Celine Dion’s management has issued a statement responding to Melbourne singer/songwriters Daniel Merriweather’s Facebook comments yesterday about she appeared to erase his existence from his song she covered for her new album.
Daniel wrote the song ‘Water and a Flame’ with Eg White for his second album ‘Love & War’ released in 2009. The song, featuring vocals from Adele, was the fourth single from his album. ‘Water and a Flame’ has been covered by Celine Dion and will be the title track of her next album.
In a recent interview with Katie Couric on American television Celine talked about how much she loved Adele’s music when talking about the song. Daniel’s friend Samantha Ronson saw the interview and posted “Dear Celine Dion, when you COVER someone else’s song- you might want to give them credit.”
Daniel was furious. “Adele didn’t write one word or melody of Water and a Flame and she’ll be the first to tell you that,” he said. “It is astounding that Celine Dion tries to pass off lyrics that I wrote as her own.
Daniel commented after seeing Celine’s appearance on Katie Couric a few months ago when she played a portion of “Water And A Flame”.
A statement from Celine management states, “Before playing the song, Katie asks Celine about her “new favorite artist”, Adele, and Celine tells Katie how much she loves Adele. Celine continues by talking about “Water And A Flame”….about how much she loves it….and how it’s a bit different from what she’s used to singing. She doesn’t mention anything about who wrote the song. Despite the headlines that have emerged from Daniel’s publicity, Celine certainly doesn’t claim in any way whatsoever that she wrote the song. 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.
“Throughout Celine’s 32 year career she has always been very vocal about sharing the credit for her successes. She has been very vocal about the fact that she does not write her own songs…and that she is fortunate to have wonderful and talented writers to provide these gifts to her. For her to be accused of “stealing” a song is not only grossly inaccurate, but also very hurtful. During the thousands of interviews that she’s given over the years, it’s often that she will not mention the names of the writers involved. It’s something that may not come up a lot in the interviews. That said, when a Celine Dion album is released, we ‘always’ include complete and accurate writer credits in an updated bio, and of course, inside the CD packaging. Celine’s new English album will be released worldwide this Fall. We are very excited about this new album, and we hope to have great success with it….and great success for all those who have contributed.
“She loves Daniel Merriweather and Eg White’s song so much, and would never want to do any harm to them….nor take away anything from them….in fact, the opposite would be true.
“We hope this clears up any misconceptions regarding Celine’s intentions”.
Celine Dion’s Management
Celine has not made a statement about Daniel’s comments, only her management. Until she does, we can only assume her management has not shown her his comments.
