Guitar Center Rejects Non-Legitimate Ed Sheeran Contest Entries as Openers Exit 3 Tour Slots
Updated
Updated · Rolling Stone · Sep 18
Guitar Center Rejects Non-Legitimate Ed Sheeran Contest Entries as Openers Exit 3 Tour Slots
3 articles · Updated · Rolling Stone · Sep 18
Summary
Guitar Center said Thursday it will discard “not legitimate” submissions to its “Open for Legends” contest, after the site was flooded with memes and non-musical pro-Palestine videos tied to backlash around Ed Sheeran’s tour.
The contest launched Sept. 14 and offers one musician over 18 with a valid U.S. passport a chance to open for Sheeran in Mexico City on Dec. 11, but the current site reportedly lacks a way to verify whether uploads are genuine applications.
The disruption followed Macklemore’s removal from Sheeran’s Loop Tour the same day the contest opened, after the Seattle rapper made onstage statements supporting Palestinians amid Israel’s war in Gaza.
Finneas, Lukas Graham and Aaron Rowe then withdrew from the tour, leaving Sheeran without opening acts and raising the stakes for Guitar Center to sort valid entries from protest uploads.