Mariah Carey pummeled with a lawsuit for All I Want For Christmas Is You again

Country singer Andy Stone, who performs under the stage name Vince Vance, and together with a band, known as Vince Vance and the Valiants, have filed the same case against Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, and Mariah Carey again. Along with co-author of the song cum plaintiff Troy Powers, Vance aka Stone has asked for USD 20 million as compensation for damages.

According to Vince Vance and the Valiants, their song All I want For Christmas Is You was released in 1989. They claim that it got “excessive airplay” in 1993 and hit the Billboards that year. However, Singer Vince ‘Stone’ Vance did perform the song at the White House in 1994, after it hit number 55 on the Billboard Hot Country chart and was even invited back for another performance in 1995. Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You, on the other hand, was launched in 1994 as part of her Merry Christmas album.

Last year Stone had filed a similar case, but had withdrawn it without prejudice, in November 2022 due to certain legal necessities. Withdrawing without prejudice means the plaintiff can refile again later. The second filing is very similar to the first one, which asked for USD 20 million as compensation for copyright infringement, unjust enrichment, and false association.

Their paperwork further read that Carey had “palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own. Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement.”

According to the plaintiffs, they had tried to reach an amiable conclusion with Sony Music, Carey, and her song-writer, Walter Afanasieff, but to no avail, thus the refiling. Sony Music Entertainment and Mariah Carey have made no comments or responded to the filing yet.