Mariah Carey faces new copyright lawsuit over ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’

On Wednesday (November 1), Mariah Carey released a video of herself being ‘defrosted’ to mark the beginning of the vacation season, soundtracked by her vacation megahit All I Need for Christmas Is You.

The observe, first launched in 1994, has change into an omnipresent sonic fixture of the vacations yearly since then and has been streamed over 1.47 billion occasions on Spotify alone.

The track is now on the middle of a brand new authorized dispute, with Carey being hit with a lawsuit from a musician known as Andy Stone for allegedly copying parts of his track of the identical identify.

That is truly the second time that Stone, who performs as Vince Vance and the Valiants, has sued Carey for allegedly copying his track, which was released in 1989.

Stone’s first lawsuit arrived again in June 2022, however was dropped in November of that very same yr.

Within the newest lawsuit, filed in a California courtroom on Wednesday (November 1), Stone and co-writer and plaintiff Troy Powers, names among the many defendants, Carey, together with producer Walter Afanasieff and Sony Music Entertainment.

Stone’s grievance claims that the Vince Vance model of All I Need for Christmas Is You “turned a rustic music hit” after “in depth seasonal airplay in 1993”.

The grievance additionally claims that Vince Vance’s All I Need for Christmas Is You “returned seasonally to Billboard’s Sizzling Nation chart 5 extra occasions all through the Nineties, peaking at No. 31″.

Based on the lawsuit, Mariah Carey’s All I Need for Christmas Is You, which was launched in 1994 as part of her seasonal Merry Christmas album, allegedly copies, from Stone’s track, the “compositional construction of an prolonged comparability between a cherished one and trappings of seasonal luxurious”.

The grievance additionally claims that Carey’s hit “consists of a number of of [Stone’s] lyrical phrases”.

The lawsuit, which you’ll be able to read in full here, claims: “Past the lyrical hook ‘[a]ll I need for Christmas is you’, Defendants straight copy and embrace the precise lyrics ‘I don’t want . . . ‘ presents ‘beneath the Christmas tree‘.”

It continues: “As a substitute, like Plaintiffs’ authentic work, Carey implores Santa to ‘convey me the one factor I actually need,‘ an unnamed ‘you,’ to make their ‘want come true’.“

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Stone and his co-plaintiff allege that the “infringed copyrighted lyrics account for about 50%” of Mariah Carey’s model of All I Need for Christmas Is You and declare that “the chord development and melodic similarities push this proportion of infringement nonetheless larger”.

Elsewhere within the lawsuit, Stone and co-writer Powers declare that Mariah Carey et al “undoubtedly had entry” to their track  “previous to writing and releasing” All I Need For Christmas Is You “given its large business and cultural success”.

The go well with provides: “Carey has capitalized on the success of her infringing work. All I Need for Christmas is You, has change into a ubiquitous a part of fashionable tradition, and Carey’s identify has change into synonymous with the season.

“Certainly, the glow of success from this one track, has revitalized Defendant Carey’s profession, as she headlines live performance and occasions always of the yr. All I Need for Christmas is you helped to propel Mariah Carey’s profession, and enhance her income from efficiency requests.”

Stone and Powers search not less than $20 million in damages.Music Enterprise Worldwide