Taylor Swift slams Damon Albarn over "co-writing" comments

25 January 2022, 11:07 | Updated: 25 January 2022, 11:09

The singer-songwriter took to Twitter to slam Damon Albarn for saying she didn't write her own songs in an LA Times interview. Get the fallout here.

Taylor Swift and Damon Albarn began trending in on the evening on Monday (24th January) for reasons none of us were quite expecting.

The US singer-songwriter pulled up the Blur singer on a recent interview he had with the LA times in which he talked about her fairly unfavourably.

But what was the reason Taylor Swift was mad at Damon Albarn? And how have their fans reacted?

Find out what happened between the artists and the fall out here.

Why was Taylor Swift angry at Damon Albarn?

Taylor Swift reacted to an interview Albarn gave to the LA times, in which he argued she isn't a writer because she co-writes.

Taking to Twitter, she wrote: "I was such a big fan of yours until I saw this. 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."

What did Damon Albarn say?

Damon Albarn distanced himself from the statements and suggested it was "clickbait". Replying to Swift's tweet he commented: "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".

However, many were clear to screenshot the interview itself and slam the Song 2 singer for placing the blame on the magazine rather than owning up to his mistakes.

Alex Goldschmidt replied: "It's not clickbait if it's a literal quote of a thing you said."

Sharing the section of the interview in question, he added: "What part of this was reduced to clickbait? You said her songwriting doesn't count as songwriting and then compared her to another female artist with a completely different style. Don't gaslight and throw someone else under the bus because you never thought she'd call you out."

Others were keen to point out that Billie Eilish - who Albarn praised in the same interview - was also a co-writer, since her co-collaborator is her brother Finneas.

Who is Damon Albarn?

For those who don't already know, Albarn is the frontman of Britpop band Blur and the co-creator of Gorillaz. He's also known for his varied solo work and for his collaborations with African icons such as Fela Kuti and Tony Allen as well as his side projects the Good the Bad & the Queen and Rocket Juice & The Moon.

Does Taylor Swift write her own songs?

Taylor Swift is known for penning her own tracks. However, she does credit various co-writers on some of her songs such as Max Martin, Ryan Tedder, Shellback, Jack Antonoff, Aaron Dessner, Justin Vernon, William Bowery and more.

In fact, there's an article that very helpfully lists all the songs Swift has solo written.

Antonoff, one of her co-writers from more recent years, waded in to defend his pal, writing: "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."

Ouch. Watch this space to see what happens...

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