Lady A and Anita White settle lawsuit over name change
The stars of Lady A have settled a lawsuit with Anita White over the country music group's name change.
Back in June 2020, Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley, and Dave Haywood announced that they would abbreviate the original name, Lady Antebellum, to the band's existing nickname, Lady A, in an attempt to diminish racial connotations in light of renewed conversations about racism and race-based inequality in the United States. The word has links to America's slavery past.
However, blues/gospel singer White, who has been performing under the Lady A title for more than 20 years, contested the change, and the following month, the band filed a lawsuit in Nashville, Tennessee against White, with the intention of affirming a longstanding trademark.
White filed a count-suit in September 2020, but on Tuesday, editors at Billboard reported that Lady A and White had reached a settlement, with the trio and White requesting the judge dismiss both lawsuits.
Terms of the agreement, including details relating to trademarks, were not published. Representatives for Lady A and White have not yet commented on the decision.
Back in December 2020, Kelley insisted that he and his bandmates were "naïve" when they first decided on the original name, and they had "grown-up" since then.
"We're trying to resolve this issue with Anita and we're really trying to be a light out there for everybody. And we know it's going to be tough, it's a very divisive issue, but it shouldn't be a divisive issue, it's just about love," he commented during an appearance on The Tamron Hall Show.
Meanwhile, White previously requested Scott, Kelley, and Haywood to opt for an entirely new band name.
"Real justice would have been very simple for them to just change their name. That would have been simple for both of us. It really doesn't cost them a dime, doesn't cost me a dime," she told Rolling Stone in June 2021.
