Lady Antebellum
Lady Antebellum in April 2010 (L-R: Dave Haywood, Hillary Scott, Charles Kelley)
Background information
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Genres	Country, country pop
Years active	2006–present
Labels	Capitol Nashville
Associated acts	Jim Brickman, Linda Davis, Josh Kelley, Paul Worley, Maroon 5, Darius Rucker
Website	ladyantebellum.com
Members	Hillary Scott Charles Kelley Dave Haywood

Lady Antebellum is an American country pop music group formed in Nashville, Tennessee in 2006. The trio is composed of Hillary Scott (lead vocals), Charles Kelley (lead vocals) and Dave Haywood (background vocals, guitar, piano, mandolin).

The group made its debut in 2007 as guest vocalists on Jim Brickman's single "Never Alone", before signing to Capitol Records Nashville and releasing "Love Don't Live Here". The song peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Country Songs chart in May 2008, and served as the first single to the group's self-titled debut album.

Certified platinum in the U.S., the album also includes the singles "Lookin' for a Good Time" and "I Run to You", the latter of which became the group's first Number One in July 2009. "Need You Now" was released in August 2009 and was the first single from the band's new album released in January 2010; it was also the group's second number one single. "American Honey", the second single from Need You Now, was released in January 2010, and became their 4th Top 10 single, as well as their third No. 1 hit. "Our Kind of Love", the album's third single, was released in May 2010, and became their fourth consecutive Number One on the Hot Country Songs chart. Their third album Own the Night was released in September 2011.

Lady Antebellum was awarded Top New Duo or Group by the Academy of Country Music and New Artist of the Year by the Country Music Association in 2008. They were nominated for two Grammy Awards at the 51st Grammy Awards; and two more at the 52nd Grammy Awards. Of these nominations, they took home the award for Best Country Performance by Duo or Group with Vocals for "I Run to You". More recently on April 18, 2010, the group was awarded Top Vocal Group, Song of the Year ("Need You Now"), and Single of the Year ("Need You Now") at the 44th ACM Awards. The group won five awards at the 53rd Grammy Awards, including Song of the Year and Record of the Year for "Need You Now".^[1] Lady Antebellum was also awarded the "Best Country Album" award at the 54th Grammy Awards.

History [edit]

Lady Antebellum performs in concert in 2011

Lady Antebellum was formed in 2006,^[2] in Nashville, Tennessee, by Charles Kelley, Dave Haywood and Hillary Scott. Scott is the daughter of country music singer Linda Davis,^[3] and Charles Kelley is the brother of pop and country artist Josh Kelley.^[4] Hillary Scott attended Donelson Christian Academy in Donelson, Tennessee. It was through these family and music industry connections that launched the band. Kelley moved to Nashville in mid-2005 from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where he had been working construction with his brother John. Trying to become a successful solo country artist, Kelley convinced his old middle-school classmate, Haywood, to move to Nashville from Georgia in 2006 so they could write music together. Shortly thereafter, Scott recognized Kelley from MySpace, and they started to talk at a Nashville music club. Kelley invited Scott to join him and Haywood in the new group, which assumed the name Lady Antebellum.^[5] On the BBC Radio 2 Drivetime Show August 9, 2010, the band explained to the host, Liza Tarbuck, that the name Antebellum comes from when the group were photographing "antebellum" homes. The antebellum architectural style describes the large plantation homes in the American South. The Latin word bellum means "war"; "antebellum" therefore means "before the war". In America, Antebellum specifically commonly refers to the period before the Civil War, an era which in the southern states is associated with an agrarian plantation economy supported by slavery. While photographing the houses one of the group said that there's a great band name in there, and they adopted the Lady Antebellum name shortly after. The trio then began performing at local venues in Nashville before being signed in July 2007 to a recording contract with Capitol Records Nashville. In an interview with Sirius Satellite Radio, Scott claimed she was rejected from the hit show American Idol twice, not even making it past the first round.^[3]

2007–2009: Lady Antebellum [edit]

Lady Antebellum performs in concert in 2008, showing Charles Kelley and Hillary Scott

Shortly after the trio signed to the label, adult contemporary artist Jim Brickman chose Lady Antebellum to sing on his 2007 single "Never Alone," which reached No. 14 on the Billboard adult contemporary charts. In mid-2007, Lady Antebellum also wrote a song for the MTV reality television series The Hills.^[6]

Their solo debut single "Love Don't Live Here" was released in September 2007, with a music video for the song following in December.^[7][8] This song was the lead-off single to the band's self-titled debut album. Released on April 15, 2008, Lady Antebellum was produced by Paul Worley along with Victoria Shaw, a Nashville songwriter and former solo artist.^[2] "Love Don't Live Here" reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The album itself was the first album by a new duo or group to debut at Number One on the Billboard Top Country Albums charts.^[9]

A second single, "Lookin' for a Good Time", was issued in June 2008 and peaked at No. 11 in December. In addition, Lady Antebellum was signed as an opening act on Martina McBride's Waking Up Laughing Tour in 2008.^[10] Lady Antebellum also contributed the song "I Was Here" to the AT&T Team USA Soundtrack, a song which peaked at No. 24 on the Bubbling Under Hot 100 based on downloads. In December 2008, their rendition of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" peaked at No. 3 on the same chart. Their third official single, "I Run to You", was released in January 2009. It eventually became the trio's first Number One in July 2009.

