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Mariah Carey is being sued for copyright infringement related to her smash single \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d by Andy Stone, the man who wrote another Christmas hit with the same title. But his fight for at least $20 million in damages is likely an uphill battle, according to one entertainment attorney.<\/p>\n
Stone, who performs under the name Vince Vance, alleges that Carey\u2019s song \u2014 which has gone platinum multiple times all over the world \u2014 is \u201ca derivative work based\u201d on a Christmas song of the same name he wrote and recorded in 1989. His attorney reached out to the defendants in December 2021, the lawsuit said, but was \u201cunable to come to any agreement\u201d about the continued publication of Carey\u2019s 1994 song.<\/p>\n
The Vince Vance & the Valiants version of \u201cAll I Want\u201d received \u201cextensive airplay during the 1993 Christmas season\u201d and \u201cbegan making appearances on the Billboard charts\u201d that year, said the lawsuit, which was obtained by The Times. What Stone is claiming to be the relationship between the two songs is unclear. Carey\u2019s tune is an upbeat pop number, while Stone\u2019s is a low-key country song.<\/p>\n
Stone\u2019s lawsuit says the performer \u201cpersonally requested\u201d that Carey cease and desist publication of her song. It\u2019s unclear when Stone became aware of Carey\u2019s record, which has been streamed more than 1 billion times.<\/p>\n
A Carey representative did not respond immediately to a request for comment Monday.<\/p>\n
Stone \u201chas major hurdles in the way of winning any damages,\u201d attorney Michael Peters of Beverly Hills-based Ramo Law told The Times via email Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon listening to the two songs at issue, any layperson (or juror) can probably tell that a comparison of the music and lyrics does not bode well for any damages being awarded to Stone,\u201d said Peters, who specializes in entertainment law.<\/p>\n
The use of \u201cgeneric tropes of Christmas tradition (e.g. presents, mistletoe, wish lists, etc.) are also not going to be very useful to Stone in this suit,\u201d Peters said, as those will likely be found to be scene a faire \u2014 or a \u201cscene that must be done\u201d \u2014 in context of a Christmas song. Also, titles cannot be copyrighted.<\/p>\n
Mariah Carey stars in a new TV movie and new holiday special, both on Hallmark Channel.<\/p>\n
The rest, he said, depends on \u201chow the jury receives the parties\u2019 respective musicologists\u2019 analysis and testimony if this goes as far as trial.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carey\u2019s \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d was co-written by the singer and Walter Afanasieff, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America. Since its release on the album \u201cMerry Christmas\u201d in October 1994, Carey\u2019s single has earned more than $60 million, though it didn\u2019t hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts until 2019, a quarter-century after its release.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started by sitting at the piano and plucking out notes. That\u2019s not typical \u2014 usually, I\u2019ll sing a melody to a piano player, and they\u2019ll play the chords that I\u2019m hearing. But in this case, I was just sitting there, coming up with this melody, in a dark house with a Christmas tree,\u201d Carey told The Times in December 2020. \u201cIt kind of popped out: [sings] All I want for Christmas … I can\u2019t tell you how that melody came to me. I really look at it as a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she brought the melody to Afanasieff and the two wrote the bridge together.<\/p>\n
Performing on “VH1 Divas Holiday: Unsilent Night,” Mariah Carey proved no one beats her version of “All I Want for Christmas Is You.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted it to feel classic. I didn\u2019t want it to feel \u201990s. It probably feels \u201990s now to people who are nostalgic about the \u201990s. But in the \u201990s, it was something different,\u201d she said in 2020.<\/p>\n
Vince Vance and the Valiants\u2019 \u201dAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d features vocals by country singer Lisa Burgess Stewart, who now records as Lisa Layne. Country-pop star Kelly Clarkson released a cover of the tune in 2020.<\/p>\n
View this article at LA Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mariah Carey sued by writer of another song named \u2018All I Want for Christmas Is You\u2019: Mariah Carey is being sued for copyright infringement related to her smash single \u201cAll I Want for Christmas Is You\u201d by Andy Stone, the man who wrote another Christmas hit with the same title. But his fight for at
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