Mariah Carey hit with $20 million copyright lawsuit over 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'

Sara Netzley
Updated ·3 min read
21
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
Mariah Carey hit with $20 million copyright lawsuit over 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'

All she wants for Christmas is… a motion to dismiss?

Legendary songstress Mariah Carey has been hit with a copyright infringement lawsuit over her 1994 holiday classic "All I Want for Christmas Is You."

Songwriter Andy Stone filed a complaint in New Orleans federal court on Friday alleging that he co-wrote a song in 1990 with the same title as Carey's enduring yuletide banger.

MARIAH CAREY: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU - From the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Television Network presents international superstar Mariah Carey in the music special,
MARIAH CAREY: MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU - From the Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles, Walt Disney Television via Getty Images Television Network presents international superstar Mariah Carey in the music special,

Danny Feld/Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Mariah Carey

Stone, who serves as the frontman for country-pop band Vince Vance & the Valiants, is asking for a minimum of $20 million in damages, and he named Carey, her co-writer, and Sony Music Entertainment in the suit, claiming they illegally exploited his "popularity and unique style."

The two songs share titles. If you're unfamiliar with Stone's version, you can check it out here.

Stone argues that his song charted on Billboard and enjoyed "extensive airplay" in 1993, and that attempts to come to an agreement with Carey and the other co-defendants in April 2021 were unsuccessful.

Carey's perennial Christmas favorite hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time in 2019 and has returned to the top spot every year since. In fact, the song gets so much play in the final months of the year that in 2021, a bar banned patrons from playing it on the jukebox before December and then only once a night after that. This prompted Carey to tweet about her new role in the "war on Christmas."

Carey told EW in 2019 that she's proud of the song's slow climb to holiday domination. "When it first came out, it was more of a gradual thing," Carey said. "It was popular, but it didn't have what it has now. I feel like people have grown up with the song and it's become a part of people's lives in terms of the way they celebrate the holidays. That makes me feel really proud as someone that loves Christmas so much."

One thing Carey doesn't acknowledge is the age of the song, which featured prominently in the 2003 holiday rom-com Love Actually.

"I rebuke time," she said. "I have a thing where I just live outside the traditional realm of how we measure [it]. So in that way, Santa and myself are very similar."

Carey isn't the only high-profile musician to face a lawsuit this year. In March, Dua Lipa was sued by Florida-based group Artikal Sound System for the apparent similarities between her 2020 smash "Levitating" and their 2017 recording "Live Your Life." The plaintiffs in that case are seeking monetary compensation in the form of profit sharing from "Levitating," claiming that Lipa "listened to and copied 'Live Your Life' before and during the time when they were writing 'Levitating,'" according to the suit.

Representatives for Carey and Sony Music did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

And hey, even though it's a little early for Christmas in July, here's Mariah's version of "All I Want for Christmas Is You" to keep you cozy.

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content: