several previous CMA entertainer of the year winners were also no-shows. Eddy Arnold wasn’t present when he became the inaugural winner at the 1967 show, nor was John Denver in 1975 or Garth Brooks in 1997 or 1998. (A CMA official notes: “Good reminder that CMA does not know winners in advance.”)
This happens at all awards shows, where a top winner isn’t there in person to accept. It happened fairly often in the early years of the Grammy telecast, which launched in 1971. At the 1973 telecast, the only “Big Four” recipient who was on hand to accept was Ringo Starr, a featured artist on album of the year winner The Concert for Bangla Desh. No-shows happen much less often than they used to, especially at top-level shows like the Oscars and the Grammys. The coinage of the term EGOT in 1984 makes winning at these shows even more consequential than it used to be.
Three years ago, most thought the late Chadwick Boseman would win best actor at the Oscars for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The producers of the Oscar telecast even positioned that award last in the show – after best picture – thinking they would end the show with a powerhouse emotional moment. But the award instead went to previous winner Anthony Hopkins for The Father, who wasn’t even there to accept. Hopkins was the first best actor winner not to be there to accept since Paul Newman in 1987.
It’s a similar story in the best actress category at the Oscars. The last best actress winner who wasn’t on hand to win in person was Katharine Hepburn in 1982.
Here are 20 times a big winner at an awards show was a no-show. This being Billboard, naturally we focus on music.