French singer accuses Miley Cyrus of plagiarism

French disco diva Amanda Lear publicly accused American singer Miley Cyrus on Monday of plagiarising one of her songs from the 1970s.

Lear, a model-turned-singer who was a muse to surrealist painter Salvador Dali and a lover of Rolling Stones guitarist Brian Jones, took Cyrus to task over apparent similarities between her song "The Sphinx" and the American's new track "Redlights".

Cyrus released her tenth album "Bass Persuades" last Friday, a 10-track dance pop opus including the ballad "Redlights" which invites comparisons to the slower, gravelly voiced song by Lear from 1978.

"Thank you, Miley, for copying my song 'The Sphinx'! I'm flattered!" Lear wrote on social media on Sunday with the hashtags "ripoff" and "copycat".

"I've never been litigious, but my record label, Universal, and the publishers of the track, for which I wrote the lyrics, want acknowledgment of the plagiarism," Amanda Lear told AFP on Monday.

"I simply pointed out the situation by thanking Miley Cyrus and adding that I was flattered. I never threatened a lawsuit or retaliation," she added.

Lear is a prolific composer and singer who has produced more than 20 albums.

The Rolling Stones are believed to have written a song about her "Miss Amanda Jones" dating to her time as a prominent figure during the Swinging Sixties in London.