The queen of Christmas is heading to court.
Mariah Carey’s beloved holiday hit “All I Want for Christmas Is You” is once again at the top of the charts, and she is once again facing a lawsuit over whether or not the original song is as original as she claims.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined for a Kelly’s Court by attorneys Arthur Aidala and Mark Eiglarsh to discuss the merits of the case and whether or not the plaintiffs stand a chance.
The Lawsuit
While Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You” may be a perennial chart-topper, it is not the only song by that name.
Country singer Andy Stone recorded and released a track called “All I Want for Christmas Is You” with his band, Vince Vance and the Valiants, in 1989. According to a lawsuit filed by Stone in Los Angeles federal court on November 1, the song received “extensive airplay” during the 1993 holiday season. That just so happens to be a year before Carey released her tune of the same name.
The copyright lawsuit claims Carey plagiarized his song and even made up the story of how she wrote it. Stone is seeking at least $20 million in damages, though this isn’t the first time he’s taken the pop star to court. The musician filed a similar lawsuit last year but ultimately withdrew the case.
Is There a Legitimate Case?
So, does Carey have anything to worry about? Megyn played Aidala and Eiglarsh a snippet of the two songs back to back. Initially, Eiglarsh thought there was no grounds, but hearing the choruses – which both feature the “all I want for Christmas is you” lyric – made him reconsider. “You lost me at first and then at the end I said, ‘Wait a second, those words,'” he admitted.
He was curious if there were additional similarities between the two songs, which Megyn said there are – at least thematically. “The theme of ‘I am downtrodden,’ like ‘I have things I could complain about my life, but the material stuff doesn’t make me feel better like being with another person,’” she noted. “That’s the same.”
Aidala shared that he is currently representing a musician from Ghana who is suing “a very well known household name R&B star” for a similar reason. “It’s not [just] about the words or the ideas, but also if there are certain notes that are precise and clearly just lifted,” he explained. “It’s kind of the chorus ‘all I want for Christmas is you’ – not the words but the melody and the words together. There could be liability.”
Megyn and Eiglarsh didn’t hear the melodic similarities that Aidala spoke of, but he was undeterred. “You know I have a musical ear,” he quipped. “I’m in a band. I sang at Megyn Kelly’s Christmas party. I know these things.”
Still, Megyn wasn’t convinced. “If this is what we’re relying on,” she concluded, “they’re in a lot of trouble.”
You can check out Megyn’s full Kelly’s Court with Aidala and Eiglarsh by tuning in to episode 687 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.