Beyonce sued for $7m over XO plagiarism: Flawless singer's biggest copyright accusations to date

She prides herself on being creative and original, however Beyonce has been accused of ripping off one of her latest singles from a backing singer.

Backing singer Ahmad Lane has reportedly accused the Feeling Myself singer of copying his track XOXO for her own single XO, which was released in 2013.

According to Radar Online, Lane has filed a lawsuit against the former Destiny's Child singer, her company Parkwood Entertainment and Columbia Pictures, and is asking for $7m (£4.4m) in damages.

Lane alleges that he once worked with the Flawless hitmaker's backing singer Chrissy Collins to whom he gave his single XOXO.

The singer claims that Collins must have passed the track onto Beyonce and her team who then decided to use it as her own material.

Listen to Beyonce's XO single:

However, Beyonce, 33, is said to have slammed the copyright claims by stating she is a Grammy-winning singer with 118 million records sold worldwide and has no reason to steal other people's work.

The website reports that Beyonce's lawyers described the lawsuit as "vague and cryptic", adding: "The two works at issue are entirely different songs that share no lyrical or musical similarity, other than perhaps the letters X and O."

The chart-topper's response also claims that Lane did not file a copyright registration for his song.

It is not the first time Beyonce has been accused of copyright infringement. IBTimes UK takes a look back at the previous allegations of plagiarism against the singer:

2007: Singer Des'ree was far from pleased to find that Beyonce had sampled her iconic ballad Kissing You for the track Still In Love (Kissing You) on her B'Day album.

According to the lawsuit, Beyonce's team did have discussions about using the track but failed to actually obtain permission. Re-issues of the record no longer featured the song.

2012: Hip hop star Khia claimed Beyonce stole the concept for her Party music video from the rapper's My Neck, My Back visuals, particularly the scene where she hangs out with friends in the backyard. Nothing ever came of Khia's accusations.

Watch Beyonce's Party music video

2011: The world was left in awe after watching Beyonce's performance of Run The World (Girls) at the Billboard Music Awards, where she delivered a choreographed routine while interacting with objects on a white screen.

However, fans were disappointed after it was revealed to be incredibly similar to a performance by Italian artist Lorella Cuccarini.

The singer was then forced to admit she used Cuccarini's work as inspiration, telling AOL Music: "My make-up artist showed me the performance of Lorella Cuccarini a year ago, and it inspired me so much."

Watch the similarities between Beyonce and Lorella Cuccarini's performances:

"I then met with the talented people who worked on it. The technology and concept were so genius."

She added: "Thank god for YouTube or I would have never been exposed to something so inspiring. I never worked so hard on anything in my life as that performance for the Billboard Awards."

2011: The Single Ladies hitmaker was accused of lifting dance moves from Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker for her artistic Countdown music video.

Speaking to a Danish blog, De Keersmaeker allegedly said: "I didn't know anything about this. I'm not mad, but this is plagiarism."

One of the major similarities is a scene where Beyonce can be seen through a window with her dancers performing a ballet routine in the background. It is not known if De Keersmaeker filed a lawsuit against the singer.

Watch a rundown of the similarities between Beyonce and De Keersmaeker's videos:

2014: After Beyonce surprised fans, the songstress and her husband Jay Z were given a surprise of their own when a folk artist accused the rapper of copying one syllable of their 1995 song Bajba, Bajba Pelem.

Beyonce was also accused of making her version of the song sound more "erotic", with the lawsuit allegedly stating: "Following Mitsou's stirring featured solo vocal introduction, Mitsou's voice continues to sing as Beyoncé begins to sing, to evoke foreign eroticism alongside the sexually intense lyrics performed by Beyonce and Jay Z in 'Drunk in Love."