This past week, Mariah Carey’s Christmas classic, “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” reached back into billboard’s top 100. In 2021, Carey states,
“When I wrote [it], I had absolutely no idea the impact the song would eventually have worldwide, I’m so full of gratitude that so many people enjoy it with me every year.”
But although Carey’s been enjoying fame these past few years, Producer Walter Afanasieff says otherwise about the production and background behind the song. Afanasieff spoke to host Jess Rothschild on their podcast episode of Hot Takes & Deep Dives, where he claimed that he and Carey agreed on how they wanted to write the song. But it wasn’t until years later they revealed the true background.
Over the years, Carey has claimed to have come up with the song “as a kid, sitting at her Casio keyboard.” During Afanasieff’s conversation with Rothschild, he also states, “She doesn’t understand music, she doesn’t know chord changes and music theory or anything like that,” and proceeds to criticize the singer’s comments about creating the song when she was younger. Then, back in 2019, Carey shared her story about how she started the famous Christmas song,
“I just sat down, decorated a little tree and put on It’s A Wonderful Life and tried to get into that mood,” she explained, “I was going over all the things I think about at Christmas time that make me happy and how to turn it around and make it into a love song.”
Additionally, Country singer Andy Stone filed a copyright lawsuit accusing Mariah Carey of ripping off his band Vince Vance & the Valliant’s’ song “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with her holiday hit using the same name. Stone and his co-writer Troy Powers said that Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” copies their song’s lyrical and musical elements, as well as other factors. So, songwriter Andy Stone sued Afanasieff and Carey for $20m and had the charge dropped in November.
Works Cited:
https://www.billboard.com/music/chart-beat/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-is-you-back-on-hot-100-2023-1235499879/
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/mariah-carey-all-i-want-for-christmas-story-b2251003.html
https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/mariah-carey-faces-renewed-lawsuit-over-all-i-want-christmas-is-you-2023-11-02/
