All I Want for Christmas Is… to Stop Getting Sued

Mariah Carey is being sued for copyright infringement relating to lyrics in her infamous song All I Want for Christmas is You—for the third time.

Attribution

Green Christmas Tree on Pexels

Mariah Carey and Sony Music were sued last November for copyright infringement and unjust enrichment for Carey's 1994 "All I Want for Christmas is You." Andy Stone (who works under the name Vince Vance) filed the $20 million suit in a Los Angeles federal court on November 1, 2023, once again alleging that Mariah Carey stole her holiday hit from him. Stone wrote a song by the same name with collaborator, Troy Powers in 1989. Before ever suing Carey, Stone first sued Sony Music and Walter Afanasieff, in a Louisiana federal court for the same issue, but dropped the suit in November 2022. Afanasieff collaborated with Carey on two albums prior to co-writing the contested song with her.

In the new 2023 suit, Stone added Powers as a plaintiff and maintained that Carey infringed on their lyrics for about 50% of her song. As with any classic song worthy of a classic copyright battle, the plaintiffs contend they have shown enough evidence to prove their intellectual property was stolen, while the defense contends that they have not. Carey’s team argues that the two (paid) experts the plaintiffs brought in to testify merely gave bad conclusory statements regarding the songs’ similarities and did not bring any further evidence.

One of the similarities Stone and Powers argue is the “unique linguistic structure” of the song, in which someone is writing a letter to Santa Claus asking for one thing. The plaintiffs said the one thing was the “you” “underneath the Christmas tree” is the person's "dream come true," per the lyrics. Carey and the other defendants argue that the two songs are “completely different.” The defendants aver that the two songs use similar holiday-themed words like “Santa Clause” and “mistletoe” because they’re both Christmas songs. In response to Stone’s November filing, Carey’s lawyers say that the “title and repeating hook ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ is a 'commonplace' Christmas phrase not invented by Vance.” They point out that at least 13 songs other songs written before Vance’s piece also used that same phrase or another very similar one.

Stone’s 2023 suit also alleges that Carey fabricated the story of how her song came to be and that her co-writer, Afanasieff doesn’t believe the story she tells either. Carey has said that she wrote it herself on a Casio keyboard, which conflicts with Afanasieff’s telling of the story that has him playing the piano as they composed the song together. Carey and Afanasieff have been estranged upwards of 20 years. Stone uses this fact to advance his argument that Carey’s “hubris [knows] no bounds” making it a “case of actionable infringement” as he calls it.

Stone’s song had much success on the charts and radio in January 1994. He even played it at the White House in 1994 with his band Vince Vance and the Valiants. Stone contends that in the nine months between the time his song emerged on the pop music radar and Carey’s October release, she had surely heard his. According to him, the real story is that in this period, Carey heard and stole his song and put it out as her own single on her Christmas album.

Stone makes his argument of unjust enrichment by pointing out that his song enjoyed much success and called it a “country hit” that reached Number 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. The song later reached Number 23 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart, now known as the Radio Songs chart.

To put into perspective some of the enrichment Carey and the other defendants receive, the combined plays and downloads of the song in 2022 generated $1.2 million in the United States alone. When looking at the total for global revenue and publishing royalties, the song raked in $8.5 million that same year. Assuming that Carey and her co-writer Afanasieff split the royalties 50/50, each one took home about $1.43 million dollars for the song.

On September 23, 2024, both parties filed opposition briefs to each other's motions and asked the court to deny their opponent's motions. Just over a month later, U.S. District Judge Moníca Ramírez Almadani opened a hearing for the parties’ motions. On November 7, 2024, Judge Ramírez Almadani said she was inclined to grant Carey’s motion for summary judgment and was “seriously considering” sanctioning the plaintiffs for “frivolous” filing.

Although the battle has not been won yet, it appears that Carey and her team will likely be successful in their Ninth Circuit suit. Perhaps the win will come in time for Mariah Carey’s most celebrated time of year.