The songstress, who released a well-known Christmas song back in 1994, is slapped with another $20 million lawsuit over the track, one year after the first one was dropped.
- Nov 2, 2023
AceShowbiz - Mariah Carey appears to be facing another legal problem. The songstress, who released one of her hits titled "All I Want For Christmas Is You" back in 1994, has been sued by Andy Stone, who performs as Vince Vance, over that particular song for the second time.
In new legal documents obtained by several media outlets on Wednesday, November 1, the 54-year-old songstress, her co-writer Walter Afanasieff and Sony Music Entertainment in the Central District of California were named as defendants in a $20 million lawsuit from Andy and Troy Powers. The civil lawsuit was filed on Tuesday, October 31.
In the new docs, Andy demanded a jury trial and asked for the huge amount of money in damages. He, through his lawyers, also alleged "copyright infringement and unjust enrichment" over his own song, which is also titled "All I Want for Christmas Is You". His lawyers claimed that he co-wrote the song, which was released in 1989, in Nashville.
According to PEOPLE, the lawyers stated that Andy's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" song "received radio play" back in 1993. The track "became a hit on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart" one year later, which is the same year Mariah released her song.
The lawyers went to accuse Mariah of copying the "compositional structure" of Andy's track. However, they acknowledged that "the phrase 'all I want for Christmas is you' wasn't originated" by Andy. They further claimed that Mariah and her collaborators "undoubtedly had access" to Andy's track when her song was created "given its wide commercial and cultural success."
Elsewhere in the court documents, the lawyers reportedly wrote, "Defendants knew or should have known that 'All I Want or Christmas is You' could not be used in a musical work by Defendants without a license and/or songwriting credit, as is customary practice in the music industry."
This was not the first time Andy filed a lawsuit over Mariah's "All I Want for Christmas Is You". In June 2022, he filed a similar $20 million lawsuit in Louisiana. However, he dropped the lawsuit in November that same year, according to Billboard.
