According to David Balls of Digital Spy, "it finds their rich and soulful vocals dovetailing sweetly - enough to draw attention away from the slightly clichéd chorus".

[5] "Water and a Flame" was added to the A List on the BBC Radio 2 Playlist on 6 February 2014 and the commercial single was scheduled for release in the UK on 24 March 2014.

[6] On 8 August 2012, Le Journal de Montréal wrote that Dion's upcoming English-language studio album will contain songs written and produced by Eg White, who worked with Adele on 19 and 21.

[10] The video titled "Making of Water and a Flame" was released onto Dion's Vevo channel on 30 October 2013 and the official audio of the song premiered there on 5 November 2013.

[15] Musician Samantha Ronson, who is a friend of Daniel Merriweather's, wrote a blog post that included the video of the interview and the text "Dear Celine Dion, when you COVER someone else's song - you might want to give them credit".

[16] In June 2013, Merriweather linked to Ronson's post from his Facebook page and harshly criticized Dion, writing, "This song has every ounce of my heartache and pain in it and she pretends as if she wrote it herself".

[20] The New York Times review by Jon Caramanica and Nate Chinen said: "Celine, her show at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas... has perhaps pushed Ms. Dion to new levels of pizazz.

[21] Jim Farber of the Daily News stated, "The Winehouse-y number finds Dion fully convincing in her woozy, boozy phrasing".

[26] Later, "Water and a Flame" was included on the setlist of Dion's Sans attendre Tour which started in Belgium on 21 November 2013 and ended in France on 5 December 2013.