Taylor Swift fans call out Damon Albarn over ‘embarrassing’ apology: ‘It’s not clickbait if you said it’

‘Don’t throw someone else under the bus because you never thought she’d call you out,’ wrote one person

Fans are calling out Damon Albarn over his “weak” apology to Taylor Swift, blaming a journalist for his remarks.

Swift hit back at the Blur and Gorillaz star on Monday (24 January) after he claimed that she doesn’t write her own songs.

The “All Too Well” singer called Albarn’s words “completely false and SO damaging”. Swift added: “You don’t have to like my songs but it’s really f***ed up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.”

Following backlash to his comments, Albarn responded to Swift “apologising unreservedly and unconditionally”.

“I totally agree with you,” wrote Albarn on Twitter. “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.”

Fans, however, have taken issue with Albarn’s “weak” excuse.

Many people have taken to Twitter to criticise the singer’s response and share screenshots from the interview, in which a transcript of his quotes were printed.

One person wrote: “‘Clickbait’ is when a quote is taken out of context in order to get readers to click a story. The context here is that Albarn said Taylor Swift didn’t write her own songs, was CORRECTED BY THE REPORTER and doubled down lmao.”

During the interview, journalist Mikael Wood responded to Albarn’s claims that Swift does not write her own songs, stating: “Of course she does. Co-writes some of them,” after which Albarn doubled down on his remarks, saying “that doesn’t count”.

Another person on Twitter quipped: “‘The boy who cried clickbait’ is my favourite future Taylor Swift song.”

“Very much not here for this blaming journalists when you mess up and wish you hadn’t slagged someone off publicly thing,” wrote someone else.

“Reading the interview he clearly slates Taylor Swift twice, despite the journalist pushing back after suggesting she’s a great songwriter in the first place.”

A fourth person wrote: “Damon being like it was clickbait when the journalist tried to give him an out and he doubled down is so funny.”

Another user added: “Don’t gaslight and throw someone else under the bus because you never thought she’d call you out.”

“It’s not clickbait if it’s a literal quote of a thing you said,” wrote someone else.

Swift is yet to reply to Albarn’s response.

The Grammy Award-winner is widely recognised and highly acclaimed for her songwriting, which is often deeply confessional.

Awarding her with the Songwriter Icon Award in 2021, the National Music Publishers’ Association remarked that “no one is more influential when it comes to writing music today” than Swift, while The Week described her as the foremost female songwriter of modern times.