Mariah Carey is being sued for £16 million for the alleged copyright infringement over the hit song All I Want for Christmas Is You.

Songwriter Andy Stone claims that Carey and co-writer Walter Afansieff "knowingly, willfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign" to infringe Stone's copyright for the song.All I Want for Christmas has become a Diamond-certified song, a rare and impressive achievement. This exclusive title is awarded to songs that have sold more than 10 million units. Only thirty songs in history had reached that level by 2019.

Andy Stone claims that he also co-wrote the song in 1989 and has never given permission for it to be used.The lawsuit further alleges that the defendants committed "acts of unjust enrichment by the unauthorised appropriation of plaintiff's work and the goodwill associated therewith". The legal document was filed at the US district court in the eastern district of Louisiana.All I Want for Christmas Is You was released in 1994 and is recognised as one of the world's most famous Christmas hits.

It was one of the tracks on the best-selling US Christmas album of all time, Merry Christmas, released by Columbia Records in November 1994 and selling 15m copies worldwide.The news of the lawsuit comes as a shock to some who have been listening to the song for 28 years.

It has been previously reported that the song only took 15 minutes to write and compose.A 2016 study by The Economist found that Mariah Carey makes approximately $2.5 million (£2m) per year for the song. The same study reported that Carey raked in an outstanding $60 million £48m) by 2016 since the song was first released in 1994.These figures include royalties from streaming services like Spotify and Apple music. In 2021, the song exceeded 1 billion streams on Spotify and was reportedly streamed 5 million times each day.