Mariah Carey did not steal vacation megahit “All I Need For Christmas Is You” from different songwriters, choose guidelines

A federal choose in Los Angeles has dominated that Mariah Carey didn’t steal her perennial megahit “All I Need for Christmas Is You” from different songwriters.

Decide Mónica Ramírez Almadani granted Carey’s request for abstract judgment on Wednesday, giving her and co-writer and co-defendant Walter Afanasieff a victory with out going to trial.

In 2023, songwriters Andy Stone of Louisiana — who goes by the stage title Vince Vance — and Troy Powers of Tennessee filed the $20 million lawsuit alleging that Carey’s 1994 music, which has since grow to be a vacation normal and annual streaming sensation, infringed the copyright of their nation 1989 music with the identical title.

Their lawyer Gerard P. Fox stated he is “disillusioned” in an electronic mail to The Related Press.

Fox stated it’s his expertise that judges at this stage “practically at all times now dismiss a music copyright case and that one should attraction to reverse and get the case to the jury. My consumer will decide shortly on whether or not to attraction. We filed based mostly on the opinions of two esteemed musicologists who train at nice schools.”

Stone and Powers’ go well with stated their “‘All I Need For Christmas Is You’ incorporates a singular linguistic construction the place an individual, disillusioned with costly items and seasonal comforts, desires to be with their liked one, and accordingly writes a letter to Santa Claus.”

They stated there was an “overwhelming probability” Carey and Afanasieff had heard their music — which at one level reached No. 31 on Billboard’s Sizzling Nation chart — and infringed their copyright by taking vital components from it. Stone had claimed that the music obtained “in depth airplay” in the course of the 1993 Christmas season.

After listening to from two consultants for all sides, Ramírez Almadani agreed with these from the protection, who stated the writers employed frequent Christmas cliches that existed previous to each songs and that Carey’s music used them in another way. She stated the plaintiffs had not met the burden of exhibiting that the songs are considerably comparable.

Ramírez Almadani additionally ordered sanctions towards the plaintiffs and their legal professionals, saying their go well with and subsequent filings had been frivolous and that the plaintiffs’ attorneys “made no cheap effort to make sure that the factual contentions asserted have evidentiary assist.”

She stated they have to pay at the very least a part of the defendants’ lawyer charges.

Protection attorneys and publicists for Carey didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.

Carey’s Christmas colossus has grow to be an excellent greater hit in recent times than it was within the Nineteen Nineties. It has reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Sizzling 100 chart the previous six years in a row. The listing measures the most well-liked songs every week — not simply the holiday-themed — by airplay, gross sales and streaming. The music has damaged streaming information and has been performed over 2 billion instances on Spotify. 

Carey and Afanasieff have had their very own public disagreement — although not one which’s gone to courtroom — over who wrote how a lot of the music. However the case made them at the very least short-term allies.

Carey beforehand made headlines when she tried to solely trademark the nickname “Queen of Christmas.” She filed a petition for the trademark in 2021. The U.S. Trademark Trial and Attraction Board rejected the petition, in addition to petitions to solely trademark “Princess Christmas” and “QOC.” 

Final month, the Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame introduced Carey as one in every of its 2025 nominees.