Powerhouse producer The Black Madonna announced a name change on Monday (July 20)
Sharing the news via Twitter, she noted that her artist name has been a source of “controversy, confusion, pain and frustration,” and that given current cultural circumstances, she will now be known as The Blessed Madonna.
“I have always been transparent about my faith because I felt a responsibility to be clear about who I was and who I was not,” the artist born Marea Stamper wrote in a statement. “The name was a reflection of my family’s lifelong and profound Catholic devotion to a specific kind of European icon of the Virgin Mary who is dark in hue.”
“People who shared that devotion loved the name,” she continued, “but in retrospect I should have listened harder to other perspectives.” Read the complete statement below.
Seen in Catholic churches across Europe and Latin America, the Black Madonna is a depiction of the Virgin Mary with dark skin. The name change follows other high profile acts — including The Dixie Chicks and Lady Antebellum changing their names to The Chicks and Lady A, respectively — as racial inequality and social justice have taken cultural centerstage following the murder of George Floyd in May.