Mariah Carey performs during a concert celebrating Dubai Expo 2020 One Year to Go in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on Oct. 20, 2019. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)
A federal judge in Los Angeles has ruled that Mariah Carey did not steal her perennial megahit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” from other songwriters.
Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey’s request for summary judgment on Wednesday, March 19, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory without going to trial.
In 2023, songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana — who goes by the stage name Vince Vance — and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed the $20-million lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 song, which has since become a holiday standard and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their country 1989 song with the same title.
Their lawyer Gerard P. Fox said he’s “disappointed” in an email to The Associated Press.
Fox said it is his experience that judges at this level “nearly always now dismiss a music copyright case and that one must appeal to reverse and get the case to the jury. My client will make a decision shortly on whether to appeal. We filed based on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who teach at great colleges.”
Stone and Powers’ suit said their “All I Want for Christmas Is You” contains a unique linguistic structure where a person, disillusioned with expensive gifts and seasonal comforts, wants to be with their loved one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus.
They said there was an “overwhelming likelihood” Carey and Afanasieff had heard their song — which at one point reached No. 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country chart — and infringed their copyright by taking significant elements from it.
After hearing from two experts for each side, Ramírez Almadani agreed with those from the defense, who said the writers employed common Christmas cliches that existed prior to both songs, and that Carey’s song used them differently. She said the plaintiffs had not met the burden of showing that the songs are substantially similar.
Ramírez Almadani also ordered sanctions against the plaintiffs and their lawyers, saying their suit and subsequent filings were frivolous and that the plaintiffs’ attorneys “made no reasonable effort to ensure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary support.”
She said they must pay at least part of the defendants’ attorney fees.
Defense attorneys and publicists for Carey did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Carey’s Christmas colossus has become an even bigger hit in recent years than it was in the 1990s. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart the past six years in a row — measuring the most popular songs each week — not just the holiday-themed — by airplay, sales and streaming.
Carey and Afanasieff have had their own public disagreement — though not one that’s gone to court — over who wrote how much of the song. But the case made them at least temporary allies.
News
Heart Evangelista on being a stepmom: I don’t need to ask for my own
Heart Evangelista | GMA Network Heart Evangelista practically watched her stepchildren grow up before her eyes. Now that Chesi and…
‘Body of Work’: Kathryn Bernardo, Priscilla Meirelles, Jake Cuenca heat up runway
(From left) Priscilla Meirelles, Jake Cuenca, Kathryn Bernardo, Kirk Bondad, and Max Collins. Images: Facebook/Bench/ lifestyle + clothing Summer has…
Heart Evangelista and Xian Lim Join Roster of Artists Exhibiting at Art Fair Philippines
Heart Evangelista Just like last year, Art Fair Philippines 2016 kicked off with a vernissage for press and special guests of the…
Buboy Villar happy with new non-showbiz GF Isay Sampiano, introduces new baby
Buboy Villar and Isay Sampiano (second from left) with their child. Images: Anggulo Prints via Instagram/@_isaysampiano Buboy Villar revealed that he…
Andrea Brillantes joins ‘Batang Quiapo’
Andrea Brillantes | Image: Instagram/@blythe Andrea Brillantes is set to add more star power as she joins the cast of the…
Binibining Pilipinas 2023 Anna Lakrini joins Queens of Germany 2025
Anna Lakrini after her coronation as Bb. Pilipinas Globe in 2023. ARMIN P. ADINA Anna Lakrini is spreading her wings in…
End of content
No more pages to load