‘Glee’ alumni help finish Naya Rivera song three years after her death

cheerfulness alumni gathered to celebrate the late Naya Rivera and help finish a song she recorded more than a decade ago.

Rivera, who died in 2020 at the age of 33 after an accidental drowning, first recorded “Prayer for the Broken” in 2012. cheerfulness stars Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Vanessa Lengies And Ashley Fink helped finish the song with background vocals. ‘Prayer for the Broken’, written by Lindy Robbins And Isaac Hassonis now available to purchase and stream, with proceeds going to benefit Alexandria House.

The cheerfulness The family has honored Rivera’s legacy every Christmas since her death with an event they call the annual Snixxmas Charity Fundraiser, named after Rivera’s legendary holiday parties. Every year in December, former cheerfulness stars come together for an event to raise money for Alexandria House. Rivera has been an outspoken supporter of the organization, which provides housing for women and children.

The annual Snixxmas event has raised nearly $250,000 for Alexandra House since its inception, McHale and Ushkowitz explained on the Friday, December 1, episode of iHeartMedia’s “And you REALLY missed that“podcast.

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Naya Rivera made a name for herself with her role as Santana Lopez on Glee, but her acting career started long before that. The Santa Clarita, California, native appeared in Kmart commercials as a baby and landed her first TV role at age 4 when she joined the cast of The Royal Family. […]

“There’s an unreleased song out now that Naya, from some of her solo music, recorded in 2012,” Ushkowitz, 37, said. “With the wonderful approval of the writers of this song and Yolanda, Naya’s mother, we are releasing this for all of you to hear Naya’s incredible vocals and amazing talents.”

McHale, 35, said he had been sitting on an unfinished version of the song for some time. “Being able to hear Naya’s voice in this way is also the reason this whole thing happened in the first place,” he explained. “I had this demo from Naya in 2012 and I remember her playing it for me… Naya could clearly sing. Her voice could do anything. It can move you emotionally, it can make you want to dance, it can do anything. And this was another layer of ‘Oh, wow. Here you are outside cheerfulness do this thing. ”

Ultimately, the song was never released. “Then life happens where we’ve all recorded music, but nothing has come of it,” McHale continued. “But I’ve always listened to this song. … When she passed away, the song was such a source of – when I finally got around to listening to it, it was a minute long – but it was such a source of comfort for me and just thinking, ‘Thank God I have this. Like, thank God we have all these episodes and cheerfulness songs of hers and all the other work she’s done outside of that cheerfulness.’ To just see her talent, to see her face and beauty, humor and charm, everything. Everything we have of Naya is now finite.”

With that in mind, McHale said Naya’s friends and family wanted to do more of the work she left behind. “If it means so much to us, it can’t possibly mean so much to other people,” he reasoned.

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You’ll never look at slushies the same way again! Glee introduced the world to quite a talented group of actors. The musical comedy-drama debuted on Fox in 2009. It was Ryan Murphy’s third series, following teen drama Popular and dark medical drama Nip/Tuck. The series focused on the William McKinley High School glee club, the New Directions, […]

Last year, McHale spoke exclusively We weekly that Rivera’s death led to healing among the survivors cheerfulness actors. (The musical comedy aired on Fox from 2009 to 2015.)

“Everyone was so emotionally raw and just thinking, ‘How is this happening? Why is this happening?’ Let’s talk about it,” McHale said Us in October 2022. “Let’s talk about everything. … It was really nice that everyone could find a space where they felt comfortable and open and confident enough to do that.”

“[Cory] also brought us together…but we were still doing the show,” Ushkowitz added. “There was a lot to lose. Jobs were at stake. There was just a lot. Like Kevin said, after Naya passed away, it was like we had a lot of space away from the show and a lot of time to process, and a lot of people had time to actually sit with their feelings. And I think that was very good for us too, because we had time to think.”