An interview with The Los Angeles Times has caused Damon Albarn to be on the receiving end of backlash from Taylor Swift fans. The Blur and Gorillaz frontman recently sat down with the publication for a chat, but after the L.A. Times tweeted a brief portion of the interview, things became tense for Albarn. He was said to have praised Billie Eilish as “exceptional,” but when asked about Swift, he answered, “She doesn’t write her own songs.”
In context, the interviewer called Swift an “excellent songwriter” to which Albarn gave his answer. When the interviewer contested and said Swift does pen her own lyrics, Albarn added, “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. Doesn’t mean that the outcome can’t be really great.”
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The comments weren’t lost on Taylor Swift who clapped back on Twitter. “@DamonAlbarn I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this,” wrote Swift.
“I write ALL of my own songs,” she continued. “Your hot take is completely false and SO damaging. You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f*cked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.” Swift then added, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Swifts fans are known for jumping to her defense with a vengeance and all of the attention caused the Gorillaz musician to offer up an apology.
“I totally agree with you. i had a conversation about songwriting and sadly it was reduced to clickbait,” Albarn claimed. “I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand. – Damon.” Some continued to pelt Albarn with criticism because they felt as if he was shifting blame to the publication. Check it out below.
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