Rebecca Ferguson says she will accept invitation to perform at Trump inauguration if she can sing 'Strange Fruit'

Rebecca Ferguson.
(Image credit: Luca V. Teuchmann/Getty Images)

Singer and X Factor runner-up Rebecca Ferguson announced Monday that she would accept an invitation to sing at Donald Trump's inauguration if she got to perform "Strange Fruit," the BBC reports. That might not go over so well with Trump's team, though — "Strange Fruit" was originally recorded as a protest song by Billie Holiday, and takes its words from an Abel Meeropol poem that powerfully refers to the lynching of African Americans as "black bodies swinging in the southern breeze."

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Jeva Lange

Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.