Damon Albarn Apparently Changes His Tune On Controversial Taylor Swift Claims

Damon Albarn — of Blur and Gorillaz fame — was the subject of social media backlash after he claimed that Taylor Swift was not a songwriter. Swift was mentioned as a songwriter during an interview Albarn had with the Los Angeles Times that was published on January 23. "She doesn't write her own songs," the Gorillaz singer said. When the interviewer came to the "Red" singer's defense as a co-writer, Albarn chose to double down. "That doesn't count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing." The Blur frontman then mentioned Billie Eilish as a songwriter he finds "really interesting."

Besides the hordes of fans that defended Swift, her producer Jack Antonoff had strong words for Albarn. "[A]pparently he knows more than the rest of us about all those songs taylor writes and brings in," Antonoff wrote in one tweet. "[I]f you were there ... cool ... go off. if not ... maybe .... shut the f*** up?" the producer added in a follow up tweet. The National's Aaron Dessner, who has worked in the studio with Swift, also said Albarn was out of line. "[Y]our statements couldn't be further from the truth...you're obviously completely clueless as to her actual writing and work process," Dessner tweeted.

On January 24, Albarn addressed the Twitter firestorm during an intimate show in Los Angeles, per Spin. He also addressed Swift directly online about attacking her songwriting bonafides.

Taylor Swift did not sit back idly as Damon Albarn's comments went viral. After the Los Angeles Times tweeted an excerpt from Albarn's interview, she called him out while quote-tweeting the interview. "I write ALL of my own songs," the "Blank Space" singer tweeted after mentioning how she was formerly a fan of his work. "You don't have to like my songs but it's really f***ed up to try and discredit my writing. WOW." Swift was not finished and added a playful jab in a follow-up tweet: "PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering." 

Those direct tweets got the attention of the Gorillaz singer who carefully walked back his comments from the Times interview. "I totally agree with you," he wrote in a reply tweet to Swift. Albarn claimed his words were misconstrued and "reduced to clickbait" by the outlet. "I apologise unreservedly and unconditionally. The last thing I would want to do is discredit your songwriting. I hope you understand," he added.

For those wondering about Swift's songwriting process, she discussed writing her "Folklore" album in 2020. The pop icon was in quarantine with her boyfriend Joe Alwyn due to the COVID-19 pandemic when he crafted the melody for the song "Exile," making it easy for her to craft the words. "All I have to do is dream up some lyrics and come up with some gut-wrenching, heart-shattering story to write with him," Swift told Billboard in 2020.