Rebecca Ferguson, the UK music artist who came in second on Season 7 of The X Factor, has apparently been invited to perform at Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
However, dissimilar to numerous artists who have declined the invitation, Ferguson says she’ll do it — on one condition. Ferguson wants to sing “Strange Fruit.”
Maybe the best-known tune about racism in America, “Strange Fruit” highlights verses that portray lynching victims:“Southern trees bear strange fruit / Blood on the leaves and blood at the root / Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
Ferguson described “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 downtrodden 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.”
Photo by: Peter Kramer/NBC/NBC NewsWire via Getty Images
If she’s allowed to bring that message to the White House on January 20, then she “will graciously accept your invitation and see you in Washington.” It is quite possible he’ll continue searching for another vocalist.
