Vince Vance Suing Mariah for Stolen Christmas Song

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NEW ORLEANS — Local entertainer Vince Vance went to the White House in the 1990s to perform his Christmas song. After that appearance, it hit the charts.

Mariah Carey has a Christmas hit that has been at the top of the charts and streamed a couple of billion times.

Now a new lawsuit alleges that Carey's song is very similar.

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Turns out the song's credits list a Walter Afanasieff as the lone co-writer with Carey. It also turns out that last year he went on a podcast called “Hot Takes & Deep Dives with Jess Rothschild” where he straight up called Mariah Carey out for bullshite.

For over 20 years the two of them shared the same story that they came up with the song together while writing Carey's album Music Box. And they knew they had a smash on their hands.

But Carey changed her tune (pun intended) about ten years ago Afanasieff claims, having told Billboard in an interview that "she wrote the song while playing "her casio keyboard" when she was a little kid."

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Vince Vance wrote his “All I Want For Christmas Is You” in 1989. It charted too, around number 52, before Mariah Carey released hers in 1994.

“So every time she sells a record, guess who gets the money, Mariah Carey, and he deserves this money,” said attorney Douglas Schmidt, who is representing Vince Vance.

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He just filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in California against Mariah Carey, her co-writer, and Sony Music Entertainment. They are seeking $20 million in damages.

“We're not suing on the melody, but it's the words. And you can tell it's the same words when you go it. It's the same story, same thing under the Christmas tree. It's the exact same. Now she says, ‘Oh well, I thought of this when I was a little girl.’ Her own writer says that's a lot of bunk,” said Schmidt.

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