Travis Scott and Morgan Wallen returned to the stage at the 2022 Billboard Music Awards. This marks the first major televised appearances these music stars have made since their respective controversies last year.
On November 5, 2021, the first night of the Astroworld Festival – a three-day music festival created by Scott – a crowd crush took the lives of 10 people aged 9 to 27 and hospitalized 25 more before and during the rapper’s performance. Videos began to surface of fest-goers screaming for medical attention and to the onstage Scott to aid in the dispersal of the overwhelming crowd. The hip-hop mogul has since been pinned with over 275 civil wrongful death, personal injury, and premises liability lawsuits for the tragedy.
Wallen, in a video obtained by TMZ in early 2021, was seen screaming racial epithets outside his own home in Nashville. Though he apologized in a public statement afterwards, the country star’s scheduled TV appearances were all subsequently cancelled.
This would mark the first time either embattled artist will perform on broadcast since either incidents.
Diddy, the 2022 Billboard Music Awards host, said before the show it was in his power to mediate and help mend their public image.
“We’re un-canceling the canceled. [Brother] Love does not rock like that,” Diddy said. “I looked at Morgan’s situation. I looked at Travis’ situation and I said, ‘Man, I got some power to do something about that because we can’t start that in the music industry or even in life period, so I’m here to forgive, to unify, to celebrate, and to have everybody be free.
“That’s my job.”
Watch videos of their performances below.