The vivacious trio formerly known as the Dixie Chicks have changed their name to The Chicks for all the right reasons.
A little bit of history to put it all in context: ‘Dixie’ is a nostalgic nickname for the Civil War-era South. The word often refers to the southern states of the US that broke away around 1860 to form the new Confederate States of America. This confederacy was an unrecognised republic that fought against the United States during the American Civil War.
It was originally formed by secession of seven slaveholding states, whose economy was heavily dependent upon agriculture, particularly cotton, and a plantation system that relied solely upon the labour of African-American slaves.
Hence after receiving criticism about their name, the trio decided to make the change, all their social media accounts and website have already been rebranded with a statement on their website reading: "We want to meet this moment."
The name change follows a similar move by the band known as Lady Antebellum, who changed their name to Lady A after acknowledging the word's association to slavery.
The Chicks, Natalie Maines, Emily Strayer and Martie Maguire, have been given the go-ahead to use the name which was already in use by a band in New Zealand.
They took to Twitter to say, “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 honoured to co-exist together in the world with these exceptionally talented sisters."
The Chicks have just released a video for their new song, March March, which features footage and emotive images from the recent Black Lives Matter protests.
Take a look at the video right here - nice one Chicks!
“If your voice held no power, they wouldn’t try to silence you.” - unknown#MARCHMARCH pic.twitter.com/n4hJTaYSri
— The Chicks (@thechicks) June 25, 2020
