Mariah Carey Facing $20M Lawsuit over "All I Want for Christmas is You"

Musician Andy Stone is suing Mariah Carey for $20 million in a California court, alleging her popular holiday song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" infringed on his copyright.

Stone, the lead vocalist of Vince Vance and the Valiants, co-wrote his song — also titled "All I Want for Christmas is You" — in 1989.

Stone accused Carey and her team of copying his song's "compositional structure", according to the complaint.  

Carey directly copied lyrics from Stone's 1989 hit and approximately 50% of the song is copyright infringement, the court docs stated.

He also claimed that Carey and her team "undoubtedly" had access to his version of "All I Want for Christmas is You" due to its "wide commercial and cultural success." 

Stone's song charted on Billboard for years, and his band performed the song during an appearance at the White House in the spring of 1994 — the same year Carey's song was released.

The White House performance put Vince Vance and the Valiants' song back on the Billboard Hot Country Chart in 1994, according to the court docs.

"Carey has capitalized on the success of her infringing work. All I Want for Christmas is You' has become a ubiquitous part of popular culture, and Carey's name has become synonymous with the season," Stone's complaint alleged.

Stone had first sued Carey in June 2022 in a Louisiana court before dropping the claim five months later, People magazine reported.

Carey's Christmas hit has been a holiday staple since it was released in 1994. "All I Want for Christmas is You" topped the Billboard Hot 100 and has sold more than 10 million copies. She has leaned into the success of the song and has begun teasing the Christmas season on social media by sharing a video announcing "It's time" for "All I Want for Christmas is You" on Wednesday.

This year's video has amassed over 70 million views and received 2 million likes on Instagram.

The singer-songwriter has previously shared how the song came to be in an interview with W Magazine.

"The idea of me doing a Christmas album at all came from the record company," Carey told the outlet. "It was very early in my career, and I thought it was a little early for me to be doing that, but I was like, ‘Well, I love Christmas.’ I had some very sad Christmases as a child, but I always try to find the bright light there."

"I didn’t want it to feel specific to any era, so we didn’t use sounds that were happening at that time," she explained. "That way, it would feel classic and timeless. But I could never have imagined that it would become such a major part of my life."