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Mariah Carey festive song-theft lawsuit dropped, but lots of festive merch is now available
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 2 November 2022
The songwriter who accused Mariah Carey of ripping off her festive hit ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ from an earlier song he wrote of the same name has voluntarily dismissed his song theft lawsuit.
Vince Vance sued Carey in June explaining that he co-wrote a song called ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ back in 1989, a version of which was recorded and released, enjoying “extensive airplay”, in 1993. That was the year before Carey released her album ‘Merry Christmas’ on which her much more famous song ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ appears.
Carey’s hit, Vance argued, was a derivation of his song, but no permission was ever sought to exploit his work in that way, which means his copyright was infringed. The initial lawsuit didn’t go into any great detail about how the two songs were similar, other than them having the same title and both using that title as a key lyric. Though a subsequent legal filing went into slightly more detail.
According to Law360, it stated: “There are substantial similarities in the lyrics associated with the two songs wherein upwards of 50% of Vance’s lyrics are copied or modified in defendants’ version. Further, the songs tell the same story, incorporating the same arc from beginning to end, of an individual who wants their partner more than material goods or seasonal comforts”.
The whole song theft claim seemed ambitious from the start, though it’s not entirely clear why Vance has decided to dismiss his lawsuit at this point. It has been dismissed without prejudice, meaning he could file another legal claim in the future. But either way, for now at least, that’s one less thing for Carey to worry about.
This means she can properly focus on exploiting her musical connection with all things Christmas and get to business selling her latest range of festive tat. Sorry, I mean the 2022 Mariah Carey Holiday Collection, which went live yesterday with a seasonal squeal, you know, now all that Halloween nonsense is out of the way.
