Los Angeles, Jul 24 (IANS): Music mogul Simon Cowell called singer Demi Lovato as obnoxious and irritating in a joke speech he gave at the opening of the Teen Choice Awards here.

"She's annoying, obnoxious, disruptive, gobby, irritating, bad manners, not great taste - did I say irritating? Yes? Annoying, very annoying. She's a brat.

"I could go on for hours, but that's what makes her special, and I really do love her, a bit. Have a great night, wish I was there, but no one invited me," contactmusic.com quoted Cowell as saying.

However, Lovato hit back, claiming he was too old to understand women who spoke their mind.

"He's just old. He isn't used to women in this century being able to say what they want," said Lovato.

The 19-year-old dedicated a performance of her hit "Skyscraper" to the victims of the shooting that took place at a midnight screening of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colorado, last week.

At the awards Sunday, Taylor Swift was the big winner who took home five awards, narrowly beating Justin Bieber who won four prizes.