The Blur singer, who was promoting his forthcoming tour with Gorillaz, appeared on the show on Friday, but asked why it had taken him nine years to return.<\/p>\n
When Norton welcomed Albarn back, saying \u201cIt\u2019s been a minute,\u201d he told the Irish host: \u201cWell, you just haven’t invited me back.\u201d Norton replied: \u201cWell, you\u2019re here now.\u201d<\/p>\n
The singer then shared an alleged encounter he had with the presenter in a nightclub after recording his last appearance on the show in 2017, in which he asked him directly: \u201cWhy am I never on your show?\u201d<\/p>\n
Norton awkwardly didn\u2019t remember this exchange, asking: \u201cWhat? I was in a nightclub? I have no recollection of that. I must\u2019ve been quite drunk.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the audience laughed, Albarn replied: \u201cIt must\u2019ve been one of those nightclubs,\u201d to which Norton said: \u201cYes, it must have. How funny. I may have blanked it from my mind out of awkwardness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albarn appeared on the show with fellow celebrity guests Stephen Graham, Kaley Cuoco, Adrian Lester and Leo Woodall.<\/p>\n
It marked the singer\u2019s third time on the show, having first appeared in May 2005 and again in May 2017, when he performed with Gorillaz.<\/p>\n
In 2022, Albarn, who released a comeback Blur album in 2023, was criticised by Taylor Swift after he accused her of not writing her own songs.<\/p>\n
When an LA Times interviewer called Swift \u201can excellent songwriter\u201d, Albarn replied, \u201cShe doesn\u2019t write her own songs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Journalist Mikael Wood replied: \u201cOf course she does. Co-writes some of them.\u201d Albarn responded: \u201cThat doesn\u2019t count. I know what co-writing is. Co-writing is very different to writing. I\u2019m not hating on anybody, I\u2019m just saying there\u2019s a big difference between a songwriter and a songwriter who co-writes. Doesn\u2019t mean that the outcome can\u2019t be really great.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd some of the greatest singers \u2013 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\u2019m a traditionalist in that sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cA really interesting songwriter is Billie Eilish and her brother. I\u2019m more attracted to that than to Taylor Swift. It\u2019s just darker \u2013 less endlessly upbeat. Way more minor and odd. I think she\u2019s exceptional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swift \u2013 who is officially credited with writing or co-writing all of her music \u2013responded to the interview on X\/Twitter: @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\u2019t have to like my songs but it\u2019s really f***ed up to try and discredit my writing. WOW.\u201d<\/p>\n
Albarn apologised “unreservedly and unconditionally”, and suggested clickbait headlines had taken his words out of context.<\/p>\n
Norton is a friend of Swift and will attend her wedding to Travis Kelce later this year. He also recently appeared in her music video for \u201cOpalite\u201d alongside every celebrity who appeared on her episode of The Graham Norton Show in 2025, including Domhnall Gleeson, Cillian Murphy, Greta Lee, Jodie Turner-Smith and Lewis Capaldi.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Blur singer, who was promoting his forthcoming tour with Gorillaz, appeared on the show on Friday, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-300891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}