The Tennessean is reporting that Carrie Underwood and her co-writers behind the song, “Something in the Water,” are being sued in federal court for song theft.
Songwriters Ron McNeill and Georgia Lyons are claiming they pitched a song titled “Something in the Water” to Carrie’s producer, Mark Bright, in 2014. The lawsuit contends that the songwriters never heard back from Carrie’s camp, but that Carrie recorded the song in 2014.
“Something in the Water” hit No. 1 on both Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and Hot Christian Songs chart and won the Grammy for Best Country Solo Performance.
Carrie’s co-writers on the tune—Chris DeStefano and Brett James—their publishing companies and Sony Music Nashville are also named as defendants in the suit.
“The hook on the infringing work, as released on the album, is structurally and lyrically identical, and substantially similar melodically to plaintiffs’ composition of the same title,” McNeill and Lyons argue in their lawsuit, according to The Tennessean.
A spokesperson for Carrie denied the song theft and said that she expects “Carrie, Brett and Chris will be vindicated in the courts.”
