Rebecca Ferguson will play Donald Trump's inauguration party on one condition

The X Factor 2010 runner-up - she lost out to Matt Cardle - will play Trump's party if she can perform "Strange Fruit", the iconic protest song.

"I've been asked [to play] and this is my answer," Ferguson writes 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 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, then I will graciously accept your invitation and see you in Washington."

The poignant number, about the lynching of African Americans in the Deep South, is described as one of the first protest songs. It features the lyrics: "Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze / strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees..."

"Strange Fruit" was originally written by Abel Meeropol and published in 1937 as a poem. Billie Holiday first recorded it as a song, releasing her version in 1939 - in the decades since, it's been covered numerous times (Kanye West included a sample of Nina Simone's take on his track "Blood On The Leaves") and it was named 'Song Of The Century' by TIME in 1999.

President-elect Donald Trump is reportedly struggling to find high-calibre names to play his 'All-American Ball' so recruiting Ferguson would be a coup of sorts.