Guitar Center opens badly-timed competition to win opportunity to open for Ed Sheeran

Guitar Centre is running an ill-timed competition to win the chance to open for Ed Sheeran. Sheeran’s upcoming ‘Loop’ shows are currently lacking any opening acts after Macklemore was dropped from the tour over his impassioned “free Palestine” speech made while opening for Sheeran at New Jersey’s Gillette Stadium. The speech prompted calls for Macklemore’s removal from figures like Pink and the Israeli American Council, and Gillette Stadium owner Robert Kraft later confirmed that he found Macklemore’s speech “deeply offensive and hurtful to the Jewish community”, resulting in his dismissal. Since then, all of Sheeran’s support acts and backing band have dropped out of the tour, with FINNEAS, Lukas Graham, Aaron Rowe and Beoga all making statements supporting Macklemore. Amidst all of this, Guitar Center has been running a competition inviting unknown artists to apply for a chance to open for Sheeran at his Mexico City show on October 7. The contest launched on August 19, ahead of the ongoing Macklemore situation, but at time of writing, the application page remains live. Sheeran has spoken out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” and that he was “appalled by the confl...