KINGSTON, Jamaica —Gospel singer Jermaine Edwards is pushing back against claims that Rushawn Ewears, the young man who captured the hearts of many with his cover of Edwards’ song Beautiful Day, received US $1 million from American singer Akon for the song.

In a post on Instagram on Monday, Edwards said the narrative is putting Rushawn’s life in danger and urged the public to stop circulating the claim.

“It’s actually putting my friend’s life in danger because the community are saying that he has a million US and he needs to help the community… I have the proof that it came out a year ago, and just to realise that the narrative is still being shared in person to want to solidify the information, and I’m really upset about that. Please stop doing it,” Edwards urged.

Rushawn Ewears in a captioned post on his Instagram account: rushawn.ewears

The singer also emphasised that Beautiful Day is properly registered and protected.

“I wasn’t going to come on social media and speak about this because I really didn’t think I needed to defend who owns Beautiful Day as my metadata and information speak for itself. I didn’t think I needed to defend my intellectual property when it was properly registered, and everywhere you see a YouTube video, everywhere you see Beautiful Day played, it is properly registered and properly covered,” he said.

Rushawn has also spoken out publicly, refuting the claims as false.

“False statements like these is putting my life in danger. Please stop making false information,” he appealed.