Mariah Carey has been awarded $92,000 (approximately £73,000) after a judge dismissed a copyright lawsuit over her festive hit 'All I Want For Christmas Is You'. The case was brought by country musician Andy Stone, who performs as Vince Vance, who claimed Carey copied his 1989 song of the same name.
Stone filed the lawsuit in 2022 and again in 2023, seeking $20 million in damages. However, the case was dismissed in March, and new court documents reveal that Stone has now been ordered to pay Carey $92,303.20 in sanctions. The judge ruled that the lawsuit lacked merit and imposed the sanctions to deter baseless legal actions.
Stone's claim alleged that his song, released with the band Vince Vance & The Valiants, received radio play in 1993 and charted on Billboard's Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart the following year. He argued that Carey copied the 'compositional structure' of his song, though he acknowledged that the phrase 'all I want for Christmas is you' was not originated by him.
Meanwhile, Carey's Christmas classic has been knocked off the top spot on the Billboard Global 200 chart by Wham!'s 'Last Christmas'. It is the first time since the chart's launch in September 2020 that a different Christmas song has reached number one. Despite this, Carey's song continues to dominate radio airwaves and streaming platforms, earning her an estimated $2.5 to $3 million in royalties annually.
