New Orleans, Louisiana - Mariah Carey is being sued for $20 million for copyright infringement over her hit song All I Want For Christmas Is You.

"I don't want a lot for Christmas" – except maybe to hear one of the best Christmas jams ever written.

The most infamous – and perhaps greatest guilty pleasure – in the history of Christmas songs is arguably the pop hit All I Want For Christmas Is You, made famous by Mariah Carey.

Now, the singer and her co-writer Walter Afansieff are both named in a new lawsuit, which is being brought by artist Vince Vance, whose legal name is Andy Stone.

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In legal documents filed at the US District Court in the Eastern District of Louisiana on Friday, Stone claims that he wrote the song off which Carey's hit is based and that her holiday hit has "damaged" his music career.

The lawsuit alleges that in 1989 Stone co-wrote a song with the same title. The country song was released by Vince Vance & The Valiants several years before Carey's, but has different lyrics and melodies.

Song titles are not protected by copyright law. Yet, the documents, obtained by the PA news agency, state that Carey and her collaborators "knowingly, willfully, and intentionally engaged in a campaign" to infringe Stone's copyright for the song."

They added the defendants had also committed "acts of unjust enrichment by the unauthorized appropriation of plaintiff's work and the goodwill associated therewith."

Stone is seeking damages of $20 million dollars.

The song was released by Carey in 1994 as part of her album Merry Christmas and has gone on to be recognized as one of the most well-known seasonal hits ever. In 2021, the song hit one billion streams on Spotify.

Carey's album Merry Christmas was released by Columbia Records on November 1, 1994, and became the best-selling US Christmas album of all time, selling more than 15 million copies worldwide.

It is unclear why the lawsuit has been filed now, almost 30 years since the song came out.