Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn received backlash after he was quoted in a Los Angeles Times story on Sunday accusing Swift of not writing her own songs.
Albarn told the outlet, “She doesn’t write her own songs.” and when the writer responded saying, “Of course she does. Co-writes some of them,” he replied, “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 added. “Doesn’t mean that the outcome can’t be really great. And some of the greatest singers — I mean, Ella Fitzgerald never wrote a song in her life.
The singer went on to say, “When I sing, I have to close my eyes and just be in there. I suppose I’m a traditionalist in that sense. A really interesting songwriter is Billie Eilish and her brother. I’m more attracted to that than to Taylor Swift. It’s just darker — less endlessly upbeat. Way more minor and odd. I think she’s exceptional.”
Taylor fired back on Twitter saying, “I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this,” Swift wrote on Twitter. “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 (messed) up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”
She later cheekily added, “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering 😑”
Albarn later responded and said that his words were taken out of context.
He tweeted in response, “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. – Damon”
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