Morgan Wallen charts first No. 1 song after n-word, COVID controversies

CMT Music Awards!This year, Lainey Wilson leads the charge with four noms, including Performance of the Year and Female Video of the Year, with three nominees tied for second place -- Jelly Roll, Cody Johnson, and CMT Music Awards co-host Kane Brown.Across all categories, CMT is recognizing 21 first-time nominees, with Carrie Underwood, the most awarded artist in CMT history, also earning another nod this year. Hosted by Brown and Kelsea Ballerini -- also a nominee this year — the CMT Music Awards air at 8:00 p.m. ET on CBS Sunday from the Moody Center in Austin, Texas.

But Vaughan was cleared of using racist language "on the balance of probabilities" on Friday following an eight-day Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) hearing earlier this month. The CDC panel's findings concluded that the ECB's case against Vaughan could not be proven. Former Yorkshire players Matthew Hoggard, Tim Bresnan, Andrew Gale, Richard Pyrah and John Blain were all found liable of using racist and/or discriminatory language, but Morgan has taken exception with Rafiq for what he has alleged as a "smear campaign" against 48-year-old Vaughan.

Viewers can watch Piers Morgan: Uncensored on the TalkTV YouTube channel at 9pm BST/4pm ET, or tune into TalkTV on Sky 522, Virgin Media 606, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217 in the UK.

Up-and-coming country artists Megan Moroney and Jelly Roll are both nominated for their first CMT Awards this weekend – and they are both looking back at their journeys and who inspired them as singer-songwriters.  "Well, I think like from a songwriting aspect, I always love Kacey Musgraves … Miranda Lambert," Moroney told Fox News Digital, adding that the "If I Was a Cowboy" singer was one of her "musical influences." Moroney clarified that while she has never spoken to Lambert, she has run into her – literally. The 25-year-old said that several years ago, when she was still in college in Georgia, "I accidentally ran into her … and I stepped on her on accident.

Lionel Richie.During a Tuesday appearance on “The View,” the 73-year-old musician shared more about his hit song “All Night Long (All Night)” in honor of its 40th anniversary — and made an NSFW admission.He appeared on the talk show alongside his fellow “American Idol” judges Katy Perry and Luke Bryan to promote the 21st season of the show. “Let me give you the first part that I have to really, really say to you,” Richie said. “When I wrote ‘All Night Long,’ it was truly all night long.”He continued, joking, “Now my ‘all night long’ is down to a fierce 15 minutes.

Thania Garcia Morgan Wallen’s latest album keeps its grip atop the Billboard albums chart, holding at No. 1 for the third week in a row. The country star’s 36-song “One Thing at a Time” picked up the equivalent of 209,500 sales in the United States, according to data by Luminate. In its third tracking week, the set collected 256 million streams and tallied 12,500 copies sold. Following its March 3 debut, “One Thing” entered the charts at No. 1 logging 501,000 units — becoming Spotify’s most-streamed country album in a single day by a male artist — then notched 259,000 in its second week. By comparison, the record joins only Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” in garnering over 200,000 units in each of their first three weeks across the last year.

track featuring —at an upcoming spring concert. Melissa Tempel, a dual language teacher at Heyer Elementary in Waukesha, Wisconsin, vented her frustrations on Twitter after learning the song had been deemed too “controversial” for six- and seven-year-olds to perform. “My first graders were so excited to sing 'Rainbowland' for our spring concert, but it has been vetoed by our administration,” Tempel wrote last week. "When will it end?" Initially, administrators did not elaborate on their reasoning for the ban, leading Tempel to wonder if Dolly Parton's vocal support for the LGBTQ community had something to do with it. “The latest I heard is that the song was banned bc @MileyCyrus is controversial,” she added in a subsequent tweet.

Joe Harding, the now-former Florida Republican lawmaker who authored the extremist “Don’t Say Gay” bill could face up to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday afternoon to federal felony fraud charges in a scheme to obtain $150,000 in COVID-19 relief funds, according to Florida Politics‘ publisher Peter Scorsch.Harding, 35, was a construction project manager who started his own lawn care company. He quickly became a right-wing darling after his anti-LGBTQ legislation, officially the Parental Rights in Education Act, was embraced by Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, who signed it into law.Harding was charged in a December federal indictment with six counts of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements in his plot to obtain $150,000 in COVID funds.He resigned from the legislature the following day.

ITV show and subsequently quit. Piers Morgan is now a TalkTV star with his Uncensored show, having quit GMB two years ago. The 56-year-old stormed off in March of that year, during a row with Alex Beresford over Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Oprah Winfrey interview.

Thania Garcia Morgan Wallen’s blockbuster “One Thing at a Time” pushed through two major releases from Miley Cyrus and K-pop giants Twice to come out on top of the Billboard 200 for a second consecutive week. After scoring the biggest opening week numbers of 2023 for any album by units earned (501,000), and the fifth-largest streaming week ever (498.28 million streams), “One Thing at a Time” enters another week at No. 1 with the equivalent of 259,000 sales and 21,000 album sales, according to data by Luminate. Notably, the set also collected 308 million on-demand official streams for the second-best streaming week ever for a country album, topping the debut of Wallen’s 2021 album “Dangerous: The Double Album,” which sits at No. 7 on this week’s chart.

Princess Catherine (aka Kate Middleton) and Prince William celebrate their first St. Patrick’s Day with their new titles by attending the annual parade at Mons Barracks on Friday (March 17) in Aldershot, U.K.

Thania Garcia As expected, Morgan Wallen’s “One Thing at a Time” sky-rocketed to No. 1 on the albums chart –scoring the biggest opening week numbers of 2023 for any album by units earned and the fifth-largest streaming week ever. The 36-song record, released March 3 via Big Loud/Mercury/Republic Records, opens with the equivalent of 501,000 sales in the U.S. as the largest debut since Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” entered the charts last October with 1.5 million units. Approximately 76% of “One Thing at a Time’s” units come from its massive impact on streaming platforms, according to data by Luminate via Billboard. The super-sized set logged a total of 498.28 million on-demand streams in its first week and became Spotify’s most-streamed country album in a single day by a male artist.

Glenn Close will no longer attend the 95th annual Academy Awards. On Sunday, the 75-year-old's rep confirmed that she contracted COVID-19, and will miss the ceremony.«She was very much looking forward to taking part in the show,» Close's publicist told CBS News in a statement.

An unexpected absence. Glenn Close announced she will not be attending the 2023 Oscars after testing positive for COVID-19.

Piers Morgan has joined a chorus of criticism against the BBC’s decision to suspend Gary Lineker after he compared British government rhetoric to Nazi Germany.

A robber threatened a member of staff at a jewellery store in Stockport before swiping a necklace worth almost £20,000. The robbery took place at Christopher Brown Jewellers on Merseyway in the town centre in January.

Nominations for the 2023 CMT Music Awards are in!

Love Island fans were left fuming on Sunday night and slammed Roise a "snake" as they accused her of making up a comment about Ron to the other islanders. The drama unfolded after a conversation they had on Friday.

Morgan Wallen is looking back. ET's Cassie DiLaura traveled to the 29-year-old singer's hometown of Corryton, Tennessee, to accompany him on a visit to his former high school, and things quickly got emotional when Wallen stepped out onto his old baseball field.«I spent a lot of time on this field,» Wallen tells ET, adding that «this place right here played a huge part in making me who I am.»The visit to the field was Wallen's first time back in a long time, and he tearfully admits that he was «pretty emotional» about his return.«It's important to me. I never thought that I would be able to do this.

Morgan Wallen is paying tribute to his great-grandmother with the cover art for his new album, One Thing At A Time.