The Dixie Chicks Have Dropped The 'Dixie' — Say Hello To The Chicks

In 1999, the Dixie Chicks had a hit with "Goodbye Earl," nevertheless today (June 25), we're all saying goodbye to Dixie Chicks — or more accurately, just the "Dixie" part. The trio have reported they're right now going by just The Chicks, right after weeks of racial-justice protests, toppled Confederate statues, and even similar name changes inside of the country-music community.


"We wish to meet the moment," The Chicks — Natalie Maines, Martie Erwin Maguire, and Emily Strayer — mentioned in a statement. "Dixie" as a term can refer to the Confederacy, though it also can refer to the South overall (The Chicks hail from Texas). Moreover to the name change, the trio also unveiled a brand-new single called "March March" and a powerful accompanying video that spans generations of activists and ends with a long, long list of names of Black ladies and males killed by police and vigilantes in the United States.


The clip opens with a quote: "If your voice contained no power, they wouldn't attempt to silence you." Before long, it's delved into clips from LGBTQ+ rallies and March for Our Lives along with because the continuous police-brutality demonstrations of the past month. Greta Thunberg, Black females suffragettes, 20th-century civil-rights marchers, and thus several more activists also get featured, before the video turns to its call to action: "Use your voice. Use your vote."


The Chicks are no strangers to activism. Their career famously dipped in 2003 soon after Maines expressed aggravation with then-President George W. Bush and his choice to invade Iraq ("Just and you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas," she mentioned onstage at a concert in London). In the 17 years since then — because the "March March" video shows — the group's voice has only grown louder.


Earlier this month, country-pop sort Lady Antebellum shortened their name to Lady A in response to ongoing racial-justice protests around the globe. They had been criticized for their name, which they'd used since forming in 2006, for its ties to the pre-Civil War American South and its rampant slavery. They were criticized, also, for taking the same name as a 61-year-old Seattle blues singer with decades of performing. "They're using the name because of a Black Lives Matter incident that, for them, is just a moment in time," she told Rolling Stone. "If it mattered, it would have mattered to them before."


Watch the The Chicks's empowering "March March" video above, and stay tuned for their newest album, Gaslighter (produced by Jack Antonoff), out on July 17.