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Lady Antebellum changes name to Lady A. Problem is... it steals from a black singer who's gone by Lady A for 20 years (UPDATE: They're now suing her)


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UPDATE: They're now suing HER [source]

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Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended. She and her team have demanded a $10 million payment, so reluctantly we have come to the conclusion that we need to ask a court to affirm our right to continue to use the name Lady A, a trademark we have held for many years. It was a stirring in our hearts and reflection on our own blindspots that led us to announce a few weeks ago that we were dropping the word “Antebellum” from our name and moving forward using only the name so many of our fans already knew us by.

When we learned that Ms. White had also been performing under the name Lady A, we had heartfelt discussions with her about how we can all come together and make something special and beautiful out of this moment. We never even entertained the idea that she shouldn’t also be able to use the name Lady A, and never will—today’s action doesn’t change that. Instead, we shared our stories, listened to each other, prayed and spent hours on the phone and text writing a song about this experience together. We felt we had been brought together for a reason and saw this as living out the calling that brought us to make this change in the first place.

 

In light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the band Lady Antebellum changed their name to Lady A. 

The name Lady Antebellum was criticized for its associations with romanticized ideas of the pre-war, slavery-ridden American South, Rolling Stone reports.

Problem is, a black woman based in Seattle has gone by the name Lady A for 20 years and is outraged. The irony that the band wanted to promote racial equality with their name change while simultaneously stealing from a black woman. SMH.

“This is my life. Lady A is my brand, I’ve used it for over 20 years, and I’m proud of what I’ve done,” the original Lady A says. “This is too much right now. They’re using the name because of a Black Lives Matter incident that, for them, is just a moment in time. If it mattered, it would have mattered to them before. It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it."

She adds: “It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them,” she adds. “If it did, they would’ve done some research. And I’m not happy about that. You found me on Spotify easily — why couldn’t they?” 

Thoughts, Exhale? Should the band re-think their name and change it? Or is there room for two Lady As?

 

lady-a.jpg.d97283de410df6c70a77ce7e54c7c685.jpg

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