Renowned songwriter, Vince Vance, is once again taking legal action against Mariah Carey for allegedly plagiarizing her perennially-chart-topping hit, “All I Want for Christmas is You,” from Vance’s earlier song. This comes a year after Vance dropped a previous lawsuit making the same accusations.
In a complaint filed on November 1st, in Los Angeles federal court, Vance (real name Andy Stone) reiterated the same claims he made in his previous lawsuit, stating that Carey’s 1994 holiday smash infringed on the copyrights of his 1989 song, which shares the same title. The significance of this claim cannot be understated, considering that Carey’s “All I Want” has reached the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 during each of the past four holiday seasons.
What sets this new case apart is the inclusion of more detailed and personal allegations against Carey. Vance’s new lawyers assert that she fabricated the story of how she wrote the song, and even her co-writer, Walter Afanasieff, has reportedly disputed her account.
According to the re-filed complaint, “Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own. Her hubris knowing no bounds, even her co-credited songwriter doesn’t believe the story she has spun. This is simply a case of actionable infringement.”
It is worth noting that Vance is now represented by Gerard P. Fox, the same attorney who previously handled a case in which two songwriters accused Taylor Swift of stealing lyrics for her song, “Shake It Off.” The Swift case was resolved with a confidential settlement after five years of litigation.
Similar to his initial lawsuit, Vance’s new complaint maintains that his own version of “All I Want for Christmas is You” was recorded by his band, Vince Vance and the Valiants, in 1989. The song allegedly received extensive airplay during the 1993 holiday season, a year before Carey released her more popular rendition with the same title.
This refiled lawsuit provides additional details about the success of Vance’s earlier song, describing it as a “country music hit” that reached number 31 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart and later peaked at number 23 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart (which was renamed the Radio Songs chart in 2014). Troy Powers, who claims to have co-written the earlier song, has joined Vance as a plaintiff in this new case.
The revamped lawsuit also presents more specific allegations regarding the similarities between the two songs, delving into the “unique linguistic structure” and musical elements that Carey allegedly copied.
Vance’s new lawyers write, “The phrase ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ may seem like common parlance today, but in 1988, it was distinct. Moreover, the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook was a greater than 50% clone of Vance’s original work, in both lyrical choice and chord expressions.”
Interestingly, the lawsuit also mentions the film “Love Actually,” released in 2003, which further solidified Carey’s song as a holiday classic. The lawsuit points out that Carey’s song features in “a featured performance scene in the penultimate act of the mega-hit film.”
As of Wednesday evening, Carey’s representative had not responded to a request for comment on the matter.
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