Seattle blues singer Lady A has weighed in again on the recent fight with the country band formerly known as Lady Antebellum, which has adopted the name Lady A.
Earlier this week, the country band Lady A filed a trademark case against blues singer Lady A — whose real name is Anita White — over the name, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
“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.”
The band decided to sue after “White’s attempt to enforce purported trademark rights in a mark that plaintiffs have held for more than a decade,” the complaint said, according to CBS News.
White has used the name for decades.
White told Vulture this week that she demanded $10 million payment over the name change, which led to the country band to take action with the lawsuit.
White said she wanted to use the money to help rebrand herself. The other half would be donated to fund black artists.
The blues singer said the band reached out to her to record a song together. But the contract for the song also didn’t fit her needs, according to Vulture,
“It said that we would coexist and that they would use their best efforts to assist me on social media platforms, Amazon, iTunes, all that,” White told Vulture.
“But what does that mean? I had suggested on the Zoom call that they go by the Band Lady A, or Lady A the Band, and I could be Lady A the Artist, but they didn’t want to do that.”
White said she expected a lawsuit because Lady A, the band, never budged on compromising, BBC News reports.
“I think they always knew what they were gonna do,” she told Vulture.