In June, the country band Lady Antebellum decided to formally change their band name to Lady A. They did so with the acknowledgement that “antebellum” is a word used to denote and glorify the pre-Civil War south. The name change was part of a larger movement of white artists trying to look woke, often without doing the work of actually being woke. So it was with Lady Antebellum – they ended up in a legal fight with Anita White, the real Lady A, an independent blues singer who has been recording music under the name Lady A since 1987. Last week, the band sued Anita White, basically arguing that they (the band) should be the only ones who get to use and trademark the name Lady A. Anita White is a Black artist and they are literally suing her for her name. Super-woke! Anyway, the real Lady A gave an interview to Vulture last week, which we discussed, and when Pitchfork contacted her, she issued another statement, which you can read in part below:
I first heard about Lady Antebellum’s planned name change after they went public on June 11, 2020, at which point I was shocked and taken aback. During initial calls with the members of the band—Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood—I hoped that we could reach an agreement that left both sides whole. Lady Antebellum understood that their use of “Antebellum” was offensive and that their adoption of Lady A harms me, as I have been using the name professionally for over 30 years.
…After being called out for taking my name, Lady Antebellum and their team of publicists and attorneys are doing what many folks of privilege do when asked to cease and desist bad behavior. Hillary, Charles, and Dave are attempting to change the narrative by minimizing my voice and belittling my experience as an artist – as if having a lot of money gives them permission to tread on my rights. I have worked too long and too hard to just give my name away.
The band’s decision to change their name to Lady A follows the trend of many other groups and organizations working to distance themselves from racism in the wake of the uprisings in this post-George Floyd world. Someone finally told them—or perhaps they knew all along and didn’t care until now—that their name reminds Black folks of just how much was taken from us in the past: our lives, freedom, languages, families, and, yes, our names. It is absurd that Lady Antebellum has chosen to show its commitment to racial equality by taking the name of a Black woman, particularly in this time when we are reminded every day to “Say Her Name.” It is one more demonstration of what continues to be taken away from us in the present. Given the way that Hillary, Charles, and Dave have treated me, I am not surprised that they used the name Lady Antebellum for so long or that their cure is to adopt a name that is only less overtly racist. The A in their name stands for Antebellum and always will. If they are truly committed to racial equality, why do they want to maintain that association, especially when it means making a public, intentional stand to disregard me and my rights?
Lady A is my identity—and it has been since 1987. I want to be able to freely use my brand that I spent decades building. I do not want to part with it. It is particularly painful to me, as a Black woman, to lose my name in THIS time and place so Lady Antebellum can use it as shorthand to celebrate a time and place connected to and very heavily reliant upon slavery. I asked for $5 million to compensate me for this loss, and to help me rebuild under a new name. I also asked that they donate $5 million to a charity so that we could work together to promote racial equality. It was my impression from our communications that this would appeal to Hillary, Charles, and Dave. I guess I was wrong.
Their refusal to come to an agreement that would be respectful of my work and my rights, however, has given me the clarity and the drive to not back down. Black lives, names, experiences, work, art—they all matter. Fellow independent artists have reached out to me to share their stories of name feuds that they lost because they were on the opposite side of big money and privilege. Not only will I not be one of them, but I am hopeful that this fight for what is rightfully mine will help those damaged by this type of bullying and erasure in the past, and that it will prevent it from happening in the future. I will not allow Lady Antebellum to obliterate me and my career so they can look “woke” to their fans.
Yes to all of it. I’m still shocked that the band would not see how problematic their lawsuit is, or how they will never win the optics. All of what Anita White says here is so on-point: “It is absurd that Lady Antebellum has chosen to show its commitment to racial equality by taking the name of a Black woman, particularly in this time when we are reminded every day to “Say Her Name.”” And “I am not surprised that they used the name Lady Antebellum for so long.” That’s what they’ve shown – that they were only doing the name change for optics, not because they actually felt differently or had learned something from the larger conversations about race and racism.
Photos courtesy of WENN, Instagram.
