The Dixie Chicks are the latest country music group to further distance themselves from any moniker that has any connection to the Old South.
On Thursday, The New York Times reported the group, composed of singer Natalie Maines and multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Strayer, are now called only The Chicks.
The trio revealed the change with the branding for their new song “March March.”
A representative for the Chicks told Pitchfork, "A sincere and heartfelt thank you goes out to "The Chicks" of NZ for their gracious gesture in allowing us to share their name. We are honored to co-exist together in the world with these exceptionally talented sisters."
Earlier this month, Lady Antebellum, the country-pop group known for the hits “Need You Now” and “Love Don’t Live Here,” announced its name change to Lady A.
"As a band, we have strived for our music to be a refuge…inclusive of all," the band said on social media. We've watched and listened more than ever these last few weeks, and our hearts have been stirred with conviction, our eyes opened wide to the injustices, inequality and biases Black women and men have always faced and continue to face everyday. Now, blindspots we didn't even know existed have been revealed," the group said in a statement.
“After much personal reflection, band discussion, prayer and many honest conversations with some of our closest Black friends and colleagues, we have decided to drop the word “antebellum” from our name and move forward as Lady A, the nickname our fans gave us almost from the start.”
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Maines, Maguire and Strayer are no strangers to political or social controversy. In 2003, just before President George W. Bush launched an invasion of Iraq on the basis of searching for weapons of mass destruction, Maines told a London audience the band did not endorse the war and were "ashamed" of Bush being from Texas.
No weapons of mass destruction were found.
The trio has won 13 Grammy Awards, including five in 2007. By March 2020, with 33 million certified albums sold and sales of 27.5 million albums in the U.S. alone, they had become the top-selling all-female band and biggest-selling country group in the U.S. during the Nielsen SoundScan era.
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