Mariah Carey wins the copyright lawsuit over 'All I want for Christmas is You'

For six years, All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey has become a well-known Christmas song. However, did you know that Carey's Christmas hit was filed for a lawsuit three years ago in 2022 by Vince Vance a.k.a. Andy Stone? The basis on which Stone sued Mariah Carey is because he and his band, Vince Vance & the Valiants, released a song with the same name a few years prior to Mariah Carey.

All I Want For Christmas Is You by Vince Vance was initially released in 1989. While Mariah Carey's song All I Want For Christmas Is You was released five years later in 1994. Vance filed a lawsuit against Carey for breaching the copyrights of their song.

However, the latest update to the case included a ruling made by Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani on March 19, 2025. According to the judge, the case was dismissed because Vance was not able to collect enough evidence to prove that Carey's song infringed upon the copyrights of the band's song.

---

More details of the lawsuit between Mariah Carey and Vince Vance over their song All I Want For Christmas Is You

The judge, Mónica Ramírez Almadani, has announced that the two songs are completely different from one another despite the shared name. The only things that connect the two songs are the commonly used Christmas clichéd phrases.

Taken from Vince Vance's statements, he expressed,

"Carey has … 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" - Vance explained.

Even Mariah Carey's attorneys have explained that the similarities between the two songs lie in the usage of common Christmas terms that have been used by other Christmas songs as well.

Carey's attorney explained,

"The claimed similarities are an unprotectable jumble of elements: a title and hook phrase used by many earlier Christmas songs, other commonplace words, phrases, and Christmas tropes like ‘Santa Claus’ and ‘mistletoe,’ and a few unprotectable pitches and chords randomly scattered throughout these completely different songs" - Carey's lawyer stated.

Before the decision was made by Judge Almadani, the opinion of two musicologists' hired by Carey's team was taken into consideration. Their findings revealed that up to 19 songs have used similar lyrics as Vance's and Carey's All I Want For Christmas Is You.

Vance also hired their own musicologists, but the evidence they provided was rejected by the judge because it was

“not based on sufficient facts or data” and “not the product of reliable principles and methods" - according to Judge Almadani.

---

The conclusion to the case ended with Judge Almadani dismissing the lawsuit by saying,

"Plaintiffs have not met their burden of showing that [the songs by] Carey and Vance are substantially similar under the extrinsic test" Almadani expressed.

In addition to the dismissal of the case, the judge also stated that Vance should be penalized for filing "frivolous" cases that

"cause unnecessary delay and needlessly increase the costs of litigation" - Judge Mónica Ramírez Almadani added.