Mariah Carey Hit With Another Copyright Lawsuit Over “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
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Mariah Carey is being sued (again) over her super successful holidays hit, “All I Want For Christmas Is You.” A songwriter by the name of Vince Vance has continued to accuse the living legend of copyright infringement regarding his original Christmas song.
According to Billboard, Vance, né Andy Stone, made a complaint on Wednesday (Nov. 1) in a Los Angeles federal court that Carey’s 1994 Christmas blockbuster infringed the copyrights to his 1989 song of the same title. He’s made the same case before, only this time he has included more details and is under new representation.
Vance has claimed that Carey fabricated the origin story of how “All I Want For Christmas Is You” was created. He also alleged that the 53-year-old’s co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, debunked Carey’s story.
“Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own,” Vance’s new lawyer, Gerard P. Fox, stated in the new suit. “Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement.”
The new lawsuit also included allegations that Carey copied the “unique linguistic structure” and “musical elements,” of his song.
“The phrase ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ may seem like a common parlance today, in 1989 it was, in context, distinctive,” Fox stated. “Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of Vance’s original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions.”
Take a listen to Vance’s 1989 song “All I Want For Christmas” below and Carey’s 1994 hit above.
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