Singer/songwriter Daniel Merriweather has criticised Celine Dion for covering his song Water And A Flame and failing to publicly credit him.

Dion unveiled her new song Water and a Flame, the title track of her next album, on U.S. talk show Katie in April (13), but did not acknowledge it is a new rendition of the Australian star's 2009 duet with Grammy winner Adele.

Merriweather has posted a link to Dion's Tv interview on his Facebook.com page and criticised the Canadian star for not giving him any recognition.

He writes, "It is astounding that Celine Dion tries to pass off lyrics that I wrote as her own... Now, if I had written the song for her, it wouldn't bother me so much, but Water and a Flame is a very personal song that I wrote right after a break up I was going through and is one of my personal favorite (sic) songs on my album Love & War... This song has every ounce of my heartache and pain in it and she pretends as if she wrote it herself."

Merriweather admits he is glad the superstar recorded his song, but he urges Dion to remember the personal connection songwriters have to their work.

He adds, "Don't get me wrong, I am genuinely flattered that anyone would want to cover one of my songs, but there is an age old etiquette amongst artists that one gives credit where credit is due... Thank you Celine Dion for singing my song, but if you had seen even half of what I have seen in my life time you wouldn't be able to get out of bed in the morning let alone sing, so just be mindful of the fact that songs are a connection to the ether, and an insight to our inner most thoughts and feelings and for some of us it may be all we will ever have."