- Country music group formed in 2006, from Nashville Tennessee. The band members are Hillary Scott (lead vocals, songwriting), Charles Kelly (lead vocals, guitar, songwriting), and Dave Haywood (background vocals, guitar, mandolin, keyboards, songwriting).
- Scott lived in Nashville, the daughter of country music musicians. She joined her mother on stage to sing at a Christmas show at the age of 14, and decided then to try a career in music. She auditioned twice for American Idol, but did not make it to the judges rounds. Kelly and Haywood were high school friends who wrote music together. Kelly moved to Nashville in 2005 to pursue a music career. Kelly and Haywood continued to meet in Atlanta every other weekend to write music, and in 2006, Kelly convinced Haywood to move to Nashville. While at a Nashville bar, Scott recognized Kelly from his MySpace page, and they started to talk. This led to the formation of the group. They chose the name Lady Antebellum after a photo shoot where they wore historical costumes at antebellum houses.
- They began to perform their songs in August 2006, and the following year, they were signed by a record label. Their first single was a collaboration with Jim Brickman – Never Alone – that was released in early 2007. The new age/country pop song performed well, reaching #14 on the Adult Contemporary chart. Their first solo single, Love Don’t Live Here, was released later that year. Their debut album, the self titled Lady Antebellum, was released in 2008 and included the song. The album debuted at #1 on the Top Country Albums chart – the first album ever from a new duo or group to debut at #1 on the chart. Love Don’t Live Here peaked at #3 on the Hot Country Singles chart, and another single, I Run To You, was their first #1 song on the chart, selling over 2 million downloads. They won their first Grammy award with this song.
- Their next 2 albums – Need You Now in 2010 and Own The Night in 2011 – were very successful. Both were certified platinum, with Need You Now going 4x platinum. Both topped the Billboard 200 album chart. Five singles from these albums reached #1 on the Country chart, with Need You Now reaching #2 on the crossover Hot 100 chart, selling over 6 million downloads. Other #1s were American Honey, Our Kind of Love, Just a Kiss and We Owned The Night. These records earned them another 6 Grammy awards.
- Four more albums have been released by Lady Antebellum. Golden was released in 2013 – the song Downtown reached #2 on the Country chart, selling over 1 million downloads. In 2014, they released 747, with the single Bartender reaching #4 on the Country chart, and achieving platinum status. After a short break where they worked on solo projects Heart Break, was released in 2017. They brought in a new producer for the album, wanting to refresh their sound. It had 1 top 10 single – You Look Good. They received 2 Grammy nominations for the album and song. In 2019, they released the album Ocean.
- In 2020, following the protests related to the murder of George Floyd, the group chose to change their name to Lady A. The “Antebellum” in the old name had racist overtones, and the group felt it best to make the change.
- Lady Antebellum is having a great run of success with their modern country sound with a splash of pop and soul from decades ago. They have the classic country harmonies that are so prevalent in the successful country groups today. Here is the video to their biggest hit, Need You Now. Love country harmonies? You’ll love this one.