Mariah Carey was accused of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment.
Pic Credits: Netflix
Mariah Carey was accused of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment.
Mariah Carey, a popular singer, has been accused of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment for her song ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ , nearly three decades after its release. Songwriter Andy Stone claims he co-wrote the song with the same name and did not give permission for it to be used.
MARIAH CAREY LIFE AND CAREER
An American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress, Mariah Carey has been referred to as the “Songbird Supreme” by Guinness World Records. Born in 1969, in New York, United States of America, this 54-year-old singer and songwriter, is the highest-certified female artist in the United States and 10th overall, with 74 million certified album units. Her 1994 song “All I Want for Christmas Is You”, the best-selling holiday song by a female artist, gained recognition as ‘Queen of Christmas’. The only artist to date to have their first five singles reach number one on the Billboard Hot 100, from “Vision of Love” to “Emotions”, Carey has made some terrific and successful albums and spiffing singles like the ‘music box’, ‘Daydream’ and ‘Without you’ and ‘Fantasy’ respectively. In the late 90s, she was ranked as the most successful artist of the decade in the United States by Billboard. With her best-selling album of the 21st century, The Emancipation of Mimi, Carey again topped the charts following an unsuccessful era. Carey is one of the best-selling music artists, with over 220 million records sold worldwide, and is an inductee of the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress and the Long Island Music and Entertainment Hall of Fame. In the present year, she has been recognised as the fifth greatest singer by Rolling Stone. Among her laurels are 5 Grammy Awards, 10 American Music Awards, 15 Billboard Music Awards, and 12 Guinness World Records.
The recent copyright accusations against Carey
Mariah Carey, the famous singer-songwriter has been sued for $20 million. She’s accused of copyright infringement and unjust enrichment for her song ‘ All I Want for Christmas is you’ by songwriter Andy stones, who claims to be the song his original piece. One of the biggest hits if the time, All I Want for Christmas is you has been our Christmas tradition for years. Musician Andy Stone or Vince Vance, filed a complaint against the co-authors of the song, Mariah Carey and Walter Afanasieff, and Sony Music Entertainment, alleging claims of copyright infringement, unjust enrichment and misappropriation, and violations of the Lanham Act. The complaint alleges that Stone wrote and published the song first and that Carey’s version is simply a copy of the original piece. However, both songs have different lyrics and melodies. Carey’s version has earned over $60m in royalties and has been streamed 1bn times on Spotify. ‘I actually did bang out most of the song on a cheap little Casio keyboard,” said Carey. “But it’s the feeling I wanted the song to capture. There’s a sweetness, a clarity, and a purity to it”, She added. Stone earlier filed a $20 million lawsuit in June last year, against Carey and her co-author for the accusations of copyright infringement “Carey has without licensing, palmed off these works with her incredulous origin story, as if those works were her own,” Stone’s lawyers wrote in a complaint. UNILAD has contacted a representative for Mariah Carey for comment regarding Stone’s lawsuit. Thus the queen of Christmas has to prove that the song is her original masterpiece or else undergo a compensation of $20 million.
