WHAT’S IN A NAME?

‘Lady A’ Band Finally Settles Name Dispute With ‘Lady A’ Blues Singer

The country trio, who changed their name following racial justice protests last summer, sued Anita White, a Black woman, for joint rights to the “Lady A” moniker.

The A’s have it. Two music acts performing as “Lady A”—a blues singer who’s used the moniker for the last three decades and the country trio who chose the name after dumping the designation “Lady Antebellum” last summer—have settled their legal dispute. Anita White and representatives of the Nashville band filed a joint request on Monday to dismiss their dueling lawsuits. The terms of their agreement were not made public. The group formerly known as Lady Antebellum announced they would be changing their name last June amid a wave of racial justice protests, saying that they had had their “eyes opened.” They sued White, a Black woman, after she rejected their legal request to share the Lady A name, which the Seattle-based blues artists has performed under since the 1980s. White filed a countersuit in September 2020, seeking unspecified damages after her “LADY A brand had been usurped” by the band, setting her “on the path to erasure.” At the end of the year, White released a new single: “My Name Is All I Got.”