Mariah Carey is being sued for $20million (£16million) for copyright infringement of her festive hit song All I Want For Christmas Is You.
The singer, 53, released the track in 1994 as part of her album Merry Christmas, but she and her co-writer Walter Afansieff have been accused of copying the track.
The lawsuit, filed by Andy Stone at the US District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana, alleges that the song was taken from one of the same name that he co-wrote for Vince Vance & the Valiants in 1989 and never gave permission for it to be used.
In the documents, obtained by PA, Stone states that Carey and her collaborators ‘knowingly, willfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign’ to infringe his copyright for the song.
It adds that the defendants also committed ‘acts of unjust enrichment by the unauthorised appropriation of plaintiff’s work and the goodwill associated therewith’, and Stone is seeking damages of $20million (£16million).
All I Want For Christmas Is You has become one of the most well-known Christmas hits, with Carey’s Merry Christmas album also being the best-selling US Christmas album of all time, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide.
The track frequently reenters the charts around the festive season and has come to be one of the singer’s most iconic songs.
She previously revealed her doubts at recording the song, telling Metro.co.uk and other press in November 2021: ‘It was very early on in my career when I wrote and recorded All I Want For Christmas Is You, it was the first holiday song I ever wrote.
‘And I’ll never forget being in this room, with this little keyboard, and playing around with it and writing the lyrics and moving on and working with my then writing partner Walter [Afanasieff ].’
‘It was just the moment. At first I doubted it too. I was like, “Why would I do a Christmas song now? This is so early in my life and my career,” but I’m so thankful that it did because it came out of a pure place.’
