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Mariah Carey decided to reference the controversial “All I Want for Christmas Is You” copyright lawsuit when she was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame on Thursday.
Mariah has been sued by songwriter Andy Stone — who is better known by his stage name Vince Vance — for $20 million in damages. Vance wrote a song with the same exact title in 1989 and claims the Grammy winner infringed on his copyright, even though the songs differ in both melody and lyrics.
Mariah used her Thursday night acceptance speech to address Stone’s lawsuit by calling it “farcockteh,” the Yiddish word for “messed up.” Mariah noted, “It’s not the easiest profession in the world. Between the — this is a word my friend said to me the other day — the ‘farcockteh’ lawsuits and all the business side of it. No offense, we love the business people… they’re our best friends.”
This is the first time she’s mentioned the pending lawsuit.
Mariah then turned her attention to how writing songs and poetry helped her heal from her “incredibly dysfunctional background.”
Although she has embarked on a successful music career, the “Fantasy” singer revealed, “I constantly have to remind people I’m a songwriter. It’s become a joke.” She referenced the meme of her repeatedly saying “as a songwriter” during interviews and decided to turn her acceptance speech into a replacement meme.
Hoisting up her trophy, she loudly said once more, “As… a… songwriter!”
Mariah also used the moment to take a stand for equality by remarking, “Out of the 439 total inductees into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, only 32 have been women up until this moment. Now it’s 33.”
She then closed her speech on a sweet note, declaring, “As my father once told me — ‘you did good, kid!'”
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