Last month, the band Lady Antebellum announced they would be changing their name to Lady A, apologizing for using a name associated with slavery in America. The following day (June 12), the Seattle-based Black blues singer Anita White, who has gone by the name Lady A for more than two decades, spoke out about the country band’s decision.
Today (July 8) the band Lady A have filed a lawsuit against the singer Lady A. They are asking a Nashville court to grant its right to the trademark of the name, documents viewed by Pitchfork confirm. The lawsuit notes that the band isn’t asking for monetary damages or attempting to prohibit White from performing under the name Lady A.
“Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended,” the group said in a statement. “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.” Read the band’s full statement below.
The lawsuit further claims that the band applied to register the name “Lady A” for entertainment purposes, including live performances and streaming programming. “Prior to 2020, White did not challenge, in any way, Plaintiffs’ open, obvious, and widespread nationwide and international use of the LADY A mark as a source indicator for Plaintiffs’ recorded, downloadable, and streaming music and videos, Plaintiffs’ live musical performances, or Plaintiffs’ sale of souvenir merchandise,” the suit states. White has performed under the name while touring and on recorded music released as far back as 2010, but the suit claims that “prior to 2020, White did not challenge, in any way, Plaintiffs’ open, obvious, and widespread nationwide and international use of the LADY A mark.”
Last month, Lady A claimed they and White had come to an agreement. “They have agreed that both should continue to move forward as Lady A,” a publicist for the band said in a statement on June 16. On the same day, White told Newsday that the claim from the band was premature. “I’m not happy about [it] yet again after talking in good faith. … Their camp is trying to erase me and I’ll have more to say tomorrow. Trust is important and I no longer trust them.”
Today we are sad to share that our sincere hope to join together with Anita White in unity and common purpose has ended. 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. It was a stirring in our hearts and reflection on our own blindspots that led us to announce a few weeks ago that we were dropping the word “Antebellum” from our name and moving forward using only the name so many of our fans already knew us by.
When we learned that Ms. White had also been performing under the name Lady A, we had heartfelt discussions with her about how we can all come together and make something special and beautiful out of this moment. We never even entertained the idea that she shouldn’t also be able to use the name Lady A, and never will—today’s action doesn’t change that. Instead, we shared our stories, listened to each other, prayed and spent hours on the phone and text writing a song about this experience together. 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. We’re still committed to educating ourselves, our children and doing our part to fight for the racial justice so desperately needed in our country and around the world. We’ve only taken the first small steps and will prioritize racial equality as a key pillar of the work of LadyAID, specifically leaning into supporting and empowering our youth. We hope Anita and the advisers she is now listening to will change their minds about their approach. We can do so much more together than in this dispute.
This article was originally published on July 8 at 5:39 p.m. Eastern. It was last updated on July 8 at 5:56 p.m. Eastern.