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Girl in a jacket

Taylor Swift fires back at Damon Albarn over songwriting claim

Grammy Award-winning artist Taylor Swift has slammed Damon Albarn, the lead singer of Blur, over the latter’s claim that Swift “doesn’t write her own songs.”

“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,” Swift wrote on Twitter on January 25. “You don’t have to like my song but it’s really f*cked up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”

She then added that she wrote the tweet all by herself in case Albarn was wondering.

Swift’s comment came after Damon Albarn’s promotional interview with Los Angeles Times where he commented that much of modern music is popular because of “the sound and attitude,” not because “the songs are any good.”

When the interviewer mentioned that Taylor Swift is “an excellent writer,” Albarn said, “She doesn’t write her own songs.”

As the interviewer pointed out that Swift wrote her songs and co-wrote some of them, Albarn then commented, “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. And some of the greatest singers — I mean, Ella Fitzgerald never wrote a song in her life. When I sing, I have to close my eyes and just be in there. I suppose I’m a traditionalist in that sense.”

He also compared Taylor Swift to the brother-sister duo Billie Eilish and Finneas. “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.”

Following Albarn’s claims, Jack Antonoff and Aaron Dessner, who had worked and collaborated with Swift in her previous albums ‘folklore’ and ‘evermore’, also tweeted their reactions.

Swift’s fans and other personalities, namely JP Saxe, Insider video producer Irene Ann, Award-winning author C.J. Farley, and Maisie Peters, among many others, were quick to jump on Twitter and defend Swift.

In the end, Albarn responded and apologized to Swift on Twitter, saying, “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.”

Despite apologizing, many Twitter users still called him out for shifting the blame and saying “it was reduced to clickbait.”

 

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