That takes an objectively huge commercial success out of the game. Wallen’s album is, by any measure, one of the most popular so far this year. It currently holds the 2025 record for first-week album sales with 493,000 units sold (just edging out The Weeknd’s Hurry Up Tomorrow with 490,500) and has spent 11 non-consecutive weeks atop the Billboard 200. Individual tracks like “Just In Case,” “I’m The Problem,” and the duet “What I Want” with Tate McRae have all charted within the top two spots in the Billboard Hot 100.
Regardless, Wallen won’t be taking home any statues unless the artists he collaborated with decide to submit the songs themselves, which Billboard reports he won’t block them from doing. Wallen himself has not publicly commented on the reasoning behind the decision, but Billboard suggests it has to do with the fact that he’s barely been recognized by the Academy’s voting body in the past. Despite his undeniable success, Wallen has only ever been nominated for his work on Post Malone’s 2024 record F-1 Trillion, which featured the collaborative single “I Had Some Help.” None of his solo work has ever been nominated.
Plenty of successful artists never touch the Grammys stage, of course, but Wallen’s stats are pretty unique. It’s not just that his solo albums haven’t been recognized; Billboard reports that Wallen has logged 40 weeks at no. 1 on the Billboard 200 throughout his career—a feat matched or exceeded by only eight artists in the chart’s 70-year history. All of those artists, according to the outlet, have not just been nominated but won multiple Grammys. Additionally, among the 19 artists that have logged 30 or more weeks atop the chart, only Wallen and The Monkees don’t have a statue.
While this is an unusual move, Wallen isn’t the first artist to pull their work from Grammy consideration. Drake and The Weeknd, both of whom have also spent multiple weeks atop the same charts as Wallen, have done the same in the past. Still, if recognition is really what Wallen wants, ensuring that he can’t possibly get it is an odd way to accomplish that goal.
