Mariah Carey sued for US$20mil over ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ nearly 30 years later

Mariah Carey has been sued in the US for alleged copyright infringement over her 1994 global hit All I Want for Christmas Is You', court documents show. Photo: AFP

All he wants is a cool US$20mil (RM87.8mil).

Mariah Carey is being sued by a Louisiana songwriter for copyright infringement in relation to her Christmas anthem, All I Want For Christmas Is You. Yes, the one played ad nauseam starting every October, the BBC reports.

Andy Stone – who under the pseudonym Vince Vance performs with the band Vince Vance and the Valiants – is seeking at least US$20mil in damages, according to the outlet.

He insists that five-time Grammy winner Carey, 53, and co-writer Walter Afanasieff – as well as Sony Music Entertainment – exploited Stone’s “popularity” and “style,” and that he wrote a song with the identical title in 1989, five years prior to the release of Carey’s, the outlet reports.

Stone claims the three parties “knowingly, willfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign” to infringe copyright, resulting in “undeserved profits,” in part because he never afford them permission to use his song for any purpose, including “the creation of a derivative work,” according to the BBC.

Why Stone only initiated contact with the singer in 2021 – and as a result brought forth the lawsuit now – nearly 30 years after the release of Carey’s song, is unclear. He said that an agreement never resulted from last year’s contact. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service