Mariah Carey and her song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" – plagiarism or not?

Stone had released a romantic song with the same title in 1989 as part of his band Vince Vance & the Valiants. The song enjoyed significant success on the US country music singles chart after receiving widespread radio play on Christmas Day in 1993. On the other hand, Carey's song was recorded and released a bit later, namely in 1994.
According to Andy Stone, although the phrase "all I want for Christmas is you" might seem commonplace now, in the early 1990s, it was directly associated with his song. Stone further alleges that more than half of Carey's chords and lyrics are a copy of his work.

Mariah Carey has yet to provide any solid response to Stone's lawsuit.
It's known that Carey co-wrote her song with Walter Afanasyev, though their recollections differ. Carey claims she wrote the song at the beginning of her career while living in a small apartment in northern New York, composing music on an old Casio synthesizer and "just recording everything that reminded me of Christmas."
However, Afanasyev refutes this in his interview, asserting that a novice singer could hardly write a song with a very complex chord structure, especially with the help of a basic Casio synthesizer.
Afanasyev also recalls that the story of their collaboration and the song's creation began in the summer of 1993. At some point, Mariah started humming the line "I don't want a lot for Christmas," which she later developed further. Over several weeks, she called Afanasyev and sought his opinion on various new lines. The song was finally completed and recorded only in 1994.

Although Stone points out these discrepancies in the memories of Carey and Afanasyev in his lawsuit, it's hard to predict the outcome of this story until Carey comes out with a solid statement.
Either way, it's possible that Carey inadvertently incorporated some familiar Christmas motifs, including those heard in Stone's songs, into her composition. Nevertheless, when creating music, as with any content, it's crucial to be extremely cautious and attentive to avoid plagiarism and the associated troubles.

Nevertheless, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" is now firmly associated with Christmas, consistently remaining on the list of the most popular Christmas songs for many years. Riding on this enduring success, Carey released a new video with the song on November 1 on social media, symbolically bidding farewell to Halloween and welcoming Christmas. Well, the price of copyright violation is higher the higher revenue you have from the content. Luckily, Skandy users can quickly check their works before publishing and feel safe, confident, and bright!