Celebrity
Courtney Love Disses Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, Madonna & Everyone Else
Love took aim at multiple artists in a new interview.
Courtney Love is not a Swiftie — or part of the Beyhive. In a new interview with the UK’s Standard, the controversial rockstar took aim at many of today’s most popular women in music, including Taylor Swift, Beyoncé, and Lana Del Rey, changing her previous stances on them.
Love started off by expressing her dislike for Beyoncé’s music, while also praising the concept for her new album Cowboy Carter. “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,” she explained. “As a concept, I love it. I just don’t like her music.”
She then dismissed Swift’s artistry. “Taylor is not important,” she 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.”
This is quite a contradiction, as Love previously praised Swift while wishing her a “happy birthday” in December 2021 on Facebook. Sharing a photo with her “occasional hair twin/neighbor” Swift (and Lorde), Love called her an “aspirational huge role model for many young women.”
Love also changed her mind about Del Rey, saying her recent cover of John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads” turned her off. “I haven’t liked Lana since she covered a John Denver song, and I think she should really take seven years off,” she said. Love has previously hailed Del Rey as a “musical genius” and even opened for the singer on her Endless Summer Tour in 2015.
And for good measure, Love reignited her longtime feud with Madonna, even giving her a backhanded compliment for one of her most famous movies. “I don’t like her and she doesn’t like me,” she said. “I loved Desperately Seeking Susan, but for the city of New York as much as her.”
Love’s interview was to promote her new BBC Radio 6 show, Courtney Love’s Women, which focuses on the women in music who have shaped her career.
That said, she praised other female artists in her interview, including Patti Smith, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone, and Blondie’s Debbie Harry — plus the early albums of PJ Harvey and Joni Mitchell, but not beyond those.
