Taylor Swift has called out Damon Albarn, lead singer of Blur and later of Gorillaz, on Twitter after the British musician told the LA Times she “doesn’t write her own songs”.
“I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this,” the American singer, 32, tweeted at Albarn. “I write ALL of my own songs. Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really fucked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”
Albarn had used Swift, in a promotional interview for a concert in Los Angeles, as an example of modern artists who hide behind “sound and attitude”. When the interviewer pointed out that Swift writes or co-writes all of her songs, Albarn responded: “That doesn’t count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I’m not hating on anybody, I’m just saying there’s a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes.”
He also compared Swift unfavourably to the dark-pop phenom Billie Eilish, whom he called “exceptional”. Eilish co-writes her songs with her brother, producer Finneas.
Albarn later apologised, writing to Swift on Twitter: “I totally agree with you. I had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait. I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand.”
Producer Jack Antonoff, who has worked with Swift since her 2014 album 1989, also weighed in on Twitter on Monday afternoon: “i’ve never met damon albarn and he’s never been to my studio but apparently he knows more than the rest of us about all those songs taylor writes and brings in. herb.”
“[I]f you were there … cool … go off. if not … maybe …. shut the fuck up?” he added in a separate tweet.
The National’s Aaron Dessner, who has become a frequent Swift collaborator since her 2020 albums Folklore and Evermore, also came to her defence. “Not sure why you @Damonalbarn would try to discredit Taylor’s brilliant songwriting but as someone who has gotten to press record around her ...your statements couldn’t be further from the truth...you’re obviously completely clueless as to her actual writing and work process”.
This is not the first time Swift has taken to social media to address indirect slights. In March 2021, she posted on Twitter to express dissatisfaction with a joke made on the Netflix show Ginny & Georgia, in which a character said another goes “through men faster than Taylor Swift”.
“Hey Ginny & Georgia, 2010 called and it wants its lazy, deeply sexist joke back,” she tweeted. “How about we stop degrading hard working women by defining this horse shit as FuNnY.”
Albarn, for his part, once publicly feuded with Adele, after he told an interviewer she was “insecure”, called her 2015 album “very middle of the road”, and speculated that music they had worked on together would not end up on the record.
Adele responded in a Rolling Stone cover story shortly before the release of 25: “He said I was insecure, when I’m the least insecure person I know. I was asking his opinion about my fears, about coming back with a child involved – because he has a child – and then he calls me insecure?
“It ended up being one of those ‘don’t meet your idol’ moments,” she added. “And the saddest thing was that I was such a big Blur fan growing up. But it was sad, and I regret hanging out with him.”
