Contest to Pick Ed Sheeran Opener Launches Amid Macklemore Turmoil, Users Flood Site with Fake Entries

Contest to pick Ed Sheeran opener launches amid Macklemore turmoil, users flood site with fake entries.

via: EW

Ed Sheeran is looking for a new opening act — and he probably won’t like a lot of the applicants.

Guitar Center staged a contest for musically inclined fans that will allow one lucky winner to open for the “Thinking Out Loud” singer at his concert in Mexico City on Dec. 11. The “Open for Legends” contest launched on Monday, Sept. 14 — the same day Macklemore was dropped from Sheeran’s Loop Tour following backlash against pro-Palestine comments he made during his opening set on Sept. 5.

Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Sheeran and Guitar Center for more information.

Sheeran might need more than one new opener, as every musician attached to the Loop tour dropped out earlier this week in solidarity with Macklemore, leaving the “Photograph” singer without a backing band or any opening acts on the tour.

The “Open for Legends” contest is open to any musician over 18 with performance experience and a valid U.S. passport. Described as a “skill-based contest designed to discover and elevate amateur, unsigned, independent singer-songwriters,” the contest allows entrants to submit videos of themselves performing to a playlist on its website. The public can vote on their favorite videos from the playlist before a panel of judges narrows the competition down to 10 finalists, from which one winner will ultimately be selected.

However, the current iteration of the competition’s website has no way of confirming whether or not a video contains a musician who actually wants to compete, which means the vast majority of the videos currently uploaded on the playlist are memes and non-musical videos showing support for Palestine and disdain for Sheeran. Only a handful of the videos on the website feature musicians earnestly looking to open for the “A Team” singer.

Many of the posts on the site mock Sheeran’s statement about the Macklemore controversy, in which the “Castle on the Hill” musician insisted he is “not complicit” and defended keeping his views on Israel and Palestine private to make his shows “about unity, joy, escapism, love, and a place for everyone to feel welcome.”

One such post featured a video of a man farting on his roommate’s doorknob titled “Me when im not complicit.” Another from a user named EDSHRANCOMPLICIT featured a video of a man demonstrating a multitude of ways to give the camera the middle finger.

“FREE PALESTINE RELEASE THE FILES IT’S ALL GOTTA BURN,” they wrote in their caption. “If the system cannot survive the truth, it does not deserve to survive.”

Meanwhile, a user named dedsheeran captioned a video of a flaming car accident with links to several organizations providing aid in Palestine, including Gaza Soup Kitchen, UNRWA, the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund, and Doctors Without Borders.

Other posts included a clip from 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City captioned “free palestine,” a profane clip of Karl Urban from The Boys with the caption “Free Palestine,” a video featuring archival footage of Robert Pattinson titled “I Will Eat Ed Sheeran,” and the entire music video for Macklemore’s “Thrift Shop.”

On Monday, Messina Touring Group, the promoter of the U.S. leg of the Loop tour, told Rolling Stone that “We have been notified by venues on the upcoming U.S. tour dates that they will not allow a concert to take place with Macklemore on the lineup,” prompting the rapper’s dismissal from the tour. The move came after Macklemore faced criticism for saying “Free Palestine” and sharing a message that was critical of Israel on stage at Sheeran’s concert in New Jersey.

“To all of my Jewish brothers and sisters, criticism of Israel, criticism of apartheid, being against genocide, it in no way is criticism of you,” Macklemore said during the show. “This message is for peace, love, for all human beings to be treated with dignity, respect, and equality.”

After being dropped from the tour, Macklemore shared a statement on social media that reasoned the controversy would be a worthwhile struggle if it redirected attention to the Palestinian liberation movement. “I didn’t need 10 shows from Ed. I needed 2,” he concluded. “Two chances to stand in front of 90,000 people and say the words that somehow became too dangerous to say. Free Palestine. But if those words cost me the stage, while turning the conversation back to Palestine, then it was the most successful tour I’ve ever been on.”