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Lady Antebellum announced last week that they would be dropping Antebellum from their name and would simply be going by Lady A, the nickname their fans gave them years ago. The problem is, there’s already an artist who goes by Lady A, and she isn’t happy.
The original Lady A is a 61-year-old African American blues singer, whose real name is Anita White. She’s been performing under the name for at least 20 years, and says nobody from the country Lady A or their team reached out to her before announcing their name change.
“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,” she tells “Rolling Stone.” “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.” She adds, “It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it.”
She also says, “It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them,” adding, “If it did, they would’ve done some research.”
As for the country Lady A, a rep for the band insists they did not know about White and they plan to reach out to her.