Robbie Williams has appeared to take a swipe at Olivia Rodrigo after fans noticed similarities between her new Christmas single and his 2012 hit Candy. The former Take That star tagged Rodrigo on X, wishing her a ‘happy Christmas’ in a post that many read as a cheeky dig.
Rodrigo’s latest track, Take Me Home (4 Christmas), was released as part of the festive season and features a music video with Sex and the City’s Cynthia Nixon. The song, which is vying for a spot on annual holiday playlists, has drawn comparisons to several earlier tracks.
Similarities to Candy and ChristmasWrapping
Listeners quickly noted a resemblance to The Waitresses’ 1981 track ChristmasWrapping, while others heard the upbeat melody of Robbie Williams’ Candy. The comparison prompted Williams to respond on social media, tagging Rodrigo in a post that appeared to reference the similarity.
Candy, written by Williams and Gary Barlow, was released in 2012 and interpolates Eurodans by Terje Olsen. The song became Williams’ second biggest hit after Angels.
Rodrigo’s Homage to The Waitresses
Officially, Take Me Home (4 Christmas) credits Rodrigo, Amy Allen, and long-time collaborator Dan Nigro as songwriters. However, Rodrigo reached out to Chris Butler, writer of ChristmasWrapping, before the song’s release, as it is intended as a homage.
Butler, who led the 1980s new wave band The Waitresses, shared on Facebook that he initially thought the email from Rodrigo was fake. ‘About two months ago, I received a weird email from someone claiming to be Olivia Rodrigo,’ he wrote. ‘It was filled [with] Waitresses gush, and just had to be fake. Said she’d written a Christmas song, and invited me to hear it. ????? I didn’t know who OR was, so I did a deep dig.’
Butler added that he wrote back saying, ‘Um… Er… Well. If you really are you, thanks for contacting me. And your comments are really sweet, and very flattering.’ He said he ‘would be honoured’ to hear the festive track and eventually met Rodrigo after her team invited him and his fiancée, Beth Becker, to see her show.
History of Similarity Disputes
Songs that resemble other songs have long been a sensitive issue for artists. Rodrigo herself has faced tensions over credits, adding Taylor Swift and co-writers to Deja Vu after release, as well as Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Josh Farro to Good 4 U. No legal action was ever launched, but a source claimed to Variety that the Paramore credit was an interpolation, and they had been in touch before the song’s release.
More recently, singer Stella Lefty added a credit for Noah Kahan to her song Boston after listeners noted its similarity to his track Stick Season. She had covered the song on several occasions before releasing her debut tracks but claimed to Vanity Fair she ‘wasn’t thinking about Noah’ while writing Boston.
This is not a new issue, with Queen and David Bowie receiving credits on Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby, and Sting suing Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs over Every Breath You Take. In 2019, the Rolling Stones gave writing credits back to Richard Ashcroft after a 1997 dispute over the Verve’s use of The Last Time. Metro has contacted Olivia’s reps for comment.