On October 7, 2009 their debut album was certified platinum by the RIAA for shipments of one million copies in the United States.

Haywood and Kelley co-wrote labelmate Luke Bryan's 2009 single "Do I", on which Scott also sings backing vocals.^[11] This song is the first single from Bryan's second studio album "Doin' My Thing", which was released on October 6, 2009.

2009–2011: Need You Now [edit]

In August 2009, the group released their fourth single, "Need You Now", the lead-off single and title track to their second studio album. It debuted at No. 50 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart and became their second Number One hit on the charts for the week of November 28, 2009. The song also reached No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Hot Adult Contemporary chart, making it a crossover hit. A second single, "American Honey", was released to radio on January 11, 2010 and would become their third No. 1 hit. The third single from the album, "Our Kind of Love", was released on May 31, 2010 and went No. 1 in September 2010. The song was notable for being written in collaboration with a non-Nashville songwriter in busbee, who at that point had previously written for Katy Perry, Timbaland and Katharine McPhee.^[12] Their fourth single from this album, "Hello World", was officially released on October 4, 2010.

The album was released on January 26, 2010 and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and Top Country Albums charts for the week of February 2, 2010, selling 480,922 copies.^[13] Four weeks after the album's release, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.^[14] On April 28, 2010, they performed on the results show of American Idol, performing "Need You Now". On September 20, 2010, they launched their first headlining tour, "Need You Now 2010" in Orlando, Florida. On October 28, 2010, they performed the National Anthem before Game 2 at the 2010 World Series. Lady Antebellum appeared on the 44th Annual Country Music Awards on November 10, 2010.^[15]

2011–2012: Own the Night and On This Winter's Night [edit]

The week of January 9, 2011, the group ventured into the studio to begin recording for their third studio album. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Charles Kelley said, "We actually just went ahead and decided we’re gonna take two, two and a half months straight in the studio to create this thing and not have all this distraction. Hopefully that will be a good thing".^[16] He goes on to say that the group has around 50 songs which they plan to choose from along with songs from other songwriters. However, he singles out a song called "Dancing Away with my Heart" as one the band is particularly excited about, a song that the group co-wrote with Josh Kear, who previously wrote with the group on their hit "Need You Now."

On May 2, 2011, the group released the first single from their upcoming album, titled "Just a Kiss". The group performed the single on stage on American Idol's result show on May 5, 2011. On June 7, 2011, they announced the title of third album; called Own the Night, it was released on September 13, 2011.^[17] The album cover and track listing was released on July 18, 2011.^[18]

Lady A released a "Lady Hazed" version of Jason Aldean's song "Dirt Road Anthem" entitled "Country Club Anthem" on their installment of Webisode Wednesdays on August 10, 2011.^[19] On October 1, 2011, the group performed as the musical guests on Saturday Night Live.^[20]

Lady Antebellum released their first studio Christmas album On This Winter's Night on October 22, 2012.^[21]

2013: Golden [edit]

On January 22, 2013, "Downtown," the first single from a new album, was released to radio. It was made available on iTunes starting February 5, 2013 and reached number one on the Country Airplay chart in April 2013. The new album, Golden, was released on May 7, 2013.^[22] The album's second single, "Goodbye Town", was released to country radio on May 13, 2013.

They also sang backing vocals on Darius Rucker's early 2013 single "Wagon Wheel".^[23]

Charity [edit]

Since January 2012, Lady Antebellum have been partnered with the "myLifespeaks" charity, to raise awareness of and provide facilities for disabled orphans in Haiti.^[24]

Awards and nominations [edit]

Lady Antebellum in April 2010

Since Lady Antebellum won the Country Music Association Awards New Artist of the Year award in 2008, they have accumulated seven more awards, including their first Grammy in 2010 for Best Country Performance by Duo or Group with Vocals. At the 2009 CMA's, the group ended Rascal Flatts' six-year reign as Vocal Group of the Year. At the 2010 CMA's, the group became the first artist in CMA Award history to receive the Single of the Year honor for two consecutive years.^[25]

At the 53rd Annual Grammy Awards, the trio won the Song of the Year, beating "Love The Way You Lie" performed by Eminem and Rihanna.^[26] They won Top Vocal Group at the 2012 ACM Awards April 1, 2012.^[27]

Grammy Awards [edit]

Other awards [edit]

Discography [edit]

• Lady Antebellum (2008)
• Need You Now (2010)
• Own the Night (2011)
• On This Winter's Night (2012)
• Golden (2013)

Tours [edit]

Headlining tours

• Need You Now Tour 2010 with David Nail
• Own The Night Tour 2011-2012 with Josh Kelley, Randy Montana (Select Dates) & Edens Edge (Select Dates), Darius Rucker and Thompson Square (Due to a death in Thompson Square's family, the weekend of February 25 and 26 in Detroit, Michigan, and Evansville, Indiana, saw David Nail fill in)

Supporting act

• The Waking Up Laughing Tour 2008 with Martina McBride
• CMT ON TOUR: Relentless 2008 with Jason Aldean
• Sun City Carnival Tour 2009 with Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Sugarland and Montgomery Gentry
• Southern Voice Tour 2010 with Tim McGraw, Love and Theft & The Lost Trailers
• Keith Urban: Get Closer 2011 World Tour (Australian Leg; 2011)

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Official website
• Lady Antebellum at allmusic.com
• Lady Antebellum at Billboard.com