Five-time Grammy winner Celine Dion has been accused of stealing the title track off of her upcoming studio album.
Daniel Merriweather, an Australian singer and songwriter took to Facebook to accuse Dion of taking the tune, "Water And A Flame," without crediting him.
The angry post was fueled by Dion's appearance on Katie Couric's talk show "Katie," in which she sang a part of "Water And A Flame," without mentioning Merriweather, who originally wrote and recorded the song as a duet with powerhouse pop star Adele.
"It's astounding that Celine Dion tries to pass off lyrics I wrote as her own," Merriweather wrote. "This song has every ounce of my heart and pain in it and she pretends she wrote it herself... Why would an artist of [her] caliber and prowess need to steal credit like this?"
Dion's camp later responded on her official site.
"Despite the headlines that have emerged from Daniel's publicity, Celine certainly doesn't claim in any way whatsoever that she wrote the song," they said in a written post. "While we can understand Daniel's disappointment by not having his name mentioned during Katie Couric's interview, it's rather unfair to Celine to be on the receiving end of the many disparaging comments that have now become public."
Merriweather later backtracked, admitting in another Facebook post that he was "wrong to say that Celine 'stole' [the] song," and that it was a misunderstanding on Dion's part. She thought the song belonged to Adele.
Dion is now moving past the incident with another album set to be released this fall and a job as a co-producer of a brand new Vegas show.The show will feature fellow French Canadian Veronic DiCaire, known for impersonating famous singers such as Lady Gaga, Britney Spears and Shakira.
"You've seen impersonators, you've seen men doing women, and women doing men. Sometimes it's funny, and sometimes it's so exaggerated. We've seen it all. With Veronic it's very, very different," Dion told the Associated Press.
The show runs at Bally's in Las Vegas, but you can get a peek at DiCaire's act in the video below.
