It seems as though President-elect Tangerine is having a hard time trying to get people to perform at the end of the world his inauguration. But British R&B singer Rebecca Ferguson might take the job, but under one condition. She wants to perform Nina Simone's "Strange Fruit."
“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,” she tweeted. “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.”
In the song, written by Abel Meeropol, Simone sings, "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."
The song has been performed by numerous singers, including Billie Holiday, and will forever be a reminder of the atrocities black people faced when it came to racism and lynchings.
No word yet on whether the inauguration planning committee will take Ferguson up on her offer.