Aurora Starchild
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want For Christmas Is You” has topped the Billboard Top 100 for three years in a row since 2019. When you consider that it was released in 1994, that’s a really long time for the song to remain a top Christmas classic. But now another artist is claiming that Mariah Carey stole the song from him and is infringing on his copyright. He’s suing her for upwards of $20 million in damages.
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Vince Vance of Vince Vance & the Valiants, whose real name is Andy Stone, claims that he wrote the song five years before Mariah came out with her version. He’s suing Mariah, Sony Music Entertainment, and Mariah Carey’s songwriter. The lawsuit, filed in New Orleans federal court, alleges copyright infringement, misappropriation, and other claims.
CNN Entertainment points out that the two songs, both titled “All I Want For Christmas Is You,” have different melodies and lyrics. However, there could be more to the infringement claim than meets the eye.
Stone is claiming that Mariah and her team exploited his style and popularity when they released their version of the identically titled song at the time that they did. He says that his version also reached Billboard in 1993, the year prior to Mariah Carey’s version being released.
Intellectual property infringement can be a sticky, tricky area to wade in, whether copying someone else’s work or claiming that someone copied you.
It seems that Stone could possibly also be alluding to some kind of trademark infringement, such as Reverse Passing Off. That occurs when someone with a larger brand and more popularity takes a smaller artist’s work and passes it on to a larger audience in a faster manner than the creator can. When this happens, it seems like the more popular artist created the art because the public is aware of their version first.
Vince Vance & the Valiants is a country-pop band.