As an aside, someone on Twitter named them Lady AntiBLM, and I cannot stop laughing. I hope it sticks.
That is perfect.
It’s genuinely perfect for them. I also liked Lady Jim Crow because that’s essentially where they are in their journey. They’ll kinda admit slavery was wrong but they don’t want black people thinking that they are actually equal to them. When they asked to collaborate with her initially, it boiled down to “we would like to do you the favor of letting us steal your name and use you as a prop to prove that we aren’t racist.” Then expected her to be excited about it.
oh, THAT IS GOLD. I hope it sticks, too.
this is even better than “Antibellam” which I read for the first time on this site. One letter changed, and it works. This, this what they are doing, is just wrong
#whiteprivilegeisreal. I really like AntiBLM !!
And if they don’t right this pretty damn quick, they are cancelled and their CD goes into the give-away bin…or should I just toss it and be done? Not sure, feels wasteful to toss, but then again, why would I pass it forward? Hmmmm…..small potatoes dilemma in the big picture. But I want my action to be meaningful, so maybe into the bin, but with a posti-note warning explaining why? Hmmmm….
Shocking! There is simply no “two sides” to this at all. This singer has been Lady A for THIRTY YEARS! And for god’s sake she is black.
For them to attempt to stomp on her, deny her her own identity, in an effort to be anti-racist is Onion-level parody.
Revolting.
I know right? I mean, they came up with the idea to use the current BLM protests to get woke points by changing their name NOW, but they didn’t realize that suing a BLACK WOMAN of all people over a name that she used long before their band was even a thing might not look good, especially not right now?
What is even the point of the name change and the “we want to make a difference and blah blah blah” talk. That didn’t even last two seconds, I guess.
@ ATHYRMOSE: I saw that, too! A stroke of Genius. Lady Anti-BLM it is and shall be for ever more! Bed. Made. Lie in it.
Lady Antebellum re-enacting the age old saga of white artists stealing from black artists. So. Woke.
All political aspects aside, why do they think they can just appropriate someone else’s brand name? I do hope that they realize that they look like total jerks, and are alienating many fans because of their belligerent behaviour.
Whoo…I want to applaud Ms. White. Everything she said is correct and is a pointed barb at Lady Antebellum. They are being performatively woke, and they are most definitely not. To take a short cut to fixing a pr problem they have profited from for years. I hope she wins and wins big. She’s already won the PR battle.
She put their insincerity on BLAST. The clue should have been in the abbreviation to ‘A’ and not a total change to a Southern non offensive reference. Bye Bye Lady Antebellum…
This is such a bad move by the band. It reeks of white privilege and a*hole-ery. I hope they immediately recognize the error of their way here and choose a different name.
Excellent statement by the real Lady A.
I didn’t know who they are except from watching Grammy awards a couple times, but I thank them now for introducing me to Lady A, she rules.
I am not really a blues listener, but I shall buy every Lady A album I can find. Just my little way of turning lemons into lemonade!
IDK who’s advising them but they and their managers are idiots. First off her request for 5M to rebrand herself is actually pretty low for a band of their stature to pay; secondly, her other request was $5M to charity for them to work with her to support racial equality which would be an amazing PR win for them. Instead, they may as well go back to Lady Antebellum and start waving the stars & bars because they put themselves into a position where they look like racists complaining they don’t have enough privilege
To me, it is telling that they named their band and performed under the racist name for years with seemingly no qualms about it. Choosing a name is usually something with thought behind it — so either they knew waaay back then and didn’t care or were just too dumb to realize the implications of a name like that. Either way, it doesn’t reflect well on the band. On top of all that, they try to ride the wave, perform being ‘woke’ and can’t even get that right. What a bunch of morons. I have followed the real Lady A on Instagram 🙂🌈
This is so stupid. They try to be “woke” celebs and of course muck it up because they are really brain dead like the rest of them. The moment it was revealed that Lady A was taken, by a black artist no less, they should have said sorry our fault, Not sue the woman for the name! Not to mention they clearly didn’t research the name , just shortened their own like that’s going to hide the clearly racist undertones.