Listen, I’ve been covering the music industry for two decades, and I’ve seen my fair share of PR disasters. But the current mess surrounding Ed Sheeran’s LOOP Tour? It’s an absolute masterclass in terrible timing.
What started as a massive, highly anticipated stadium run has rapidly devolved into a viral punchline, and a completely innocent corporate promotion is catching all the collateral damage. If you haven’t been refreshing your feeds this week, let me break down how a routine talent search turned into the internet’s favorite protest board.
The Macklemore Catalyst
To understand the Guitar Center chaos, we have to rewind to September 4 at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Macklemore, serving as the opening act, paused his set to say “Free Palestine” and perform his protest anthem “Hind’s Hall.” Unsurprisingly, the fallout was swift. Pro-Israel groups and certain venues pushed back hard, leading the tour promoters to unceremoniously dump Macklemore from the remaining US dates on September 14.
Instead of putting out the fire, Sheeran’s camp dropped a “not complicit” statement, effectively refusing to take sides. Spoiler alert: staying neutral didn’t work out. Within days, the rest of the tour’s openers—including heavy hitters like Finneas and Lukas Graham—walked out in solidarity with Macklemore.
Suddenly, one of the biggest pop stars on the planet was left playing massive stadiums without a single opening act.
Enter the Guitar Center Coincidence
Here’s where the universe decided to get funny. Weeks before this political firestorm kicked off, Guitar Center launched its “Open for Legends” contest on August 19. The prize? A chance for an undiscovered artist to open for Ed Sheeran.
But in the entertainment business, context is everything. With Macklemore fired and the rest of the roster walking out, the internet took one look at this active promotional campaign and collectively decided to flip the narrative. The joke instantly became: Ed Sheeran is so desperate for openers, he’s crowdsourcing them at Guitar Center.
The Internet Hijacks the Submissions
Because the Guitar Center entry portal is totally public, it has been absolutely overrun by trolls. I clicked through the submissions this morning, and it is a wild ride. Instead of earnest indie-pop singers with acoustic guitars, the page is flooded with pro-Palestine messages, memes, and straight-up jokes mocking Sheeran’s neutral stance.
People are submitting wildly off-key protest tracks and voting each other to the top of the leaderboard. Commenters are practically grabbing popcorn, noting that the absolute funniest outcome would be a troll winning the contest just to grab the mic and repeat Macklemore’s exact words on stage.
A PR Nightmare With No Quick Fix
From a veteran journalist’s perspective, this is a fascinating trainwreck to watch unfold in real-time. The Guitar Center contest was a genuine career-making opportunity that just happened to collide with a polarizing tour controversy. Now, it’s virtually impossible to separate the two in the public eye.
We’ll see how Messina Touring Group and Sheeran’s PR team handle the empty slots on the rest of the LOOP Tour, but one thing is certain: they definitely aren’t finding their next opener in that comment section.