Mariah Carey sued for copyright claim on “All I Want For Christmas”

mariahcareychristmas

(June 5, 2022) For those of us tiring of the continuous stream of questionable copyright infringement claims against music stars, this new one will get our blood boiling again. Pop and R&B star Mariah Carey created the biggest Christmas song of the past half century in 1994 with “All I Want For Christmas.” The song was a smash upon its initial release, and has only gotten bigger over time, actually topping the charts during the holiday season in both 2020 and 2021.

Now, nearly three decades after the song’s release, a complaint has been filed in federal court in New Orleans by a songwriter named Andy Stone, who claims that Mariah’s holiday smash illegally copied his 1990 song of the same name, which was released by his band, Vince Vance & The Valiants.

There certainly doesn’t seem to be anything unique about the name (or sentiment) “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” nor can I hear anything in the Stone composition that would hint at it influencing Mariah’s song. In fact, the Stone song appears to be as generic a mid-century country ballad as one could imagine. Listening to it below, I could swear I’ve heard it a million times before from artists like Lynn Anderson or Donna Fargo. 

So, while there are certainly legitimate claims of copyright infringement out there, we’re in a rough period of spikes in claims, many of which are head-scratchers. And this suit feels more absurd than most. We’re completely with Team Mariah here, and hope that this case ends quickly. What do you think?

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