A Musician Is Suing Mariah Carey Over ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’—but Only Because of the Title
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Mariah Carey and her beloved Christmas tune “All I Want for Christmas Is You” are facing an emergency. The crisis? Another musician is suing Carey, claiming the song idea wasn’t originally hers. The song in question? Sounds nothing like Carey’s boppin’ classic.
Andy Stone, the musician behind the lawsuit, is better known under his stage name, Vince Vance, as a part of Vince Vance & the Valiants, per The Washington Post’s reporting. He’s out for blood, claiming “All I Want for Christmas Is You” infringes on the copyright of his song with the same exact title—which happened to be released five years before Carey’s 1994 hit.
A look at Vance’s installation of the song, though, shows it sounds nothing—nothing!—like Carey’s seminal ode to the holiday spirit. The video bears no resemblance to the other “All I Want for Christmas Is You” winter wonderland; none of the lyrics match up; and the music itself is completely tuned out from Carey’s song.
Carey has not yet commented on the lawsuit, nor have her co-writer Walter Afanasieff or Sony, who are also named in the suit.
In 1989, a self-employed Vance co-wrote “All I Want for Christmas is You,” recording the tune in Nashville. It debuted later on, and after “receiving extensive airplay during the 1993 Christmas season … began making appearances on the Billboard Music Charts,” per the court documents.
Vance’s lawyers say they started pinging Carey and her team in April 2021, following up with a letter later in December—peak Mariah Carey season. But they didn’t hear a word back.
“Even after communicating the concerns with Defendants, Plaintiff was unable to come to any agreement over usage of the ‘All I Want for Christmas is You’,” the suit reads.
Usually, copyright doesn’t extend to song titles. On top of that, there are quite a handful of registered entries for “All I Want for Christmas is You” in the U.S. Copyright Office. But as Vance’s entry tries its hand at the Queen of Christmas herself, the song has been getting a handful of new plays on YouTube. Perhaps that’s the best outcome for Vince Vance & the Valiants.
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