Dixie Chicks no more: Country group changes name to 'The Chicks'
After more than 30 years, a Texas-rooted Country music trio has a new name. The Dixie Chicks are just the Chicks.
The group's social media accounts have been rebranded with the new moniker. The group made of Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer posted a statement on their website saying they wanted to meet "this moment."
The Chicks' new identity comes a week after an opinion piece in Variety Magazine questioned the group's name.
"For many Black people, the word "Dixie" "conjures a time and place of bondage," wrote Jeremy Helligar. "This is a discussion we need to have, and they should be a part of it."
Reaction from fans has been mixed.
"The word Dixie has always been problematic, so here's to dropping it from your otherwise incredible legacy," one fan wrote on the group's newly rebranded Facebook page.
Other fans weren't so supportive.
"You're not welcome in country music. We haven't forgotten 2003," another wrote.
The group was the focus of severe backlash in 2003 after Maines told a London audience that they were ashamed President George W. Bush was from Texas, days before United States forces invaded Iraq.
The group began in 1989 as a country and bluegrass quartet in Dallas and went on to wide success in the late 1990s. They went on to win more than a dozen Grammy Awards and chart six number one singles on the Billboard chart.
The Chicks are set to release their first album in nearly 15 years, "Gaslighter," in July.
RELATED: Country music group Lady Antebellum changes name to Lady A
The group took their original band name from the 1973 song Dixie Chicken by the artist Little Feat.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
