title: INVITED POP STAR SAYS SHE’LL PERFORM At Trump Inauguration ONLY If She Can Sing Song About Lynching Blacks
text: British pop singer Rebecca Ferguson, daughter of a white British woman and Jamaican father, says she has been invited to perform at Donald Trump s inauguration, but her response may not be the RSVP the President-elect s team were expecting.The former UK X-Factor runner-up said she would only accept the invitation on the condition that she could perform  Strange Fruit    a song protesting racism in 1930s America, made famous by Billie Holiday.The lyrics, written in the 1930s by Jewish communist Abel Meeropol, were composed as a protest poem to highlight endemic racism in America s southern states.The song s opening lyrics deal with lynching, which was still happening in parts of the country at the time: 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.According to Billie Holiday s Estate, Holiday regularly performed the song at live performances in 1939. Her record label, Columbia, refused to let her record the song under their name, so they granted her a one-session contractual release that gave Holiday clearance to independently record the track.Later that year, the album featuring  Strange Fruit  sold a million copies, becoming Holiday s biggest-selling record at the time. In 1978, the single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  Last month, The Beach Boys told CNN that the group has been contacted about performing, but that  no decision has been made at this point as to how or whether they will participate. The so-called "A" list celebrities are all wanting tixs to the inauguration, but look what they did for Hillary, NOTHING. I want the PEOPLE!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 23, 2016-CNN