This is absolutely hilarious, but it looks like this was announced before Ed "Both Sides" Sheeran advocated for Peace In Our Time.

In fairness, the contest launched on August 19th, a good bit before… you know, everything.

https://consequence.net/2026/09/guitar-center-contest-open-for-ed-sheeran/

Honestly that's just about the funniest outcome possible. That means literally no one wants to open for him and he had to turn to Guitar Center... Probably the fastest fall from grace the music industry has seen in the last decade.

I think the funniest outcome is the winner announcing the day before they are not going to perform in solidarity with Macklemore

Lol, this is hilarious

i bet you sign away the rights to your music in the process...

The deadline is Oct 7th...

You could open for Ed. At his a capella night.

Holy fuck, what a shitshow. He had it coming, I guess.

Audition conditions:

• Must be at least 18 years old.
• Must be original music and/or music you own the rights to.
• Must not have any opinions about I/P

I can play like 4 chords on the ukelele. My first song is called "Fuck Zionists".