In November 2023, country artist named Andy Stone, a.k.a. Vince Vance, filed a lawsuit against pop sensation Mariah Carey, alleging that her wildly famous holiday hit, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” was plagiarized from a song he wrote in 1989 with the same name. A claim such as this is a rather serious one, as many people associate Carey’s song with the coming of the holiday season, often teasing that the beginning of November is when Carey begins to “thaw out.” Just last year, the song sat at the top of Billboard’s Top 100 for fourteen weeks in a row after being released nearly thirty years prior.
Carey’s legal team reviewed the case in August 2024 and, according to NME, failed to pass the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s “extrinsic test for substantial similarity in protectable expression,” stating that any notable similarities are just staples of the Christmas aesthetic. While both songs share the line “Underneath the Christmas tree,” one could say the same for most popular Christmas music, not just Mariah Carey’s song. Stone might have also taken issue with Carey’s line, “Make my wish come true,” which is fairly similar to his line, “You are my dream come true,” but even then, the two lines hold such different contexts within the song they’re hardly comparable.
The case’s judge seemed to believe the similarities were just coincidental as well, as she’s been quoted as stating that she’s “inclined” to agree with Carey’s lawyers that the case was filed “frivolously.” However, she hasn’t given an official ruling yet, giving both sides more time to present their arguments.
While Carey did personally ask the judge back in August to drop the suit, she is currently unable to appear in court, as she’s now on a “Christmas Time” tour to celebrate the anniversary of the album that “All I Want for Christmas is You” hails from.
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