Why Mariah Carey is being sued for her holiday hit ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’

Pop star Mariah Carey is, once again, being sued by country singer Andy Stone, who says he released a holiday song titled "All I Want for Christmas Is You" years before her holiday hit with the same title.

Stone, who was then a part of Vince Vance and the Valiants, dropped his version of the song in 1989, his lawsuit claims. Then, in 1994, Carey and co-writer Walter Afanasieff released their version.

Stone previously filed a similar lawsuit in 2022 in Louisiana before withdrawing it. This time, he's filed the lawsuit in California with his co-writer, Troy Power, NBC News reports.

The new suit alleges that Carey, along with Afanasieff, copied the “compositional structure of an extended comparison between a loved one and trappings of seasonal luxury, and further includes several of Plaintiffs’ lyrical phrases.”

The lawsuit also alleges that Carey’s version of the song features “the combination of the specific chord progression in the melody paired with the verbatim hook,” which they say “was a greater than 50% clone of Vance’s original work, in both lyric choice and chord expressions.”

Lawyers for Carey did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment. An attorney for Afanasieff declined an immediate comment. Media contacts for Sony and Universal Music Group also did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

In the years since Carey’s version was released, it has topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart every year around the holidays since 2019.

NBC News reports that Stone and Power are asking for at least $20 million in damages.

EDITOR'S NOTE (Nov. 2, 2023 at 9:30 p.m. ET): This story has been updated to reflect the latest lawsuit filed by Stone in California.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com