A country musician doesn’t want a lot for Christmas… just $20 million in damages from Mariah Carey, who he claims copied his song with her festive staple ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’.
Andy Stone, who performs under the name Vince Vance and the Valiants, has a song with the exact same name.
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He’s accused the Queen of Christmas of ‘copyright infringement and unjust enrichment’.
Stone wrote his song all the way back in 1989 and released it that year.
While they might share the same name, they are vastly different songs.
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Mariah dropped her infamous track in 1994 and it has been a certified hit every single year from November to the end of the year.
In Stone’s lawsuit, he says Carey ‘copied the compositional structure’ of his song, which was co-written by Troy Powers, who is also a plaintiff in this case.
The singer claims his ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ charted on Billboard’s Hot Country Singles & Tracks list in 1993, just before Mariah released her track.
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He believes this meant his song had ‘wide commercial and cultural success’ and therefore Carey and her team ‘undoubtedly had access’ to the composition of his version.
“Defendants knew or should have known that ‘All I Want for 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,” the lawsuit filing states, according to People.
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He filed a $20 million lawsuit in June last year and sued Carey, her co-writer Walter Afansieff and Sony Music Entertainment for several claims.
Stone accused Carey and Afansieff of ‘knowingly, wilfully, and intentionally engaging in a campaign’ to infringe his copyright of the song.
He claimed the pair carried out ‘acts of unjust enrichment by the unauthorised appropriation of plaintiff’s work and goodwill associated therewith’.
Stone argues that he did not give permission for his song to be used for any purpose, including the ‘creation of derivative work’.
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However, he rescinded the lawsuit in ‘its entirety, without prejudice’ five months after filing it.
Despite it only being very early November, Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ has already started climbing the charts.
It’s managed to crack the Top 20 of the US iTunes Top Songs.
UNILAD has contacted a representative for Mariah Carey for comment regarding Stone’s lawsuit.
