'The hurt is turning into hope.'
Lady Antebellum is connecting with blues singer Lady A. The country trio took to Instagram on Monday to share a pic from their Zoom call with Lady A, whose real name is Anita White, as well as blues singer Dexter Allen and gospel singer John Oliver III.
The meeting came after the country band -- which is comprised of Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley and Dave Haywood -- changed their name to Lady A in light of the Black Lives Matter movement, an update White condemned, as it's the name she's been known by for two decades.
At the time of the change, a rep for Lady Antebellum told Rolling Stone that the band was not aware of the other artist and plans to reach out to her.
"Today, we connected privately with the artist Lady A. Transparent, honest, and authentic conversations were had," both Lady Antebellum and Lady A captioned their posts. "We are excited to share we are moving forward with positive solutions and common ground. The hurt is turning into hope. More to come."
Prior to the Zoom call, White criticized the trio for their name change, which they said was made because they were "regretful and embarrassed" that they did not take into account sooner the connotations of the word "antebellum," which refers to the period before the Civil War.
"This is my life. Lady A is my brand, I've used it for over 20 years, and I'm proud of what I've done," White told Rolling Stone. "This is too much right now. They're using the name because of a Black Lives Matter incident that, for them, is just a moment in time. If it mattered, it would have mattered to them before."
"It shouldn't have taken George Floyd to die for them to realize that their name had a slave reference to it," she continued. "It's an opportunity for them to pretend they're not racist or pretend this means something to them. If it did, they would've done some research. And I'm not happy about that. You found me on Spotify easily -- why couldn't they?"
Watch the video below for more on the newly dubbed Lady A.
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