A Seattle blues singer says her name has been hijacked by a country band looking to clean up its image amid the growing anti-racism movement around the country.
Anita White, 61, has been performing as Lady A for more than 20 years, and blasted country trio Lady Antebellum for announcing it was dropping “Antebellum” because of its association with pre-Civil War slavery — and go by the more benign Lady A, Rolling Stone reported.
"How can you say Black Lives Matter and put your knee on the neck of another Black artist? I'm not mad…I am however not giving up my name, my brand I worked hard for,” White posted on Instagram Friday.
White told Rolling Stone that Lady Antebellum didn’t contact her before announcing their name change — and noted the band’s attempt at anti-racism resulted in damaging a veteran black recording artist’s career.
“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,” White told 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. It shouldn’t have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it. It’s an opportunity for them to pretend they’re not racist or pretend this means something to them. 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?”
White told the news outlet she has a business trademark for Lady A LLC and is planning to talk to a lawyer about her options.
“I don’t know if [they] are going to give me a cease-and-desist. I don’t know how they’d react. But I’m not about to stop using my name,” she told the news outlet.
A representative for Lady Antebellum claimed the band members were unaware there was another artist by the name Lady A, Rolling Stone reported.
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