During the Christmas season, “All I Want For Christmas Is You” blares from millions of loudspeakers around the world. Now a songwriter claims Mariah Carey stole the title from him and is demanding millions from the US singer.
“All I Want For Christmas Is You” is one of the most successful modern Christmas hits worldwide. But the song by Mariah Carey is said to have been stolen. Songwriter Andy Stone alleges that the singer and songwriter Walter Afanasieff have committed copyright infringement, several US media outlets have consistently reported.
According to the industry portal “Deadline”, Stone is demanding 20 million US dollars, the equivalent of a little less than 19 million euros, as compensation in a lawsuit. Carey’s song was released in 1994, but Vince Vance had five years earlier
The songwriter will probably have a hard time in court, said Pamela Koslyn, a lawyer who specializes in such cases. According to the portal, she explained that song titles do not fall under US copyright law. There are currently around 177 works called “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. If the lyrics of the songs were essentially the same, the situation would be different.
Carey was particularly successful last year with her version of “All I Want For Christmas Is You”. The song broke the one billion stream mark on the Spotify streaming service alone. Even if a single view on Spotify doesn’t bring the artist much money, Mariah Carey can apparently still live on her 1994 Christmas hit alone. An insider told US gossip site tmz.com. “Mariah can sit on her butt for the rest of her life just promoting the song and still be a millionaire,” a source said.
As “tmz.com” calculates, Carey earned around four million US dollars with her Christmas song on Spotify alone. In addition, there is the marketing of the rights to the song, for example for commercials.