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The country music group Lady Antebellum changed its name due to the word “antebellum” and its association with slavery into the nickname Lady A, which is already in use. The band made a long statement on Thursday explaining where the name came from and why the band no longer wanted to use it.
“We named our band after the southern” antebellum “style in which we took our first photos,” the statement says in part that the word reminded them of the tradition of southern music. “But we are sorry and ashamed to say that we have not taken into account the associations that stress this word in relation to the pre-civil war period, including slavery.”
The group of three was founded in Nashville in 2006 and has won numerous Grammy Awards and Country Music Awards.
“We deeply regret the damage this has caused and anyone who has felt insecure, invisible or unrated,” the statement said. “It was never our heart’s intention to cause pain, but it doesn’t change the fact that it actually did that.”
The word “antebellum” refers to a time before a war, but is usually associated with the time of slavery before the US Civil War. It is also the title of an upcoming horror film with Janelle Monáe, which seems to take a modern black woman into the past and into slavery.
The name change will take place worldwide in two weeks Protests against racism and police brutality that follows the death of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, in police custody in Minneapolis.
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