Robbie Williams defends Olivia Rodrigo over song similarity

Summarised from 3 outlets · 4 reports · Updated 9 Nov, 10:01 · Archive

Robbie Williams has defended Olivia Rodrigo after fans noted similarities between her Christmas song and his 2012 hit Candy.

Rodrigo recently released her first Christmas song, Take Me Home (4 Christmas), which was inspired by The Waitresses' 1981 song Christmas Wrapping. Fans noted that the song also bore melodic similarities to Williams' 2012 single Candy, which reached number one in the UK.

Williams responded by defending Rodrigo, writing on Instagram that he believes many plagiarism accusations in the music industry are unfounded. He said: 'There's something about the music industry that's been bothering me for a while. People coming after people because they've spotted a similarity between two songs. Most of it, I think, is complete bollocks.'

He acknowledged that sometimes such accusations have merit, but argued that 'some f****** sanity has to prevail'. Regarding Rodrigo specifically, Williams suggested she may have 'accidentally stumbled across a musical echo' of his work, but stated: 'I'm not going after her. I don't want to know' whether there are technical copyright issues. Williams noted that he himself has faced similar accusations over the years.

How it is being reported

• Robbie Williams defends Olivia Rodrigo after fans spot similarities between their songsThe American pop sensation recently released her debut festive single, take me home (4 christmas), inspired by The Waitresses’ 1981 hit Christmas WrappingEvening Standard · 9 Nov, 12:55
• Robbie Williams Defends Olivia Rodrigo As Fans Spot Similarities Between Their Two SongsRobbie Williams is sticking up for Olivia Rodrigo following suggestions that her new single sounds a little like one of his own compositions. On Monday morning, the chart-topping singer shared a lengthy message after Olivia’s new festive tune Take Me Home (4 Christmas) quickly faced comparisons with his own number number one hit Candy upon its release last week. He began by reflecting on “ something about the music industry that’s been bothering me for a while”, a phenomenon that he described as “people coming after people because they’ve spotted a similarity between two songs”. Robbie…HuffPost UK · 9 Nov, 12:13
• Robbie Williams defends Olivia Rodrigo after spotting similarity between songsThe singer thought Rodrigo’s song Take Me Home (4 Christmas) had a similar melody to his 2012 hit CandyEvening Standard · 9 Nov, 09:39
• Robbie Williams appears to throw some serious shade at Olivia RodrigoRobbie Williams has thrown some shade at Olivia Rodrigo for her new song (Picture: Getty/INTERSCOPE RECORDS/TNI PRESS LTD) In the pop beef we never saw coming, Robbie Williams has clocked Olivia Rodrigo for her Christmas song’s similarities to his iconic hit. It’s that time of year when artists…Metro · 7 Nov, 17:27

In this story: Robbie Williams · Olivia Rodrigo · The Waitresses · Gary Barlow · Take That

This summary was written by AI from the headlines and standfirsts above, and states as fact only what at least two outlets report. How we use AI · Report a problem · Corrections log