Sam Smith and Normani Argue Copyright Suit Over "Dancing With a Stranger" Should Be Tossed Without Proof of Access

Sam Smith and Normani are pushing a federal judge to rule in their favor in a long-running copyright dispute over their 2019 hit "Dancing With a Stranger," arguing that the songwriters who accuse them of copying an earlier track have never been able to show how the pair could have actually heard or accessed the original song.

In a motion for summary judgment filed Tuesday, attorneys for Smith and Normani, along with their record labels, argued that the plaintiff, Sound and Color LLC, a company owned by musicians Jordan Vincent and Christopher Miranda, is now leaning almost entirely on a claim of "striking similarity" between "Dancing With a Stranger" and Sound and Color's 2015 song "Dancing with Strangers."

The filing contends that this shift amounts to an acknowledgment that Sound and Color cannot otherwise establish that Smith and Normani had any real opportunity to hear the earlier song before writing their own.

The case has already traveled through one round of litigation. Sound and Color first filed suit in 2022, and U.S. District Judge Wesley Hsu sided with Smith and Normani the following year, ruling that the melodic phrasing in the two songs was not similar enough to support a copyright claim.

That victory was short-lived. In April 2025, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed course, finding that a jury could reasonably conclude the two songs' hooks combine a shared set of otherwise unprotectable musical elements in a way that raises a legitimate question of copying. The appellate panel cited findings from Sound and Color's musicology experts, who argued that the hooks of both songs overlap in both lyrical content and musical structure.

Back in the trial court on remand, Smith and Normani's new filing argues that Sound and Color has not met the demanding legal standard required to win on a striking-similarity theory alone, a standard that requires showing the two works are alike to a degree that rules out coincidence as a realistic explanation.

The motion argues that the overlap between the songs boils down to a four-word lyrical phrase, "dancing with a stranger," which the defense says has shown up in more than fifteen other songs predating Sound and Color's track, combined with a handful of common pitches and rhythms set against otherwise distinct melodies. The filing further notes that even Sound and Color's own expert conceded that none of the supposedly copied elements are exclusive to the plaintiff's song.

Smith and Normani's team also pointed to material uncovered during discovery, arguing that Sound and Color's own song incorporates unauthorized samples containing copyrighted musical material from other artists' work.

Under copyright law, the motion contends, a work that improperly borrows from someone else's copyrighted material in this way cannot then claim full legal protection for itself.

The defense filing also took aim at the expert analysis that had persuaded the Ninth Circuit to send the case back for further proceedings, characterizing it as functioning more like advocacy for Sound and Color's position than a sound, independent musicological assessment, and asked the court to disqualify the experts over what it called flawed methodology.

Smith and Normani's attorneys specifically criticized the experts' comparison of the disputed hook to elements found in 49 other songs, describing that line of argument as unserious, contrary to established legal precedent, and lacking a legitimate musicological foundation.

Sound and Color pushed back in a statement, saying Smith's 2019 song emerged shortly after their 2015 track had been released on streaming platforms and pitched around the music industry, and argued that the hooks of the two songs are close to identical in melody, rhythm, and lyrics.