Rebecca Ferguson, a British singer, said on Monday that she would “graciously accept” an invitation to sing at Donald Trump’s inauguration, but on one condition.
Ferguson wants to sing “a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial.”
“I’ve been asked and this is my answer,” she wrote on Twitter.
“If you allow me to sing ‘strange fruit’ a song that has huge historical importance, a song that was blacklisted in the United States for being too controversial. A song that speaks to all the disregarded and down trodden black people in the United States. A song that is a reminder of how love is the only thing that will conquer all the hatred in this world, then I will graciously accept your invitation and see you in Washington,” she added.
The song was made famous by Billie Holiday and was originally a poem by Abel Meeropol, inspired by a picture of a lynching, with words reading:
“Southern trees bear a strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black body swinging in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
It is not yet clear whether the Trump team has accepted her terms.