Why did The Dixie Chicks change their name?

CHICAGO — As The Chicks descend upon Chicago for the ultimate night time of the Democratic Nationwide Conference, you would possibly recall the band’s outdated identify: The Dixie Chicks. 

The band is the most recent nation act to carry out on the conference in Chicago, following appearances by Mickey Guyton and Maren Morris this week. They’ll carry out the nationwide anthem on Thursday, simply as they did on the 2020 DNC – although this time it will likely be a reside efficiency.

It has been greater than 4 years for the reason that group formally debuted their new identify. 

The identify change was in response to worldwide protests and demonstrations following the demise of George Floyd in 2020.

The band noticed how the aftermath of Floyd’s was main many to re-evaluate associations with racist symbols, just like the Accomplice flag, typically referred to as the insurgent flag or the Dixie flag. The choice to drop the phrase “Dixie” from the band’s identify was the end result of years of inside discussions and makes an attempt to distance itself from adverse connotations with the phrase. 

“I believe the kind of now second for me was when NASCAR banned the Dixie flag,” lead singer Natalie Maines stated on the time. “It simply struck me as, ‘OK, we’re doing this now. No extra overthinking. No extra hesitation. Now could be the time.’”

This wasn’t The Chicks’ first brush with politics.

Throughout a 2003 live performance, Maines stated that the group didn’t condone the eventual invasion and ensuing warfare in Iraq and was “ashamed the president of the USA is from Texas,” in reference to then-President George W. Bush. 

The pushback was intense and included the band being blacklisted from nation music radio stations and even demise threats. 

The band was fashioned in Dallas, Texas, within the late Nineteen Eighties by sisters Martie Maguire and Emily Strayer with Laura Lynch and Robin Lynn Macy as a bluegrass band.