After apologizing for Taylor Swift’s comments about her songwriting ability, Damon Albarn, a British artist, dedicated his last song at an L.A. concert to the L.A. Times reporter whose interview set off the entire dust-up.
Albarn did not mention Swift specifically during his concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall, but just before his final song of the night — a mostly acoustic version of Blur’s “Song 2,” performed on piano, with string accompaniment and an electric bass — he brought up the L.A. Times interview that prompted the social media exchange with Swift (Albarn In a Monday tweet, the artist apologized).
Blur’s singer/songwriter is also known as Gorillaz Presented to the L.A. crowdHe and Mikael Wood, a Times writer, had talked about songwriting during the interview “before he cast me into the social media abyss.”The Times asked Albarn if the 1997 Blur hit would be on his resume. “Song 2”at his gig. Albarn claimed that the song was written by his team of musicians and that they went on to dedicate the closer. “Song 2”To the interviewer, scribble ).
For the record, despite the social media reaction to Albarn’s comments Monday, this reporter did not see any Swift protesters outside of the Brit’s show.
On Monday, Albarn’s remarks made headlines after Swift tweeted, “@DamonAlbarn 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 f—ed up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”
Swift was responding to Albarn’s Times interview, in which Swift claimed Swift had been a victim of her own ego. “doesn’t write her own songs.”Albarn did quickly apologize and wrote, “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,”Swift fans flooded him with social media abuses, and he was left in the dust.
Jack Antonoff (producer and friend of Swift) was among those who supported Swift Monday. “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.”
Albarn is no stranger to public spats with other artists. His band Blur were pitted against Oasis in the mid-90s in Britain in what’s been called the “Battle of Britpop.”
