Courtney Love delivers withering take on Taylor Swift after friendly 2022 post

Rock singer Courtney Love has delivered her contemptuous verdict of Taylor Swift, claiming the pop titan is “not important” or “interesting” as an artist.

The notoriously vocal musician, who rose to fame with her rock band Hole, has just launched a new BBC series, Courtney Love’s Women, on BBC Sounds.

In a wide-ranging interview with the Evening Standard, Love offered her take on some of the world’s biggest female stars, including Swift, whom she has previously hailed as an “aspirational huge role model for many young women”.

“Taylor is not important,” the 59-year-old said. “She might be a safe space for girls, and she’s probably the Madonna of now, but she’s not interesting as an artist.”

In 2021, Love shared a Facebook post wishing Swift a “happy birthday” and praising her for her influence on young women. She also posted a photo of her with Swift, her “occasional hair twin/neighbour”.

Love went one further and also hit out at Lana Del Rey, whom she called a “musical genius” around a year ago.

“I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off,” she said.

Turning her attention to Beyoncé, she remarked: “I like the idea of Beyoncé doing a country record because it’s about Black women going into spaces where previously only white women have been allowed, not that I like it much. As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.”

The “Celebrity Skin” singer did, however, reserve praise for artists including Patti Smith, Nina Simon, Julie London, Joni Mitchell and PJ Harvey (“the first four albums, then I’m done”).

In the same interview, Love acknowledged that she had “always wanted to be known as a bitch”.

“Being liked was never my thing,” she said. “Kurt [Cobain] wanted to be liked but not me... I had a bitch capacity and I was cool with not being liked. I saw Bob Dylan in Don’t Look Back and he didn’t want to be liked and I thought, yeah, I want to be like that.”

Beyoncé, Swift and Del Rey have all had particularly prolific years. Beyoncé recently became the first Black woman to top the country charts in the US with her album Cowboy Carter, as well as the first Black artist in history to achieve a UK No 1 with a country music album.

Meanwhile, Del Rey is one of the headliners at Coachella Festival 2024, having received multiple Grammy nominations for her 2023 album Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blv.

Swift, 34, is preparing to release her 11th album, The Tortured Poets Department, which is scheduled to land on Friday 19 April.

She is also embarking on the European and UK legs of her record-breaking Eras tour, beginning in Paris on 9 May and concluding with five nights at Wembley Stadium in London.