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.

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Sheeran has spoken out about the situation, saying he was “not complicit” and that he was “appalled by the conflict between Israel and Palestine” and sees the “suffering and pain caused on both sides” as a “tragedy”.

He’s since lost over 200,000 Instagram followers, while Macklemore has gained over 1.6million.

Meanwhile, recent Sheeran support acts BIIRD and Myles Smith also came out in support of the rapper. Irish trad-folk band BIIRD wrote that “we stand unequivocally behind every word [Macklemore] said,” while Smith said that “what Palestinians are enduring is devastating and impossible to look away from. No child, no family, no innocent person should have to live under bombing, displacement, hunger, grief or fear.”

Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters waded into the debate to call Sheeran a “little prick” while praising Macklemore for doing “the right thing”, and Massive Attack also spoke on the controversy: “’Neutrality’ in the face of the slaughter of more than 20,000 children can never be neutrality”.

Sheeran is yet to respond to his support acts pulling out and these comments.

Elsewhere, Macklemore donated his entire $1million earnings from the tour to Palestinians – with Kraft matching with $2million to “aid in the region”.

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