Wondered what our favorite artist has been trying to tell us when constantly tweeting about “changes” and “new team”? Well we finally got the answer…. Don’t call her LeToya anymore, she is now…………. GLORIA MERCEDES!! “It’s a very modern and fashionable name” Manny Halley her new Director of Marketing says.  ”Back in 2004, I originally wanted to go by just Toya when I first came out as a solo artist but there was already that other girl with that name. She messed it all up for me.” Gloria Mercedes reveals.

There are several reasons why Gloria made this decision. First her marketing team convinced her that the name LeToya was just “too ethnic”. “With a name like that you’re missing out on white people. They are the ones who actually still PAY for music. Which white person in their right mind would buy music from someone called Shaniqua, Tanisha, ShaNeNe or LeToya? She doesn’t even look like a LeToya anyway”,   Mr Halley adds.

Second issue is still money related. It was a spelling problem. Not only she was getting tired of people misspelling her name “Latoya” or “La Toya” or “Latoiya” or “Le Toya” (plus a combination of an infinite ways of spelling her last name’s going from Luckit, Lukett to Locket or Tuckette among others) but this led to a negative snow ball effect:  a huge amount of people not finding her on itunes leading to loss of sales leading to tracks not charting as high in the charts leading to less income leading to a career not as successful as it should.

The third reason is a label one. Capitol was keeping her hostage and the only way to sneak out of the contract is to perform as someone else. That is what ultimately sealed the name change deal. Gloria is now finally free from the most terrible label of all time (aka Crapitol) and  just signed a deal with the legendary and competent Interscope as Gloria Mercedes.

On recalling on how she chose that name “I was hesitating between Gloria or Stacy. I decided to go with Gloria because that’s how my fans call me anyway” she giggles.  It eventually became my alter ego. I have so much more swag and confidence when I am Gloria. I can kill the stage and show all these basic bitches who’s the queen and who does the best R&B”, she adds.

“I’m not the only one who changed names, look at Puff Diddy, Prince, Lisa Left Eyes Lopes and Ameriie. At the end of the day I’m still the same person and the real fans will find me. I’m looking to get new ones”. She adds

After all of this, changing stage name was the most logical thing Gloria could have done.  We can’t blame her for that and we respect her decision.

We will support you no matter what your name is. Starting tomorrow Gloria Mercedes will be rolling out her new identity and update all of her sites and social media accounts.   LeToyaNews.com will re-brand itself with a more memorable and simple name: GloriaMercedesNews.com. We are selling the letoyanews.com domain to some other chick called Letoya, apparently she will post music and entertainment news.

How do you like her new name? Will you still support her?

UPDATE: April Fools!