Robbie Williams Says He Won’t Pursue Olivia Rodrigo Over Song Similarities

Rodrigo released “Take Me Home (4 Christmas)” on November 5. Some listeners drew parallels with “Candy,” particularly in the outro. Williams addressed the discussion in an Instagram post, saying he had also been approached about songs that sounded “like something somebody else released.”

“There are only so many notes. Only so many chords. Only so many ways of putting them together before you inevitably find yourself somewhere somebody else has been,” he wrote. Of the comparison, he added: “I couldn’t care less.” Williams said he did not know whether there was a publishing or copyright issue, or no issue at all, and was not interested in finding out. “I’m not going after her,” he wrote.

Williams said artists should be protected from “genuine theft,” but cautioned against treating every vaguely familiar sequence of notes as grounds for a claim. Punishing musicians for arriving at similar sounds unintentionally, he argued, could “frighten the creativity out of everyone.” He also praised Rodrigo, saying he had loved her since “Brutal” and wished he had made the record.

His request was about her onstage language. Williams joked that Rodrigo swears so much she makes him “look like a Victorian schoolmistress,” despite his own reputation for swearing. He told her she was “f-cking brilliant” and asked: “Please stop swearing so much. It makes me feel like I have to keep up.”

Listeners also compared Rodrigo’s single with The Waitresses’ 1981 song “Christmas Wrapping.” Chris Butler, the band’s founder and primary songwriter, said on Facebook that Rodrigo had contacted him personally and asked him to listen. He initially suspected the email was a hoax, but later met her. Butler described her song as having the “same upbeat vibe” as “Christmas Wrapping,” promoted its release and wished her “monster success.”