All he wants for Christmas is to win a lawsuit against Mariah Carey.
For the second time, a songwriter who goes by Vince Vance has sued the Christmas queen over her ever-successful holiday hit, "All I Want for Christmas Is You," making the same basic accusations he did in a lawsuit last year.
The complaint filed Nov. 1 — the same day Carey dropped her annual "It's time!" defrosting clip — alleges Carey, her co-writer Walter Afanasieff and Sony Music Entertainment infringed on the copyrights to Vance's 1989 song, also titled "All I Want for Christmas Is You," when they created her 1994 chart-topper.
It’s…… TIME!!! 🎃🧊🎄 #MariahSZN pic.twitter.com/dp6xEs7LTT
— Mariah Carey (@MariahCarey) November 1, 2023
Vance, whose real name is Andy Stone, filed a similar lawsuit with his co-writer Troy Powers last June, but he dropped it five months later.
In both suits, Vance claims his single had "extensive airplay" the year before Carey released her song of the same name. But this year's suit takes it a step further, detailing more of his song's success as a "country music hit" on Billboard charts and claiming Carey "undoubtedly" had access to it.
Vance alleges Carey and her team copied the compositional and "unique linguistic" structure of his song and that they should have known not to use the phrase "without a license and/or songwriting credit," though the complaint acknowledges Vance didn't originate the saying.
"The phrase 'all I want for Christmas is you' may seem like a common parlance today, in 1988 it was, in context, distinctive," the complaint states. "Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of Vance's original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions."
Vance is seeking $20 million in damages in the case, with Gerard P. Fox as his attorney.
Fox previously represented two songwriters who sued Taylor Swift for copyright infringement with her song "Shake It Off." The case over stolen lyrics went on for more than five years before ending last year in a confidential settlement, Billboard reports.
Carey hasn't been reached for comment on the litigation.
Scripps News
It's a joy to the world: Mariah Carey is going on a Christmas tour
Carey and "All I Want for Christmas Is You" have been synonymous with the holiday since the song was released.
Each year, the song seems to skyrocket to the top of the charts, becoming the first song in history to have four separate runs at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart from 2019 to 2022.
And this year, it'll likely be no different. Though chart information for the week isn't out yet, Carey's "It's time" video has already amassed nearly 114 million views on X and more than 2 million likes on Instagram.
The singer is set to kick off her "Merry Christmas One and All!" tour Nov. 15, with 13 dates across America celebrating her "defrosting."
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