Lady A Sings The Blues: Lady Antebellum’s New Name Was Already Taken By A Black Blues Singer

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds’ spiritual wedding band, Lady Antebellum, just made the decision to remove the spiritual confederate flag from their name and have rebranded themselves as Lady A after “having many honest conversations with some of our closest Black friends.” However, according to Rolling Stone, Lady Antebellum’s best Black friends failed to recommend they Google Lady A before changing everything “on social media and distribution platforms including Spotify and Apple Music, and the group’s website,” because it turns out the name was already being used by Anita White, a Black blues singer from Seattle who has been performing and recording under the name Lady A for over 20 years. If this is not an occasion for an Issa Rae “deep, heavy, negro spiritual sigh,” I don’t know what is.

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