Rebecca Ferguson Will Only Perform At Trump's Inauguration If She Can Sing "Strange Fruit"
Music

Rebecca Ferguson Will Only Perform At Trump's Inauguration If She Can Sing "Strange Fruit"

British singer Rebecca Ferguson has reportedly been asked to perform at Donald Trump's inauguration, but says she will only do it under one condition: if she's able to perform Billie Holiday's powerful 1939 protest song, "Strange Fruit."

Taking to Twitter earlier today, the 2010 X Factor runner-up posted a link to a longer note, in which is says she would "graciously accept" the invitation so long as she is able to sing the poignant song, which was originally written as a poem by Abel Meeropol to protest racism, particularly the lynchings of African-Americans.



"["Strange Fruit" is] a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial," Ferguson wrote. "[It's] a song that speaks to all the disregarded and down trodden black people in the United States."

Read her entire statement below.


[h/t BBC]

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