Another year, another $20 million lawsuit filed by Andy Stone regarding Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Stone, who performs as Vince Vance and the Valiants, filed a civil lawsuit against Carey, co-writer Walter Afanasieff, and Sony Music Entertainment on Tuesday in the Central District of California, alleging “copyright infringement and unjust enrichment” over a successful song he co-wrote in Nashville and released in 1989 titled “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”
Stone and co-writer Troy Powers (who is also a respondent in the current case) filed a similar lawsuit in Louisiana last June, but it was dismissed five months later.
Lawyers for Stone state in new court documents obtained by PEOPLE that “All I Want for Christmas Is You” was played on the radio in 1993 and became a success on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the following year, around the same time that Carey’s now-classic holiday anthem was released.
The complaint alleges that Carey duplicated the “compositional structure” of Stone’s 1989 song, despite the fact that the phrase “all I want for Christmas is you” was not written by Stone.
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Lawsuit Alleges Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ Infringed on Prior Song
Attorneys for the plaintiffs assert that Carey and her collaborators had access to Stone’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” at the time they wrote their homonymous song, given “All I Want for Christmas Is You’s” widespread commercial and cultural success.
“Defendants knew or should have known that ‘All I Want or Christmas is You’ could not be used in a musical work by Defendants without a license and/or songwriting credit, as is customary practice in the music industry,” according to the papers.
The plaintiffs are requesting a jury trial and $20 million in damages, according to the lawsuit.
A representative for Carey did not respond promptly to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Since its release on her iconic Merry Christmas album, Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” has received yearly radio play, topped the Billboard Hot 100, and been certified Diamond by the RIAA for more than 10 million copies sold — making it the only Christmas song to have accomplished the rare feat.
Stone’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” only charted on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks through 2000, but the song received a boost in popularity in 2020 when Kelly Clarkson released a cover version, which was later included on her 2021 album, When Christmas Comes…
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Source: People
