Country star Morgan Wallen announces NZ show at Auckland’s Spark Arena

Kiwi country fans, get ready.

First the legendary Luke Combs took the plunge and announced a New Zealand show next August - and now fellow country star Morgan Wallen has revealed plans to tour Down Under.

Wallen, from Tennessee in the US, is embarking on a global tour in 2023, kicking off with a show on March 15 next year at Auckland’s Spark Arena.

He then takes his country twang to Australia, stopping in Sydney on March 21 and Melbourne on March 24, before returning to North America for the rest of the tour.

Wallen will be supported by artists Hardy, Ernest and Bailey Zimmerman for all the New Zealand and Australia tour dates.

The tour is named for one of Wallen’s newly released songs on his One Thing At A Time - Sampler, which includes One Thing At A Time, Tennessee Fan, and Days That End In Why.

They come after his new country radio single Thought You Should Know, written with Miranda Lambert and Nicolle Gaylon and his latest No 1 single You Proof.

Wallen has had his fair share of controversies in the past. In 2021, TMZ released a video of him using a racial slur while out with his friends. He apologised, and despite backlash and his music being temporarily removed from radio stations and streaming playlists, remained popular.

This year, he won Album of the Year at the Academy of Country Music for his album Dangerous.

His 2022 tour of the album included more than 50 shows and broke records in 20 venues across the US over its eight-month run.

Wallen says: “I cannot begin to express how grateful I am that my fans connected with the Dangerous album the way they did.

“I’ve had so many people ask me if I wanted to take some time off; but the truth is, I have been writing and making so much music in my off-time because I feel as inspired as I ever have. It feels like new songs are pouring out of me, and I love that feeling.

“We are going to run it back next year with the One Night At A Time World Tour. Bigger venues. New countries. Bigger memories. See y’all there.”