Taylor Swift Has Called Out Damon Albarn For Claiming She Doesn’t Write Her Own Songs

Taylor Swift has called out Blur and Gorillaz frontman Damon Albarn after he claimed she “doesn’t write her own songs.”

In an interview with the LA Times to promote his upcoming concert, Albarn claimed a lot of modern musicians hide behind song and attitude, and when the interviewer asserted that “Taylor Swift is an excellent songwriter”, he disagreed.

“She doesn’t write her own songs,” Albarn falsely claimed.

When the interviewer informed him that she does — and co-writes some of them — he asserted that co-writing “doesn’t count.”

“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,” Albarn argued. “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. 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.”

It’s worth noting here that Albarn’s second solo album — The Nearer The Fountain, More Pure The Stream Flows — features co-writers on all but two tracks.

Swift took to Twitter to call him out for his “hot take”, noting that falsely accusing her of not writing her own songs is damaging and a failed attempt to discredit her talent.

“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,” she wrote. “PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering.”

Albarn was quick to backtrack on his initial comment, asserting that it was all reduced to “clickbait” — despite the fact that the context of his comments doesn’t make them any less offensive.

“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,” he replied.

While Swift does frequently have co-writers on her tracks — as nearly every major artist does — she also has an extensive body of work that she has written entirely on her own.

The entire Speak Now album — which sold one million copies in its debut week — is written by Swift, alone. Other tracks she’s written completely on solo include ‘Our Song’, ‘Fifteen’, ‘Love Story’, ‘Red’, ‘Holy Ground’, ‘Cornelia Street’, ‘My Tears Ricochet’ and ‘No Body, No Crime’, ‘Nothing New’ — among countless others.

While her other tracks feature co-writers, there is not a single song in her entire discography that Swift is not listed as a writer or co-writer on.