Mariah Carey faces second copyright suit over ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’

If it’s November 1, it’s time to get into the Christmas spirit. At least according to Mariah Carey, who as soon as Halloween is over, lets the world know: “it’s time!” This year, to celebrate the moment, she shared a fun video, in which Halloween figures release her from a block of ice, just as the clock strikes midnight. Once released, the world turns into a Christmas wonderland and Carey’s famous hit All I Want For Christmas Is You starts playing.

But this November 1 was not all good cheer. The singer was also met with a less pleasant surprise: composer and musician Andy Stone has sued her for copyright infringement and, what’s more, he has gone after her Christmas hit, demanding no less than $20 million.

Stone filed the lawsuit in a California court on Wednesday, as reported by media outlets such as Rolling Stone and People. It is the second consecutive complaint by Stone, who is a member of the group Vince Vance & the Valiants, and it targets Carey for the same reason and the same song. The lawsuit was brought before a Louisiana court in June 2022, but was dismissed just five months later. Now, Stone is back with new lawyers and more accusations.

Stone is suing Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff, who composed the song with her, and the Sony Music Entertainment company for “copyright infringement and unjust enrichment.” He claims that they copied one of his songs, also called All I Want For Christmas Is You, which he composed in Nashville in 1989. Carey’s hit song came out four years later, in 1994. Stone’s lawsuit is also backed by musician Troy Powers, who helped Stone write the track.

In the lawsuit, Stone acknowledges that while his song is musically different, it has the same title, and that Carey never asked him for permission to use it, and has made “undeserved profits” because of it. It’s not illegal to use the same song title. According to BBC data, in the U.S. there are 177 songs registered under the title All I Want For Christmas Is You. But Stone also alleges that the “compositional structure” and the “unique linguistic structure” of the two songs are the same. While he admits that he did not invent the central phrase, he believes that Carey should not have used it without his consent.

Stone’s lawsuit claims that his song became a Christmas hit in 1993 and that it was frequently played on the radio, so much so that by 1994 it was on the Billboard list of best country songs. It argues that Carey was inspired by Stone’s song, “given its wide commercial and cultural success.” The lawsuit points out that Carey released her song in 1994 — the same year that Stone’s track was on the Billboard list. The 54-year-old singer, however, claimed that she wrote All I Want for Christmas is You on her Casio keyboard as a child. The song has become a global smash hit, reaching more than one billion streams on Spotify.

For this case, Andy Stone and Troy Powers are being counseled by the legal firm Gerard P. Fox, according to Billboard, which also represented two songwriters who accused singer Taylor Swift of alleged plagiarism in her song Shake It Off. That case was closed in December 2022, after a five-year legal battle, with a confidential agreement.

According to Forbes, in 2016, All I Want for Christmas is You had made Carey more than $60 million in profit. Every Christmas, the New York singer receives an additional $2-$3 million. Since its release 29 years ago, the song has sold more than 10 million copies. It had a comeback in 2020, when singer Kelly Clarkson released a cover of the song. Statistics show that every December, there is a spike in searches for the song. Carey has tried to capitalize on the popularity of the song. In March 2021, she even tried to trademark the name “Queen Of Christmas.” In November 2022, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied her request. Christmas, for now, remains everyone’s kingdom.

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