British musician Damon Albarn had to eat “humble pie” when he was called out for his damaging comments on young singer Taylor Swift during an interview with the Los Angeles Times, on Sunday. Despite being corrected by the interviewer, Albarn said that he knew what co-writing was. He was ignorant of the fact that Taylor Swift wrote many of her songs singly and co-wrote some of her songs.
He said that he thought that Billie Eilish was “exceptional and he said that Taylor Swift “doesn’t write her own songs” in an interview with the LA Times.
Taylor Swift immediately called out Damon Albarn in a tweet which said that she was such a big fan of his till she saw the tweet in the LA Times about his remarks on her songwriting abilities. She said that she wrote all her songs and that his “hot take” was “completely false” and “SO damaging.”
She added that he didn’t have to like her songs but it was really f****d up to “try and discredit my writing.”
She also sarcastically added in the end of the tweet that she “wrote this tweet, all by myself in case you were wondering.”
Later on Damon Albarn, frontman of Blur and Gorillaz apologized on Twitter, “unreservedly and unconditionally.” He said that the last thing he would want to do was to “discredit” her “songwriting.” He said that he hoped that she would understand.
Tangent: It seemed as if calling out of young female stars used to be an outdated phenomenon by the likes of Justin Timberlake when he passed nasty comments on Britney Spears that fetched an apology only after the New York Times released a documentary on her life which named and shamed several celebrities. That was when the likes of Justin Timberlake offered an apology.
This recent incident with Taylor Swift has fortunately been condemned immediately and got an apology almost immediately. It is indeed sad to see established singers take pot shots at female singers.
Taylor Swift is not the only female singer he misspoke about. Albarn had also called Adele “very insecure”, years ago. In an article in NME in 2017, Adele also said that her collaboration with Damon Albarn “ended up being one of those ‘don’t meet your idol’ moments.” She said that the saddest thing was that she was a big Blur fan when she was growing up and that she regretted “hanging out with him.”
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
– Damon Albarn (@Damonalbarn) January 24, 2022
