Blues singer Anita White is calling on the country stars formerly known as Lady Antebellum to embrace real change and rebrand themselves entirely, instead of trying to hijack her stage name of Lady A.
Lady Antebellum decided to shorten the group name to Lady A earlier this summer, after acknowledging the ‘Antebellum’ of their former moniker evoked a time in the American south when slavery was rampant.
However, Washington-based musician White was left unimpressed with the switch as she has been performing as Lady A for decades. The dispute recently turned nasty, with bandmates Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood, and Hillary Scott taking the 62-year-old to court.
White has vowed to fight for the right to continue performing as Lady A.
“Their intention is good,” she told U.S. breakfast show Today, “I applaud them for that, but you can’t go from ‘Antebellum’ to ‘A’ and think that nobody knows what it still stands for… what change have you actually made?”
White, who is black, claimed she tried multiple times to reach a reasonable solution with the trio and its representatives, “but they dismissed us.”
White has insisted her career will be irrevocably impacted as soon as the group drops its first project as Lady A – a nickname the stars trademarked in 2011.
“As soon as they put a CD out as Lady A, they wipe me off totally – off Amazon, iTunes and Spotify – because they have more fans than I do,” she shared.
Adding, “I do not want to give up my name,” White said: “I’m up for negotiations, but I’m not changing my mind. They need to change their name. Just that simple.”
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