Lady A Settles Lawsuits Over Lady Antebellum Name Change

Lady A, the country trio that adopted the shortened moniker due to the racist connotations of their original name “Lady Antebellum,” has settled a legal battle with singer Anita White over the name change.

On Monday, both parties filed a joint motion in Nashville federal court asking the judge to dismiss their opposing lawsuits. Information regarding who will retain ownership of the name and how they will split profits was not disclosed to the public. Each party is to bear its own legal expenses and attorney fees.

The conflict kicked off in June 2020, when Lady Antebellum announced that it would be changing its name in acknowledgement of its slavery-era history. The next day, White, a Seattle-based blues singer told Rolling Stone that she had been performing and releasing music under the name “Lady A” for decades, and owned the Lady A LLC trademark.

Lady A

“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 said in the interview. “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.”

Although White and the band, comprised of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and David Heywood, appeared to patch things up over a Zoom call, they filed a motion to sue for use of the name’s trademark a few weeks later.

“Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended,” the band said at the time. “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. 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. We’re disappointed that we won’t be able to work together with Anita for that greater purpose.”

Lady A

White responded with a counterclaim seeking $10 million to rebrand (half of which would be donated to Black Lives Matter).

“I don’t want to have to share a name with you. And you shouldn’t be allowed to just get a slap on the wrist. I wanted my name. All I ever wanted was to keep my name in the blues genre doing what I did. I should not have to bend to [the band’s] will because they’ve got money,” White said. “So if you’re going to appropriate my name, I thought it was only fair I could rebrand myself with $5 million… I didn’t ask them to pay for it, but if you’re going to go that far and just disregard me altogether, then yes, I want to be compensated for it because I think they’re wrong.”

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

Lady A

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