Mariah Carey Is Being Sued $20 Million For Her Song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’
It is pretty much the soundtrack of Christmas.
It’s played ad nauseam — on just about EVERY radio station, every dentist office, every shopping mall, and in every elevator — during the holidays.
It’s been featured in television shows and movie soundtracks.
You can’t watch — my favorite Christmas movie — Love Actually without singing the song.
What am I talking about? If you guessed Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” you’d be 100% correct!
Side Note: It’s kind of hard to believe that the song was released in 1994. It seems like it has ALWAYS been around, doesn’t it?!? (I guess for SOME Millennials, Gen Z, Gen A, and Gen B people, it HAS always been around. Ha!)
Well, it took 28 years, but Mariah Carey is now being sued for $20 million over this very Christmas hit.
Andy Stone, otherwise known as Vince Vance of Vince Vance & The Valiants, claims Mariah stole the name of her holiday hit.
(Can I sue because I’m sick and tired of hearing the Mariah Carey song? LOL!!)
Now, both songs carry the name “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” but Vince Vance & The Valiants released THEIR version of the song 5 years earlier — originally released in 1989.
By the way: If you haven’t heard the Vince Vance & The Valiants version, it is one of my FAVORITE Christmas songs. You HAVE to give it a listen.
To be clear, the 2 songs don’t share any of the same lyrics, nor do they mirror song tunes.
It is simply the name of the song (both songs) that is in question.
Stone is arguing that the identical titles cause too much confusion, and that Ms. Carey did not ask his permission to use the exact same title that he uses for his song.
I must say, I completely agree with his concern — but I probably would have said something before 28 years went by.
According to CNN, the first complaint from Stone came in 2021. He says he contacted Mariah and her people back in April of 2021, but they were “unable to come to any agreement.”
The complaint alleges that the single exploited the “style” and “popularity” of Stone’s song, which he claims received “extensive airplay” during the 1993 holiday season and charted on Billboard.
CNN
Mariah Carey isn’t the only person that Stone is going after with this suit. He’s also suing her co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, and Sony Music Entertainment, who released Mariah’s version of the single in 1994.
Incidentally, Mariah’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” — which is played on the radio like every 5 minutes during the holidays — “became the first and only holiday single to hit 10 million sales and streaming units in the U.S. last December, 27.”
Dude. We are talking about a 28 year old song! How CRAZY is it that the song it’s still charting year after year?!?
According to Yahoo Entertainment, in 2019 Mariah Carey “became the first solo recording artist to hit the No. 1 spot 19 times.” And, she did it with a Christmas song!!
Thanks to this Christmas staple, Mariah Carey became the very first artist to have a song top the charts in “4 different decades.”
Now, we don’t know how this lawsuit is going to play out.
It is my personal belief that Andy Stone is completely correct in his complaint.
BUT, Mariah Carey and Sony Entertainment are HUGE entities. It is pretty hard to win a lawsuit against people who can afford the best lawyers around.
I can’t wait to see what happens with this case!
You can hear the Vince Vance & The Valiants version HERE.
If you need a refresher on Mariah Carey’s version, you can go HERE.
