Damon Albarn has apologised to Taylor Swift for claiming she doesn’t write her own songs.

The Blur and Gorillaz musician, 53, was being interviewed by the LA Times when Grammy Award-winning artist Swift was put forward as an example of an “excellent songwriter”, to which Albarn is said to have responded: “She doesn’t write her own songs”.

Challenged on this by interviewer Mikael Wood, who said she co-writes some of them, Albarn replied: “That doesn’t count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing.

Going on instead to praise 20-year-old songwriter Billie Eilish, whom he described as “exceptional”, Albarn said: “When I sing, I have to close my eyes and just be in there … 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,” he concluded.

This understandably didn’t sit well with Swift, 32, who took to Twitter to educate the Brit star, writing: “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***** up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.

“PS I wrote this tweet all by myself in case you were wondering,” she signed off in a follow up tweet.

Albarn quickly backtracked, 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.”