Songwriter drops £17.8m copyright lawsuit against Mariah Carey for Christmas hit



A $20m lawsuit against the All I Want for Christmas Is You vocalist for copyright infringement volition present not proceed

Mariah Carey plays her 1994 festive hit. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MCMariah Carey performs her 1994 festive hit. Photograph: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for MCShaad D'Souza@shaaddsouzaFri 4 Nov 2022 08.12 EDTLast changed connected Fri 4 Nov 2022 08.Thirteen EDT

A suit filed towards Mariah Carey successful June, alleging that her juggernaut 1994 Christmas azygous All I Want for Christmas Is You infringed astatine the copyright of Mississippi songwriter Andy Stone, has been dropped, Rolling Stone reviews.

In his preliminary submitting, Stone alleged that Carey and Walter Afanasieff, her co-writer astatine the tune, had “knowingly, wilfully, and deliberately” infringed upon the copyright of his 1989 opus All I Want for Christmas Is You, which helium had recorded nether the telephone Vince Vance and the Valiants.

He besides stated that Carey’s opus was “desed to marque the astir the popularity and circumstantial style” of his track, careless of the songs having peculiar melodies and lyrics, and that Carey mightiness had been alert astir the opus arsenic it had obtained “large airplay” successful 1993, the yr earlier than Carey’s opus changed into launched. Stone turned into successful hunt of $20m (£17.8m) successful damages. But connected Tuesday Stone filed to disregard his case.

Carey’s exemplary of All I Want for Christmas Is You has been a festive staple successful presumption that its merchandise and is 1 of the maximum commercially a occurrence modern-day Christmas songs. A azygous from 1994’s Merry Christmas – the archetypal of 2 Carey Christmas facts – the euphony peaked astatine No 2 connected the United Kingdom charts upon its archetypal merchandise and has successful presumption that sold implicit 3m copies wrong the UK.

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The instauration of streaming has fixed All I Want for Christmas Is You antithetic illustration toughness; for the beyond 5 years, the euphony has returned to the UK Top 5 circular Christmas time, successful the extremity reaching No 1 for the superior clip successful December 2020. A akin improvement has passed disconnected wrong the US, wherein the way has again to the Top 10 of the Billboard Hot 1 100 each yr erstwhile you see that 2017, achieving No 1 for the archetypal clip successful 2019 and again successful 2020 and 2021.

The Guardian has contacted representatives for Mariah Carey for comment.