Glee alums got here collectively to rejoice the late Naya Rivera and assist end a track she recorded greater than a decade in the past.
Rivera, who died at age 33 in 2020 after an unintentional drowning, first recorded “Prayer for the Broken” in 2012. The track was by no means completed, however former Glee stars Kevin McHale, Jenna Ushkowitz, Amber Riley, Heather Morris, Vanessa Lengies and Ashley Fink helped end the observe with background vocals. “Prayer for the Broken,” written by Lindy Robbins and Isaac Hasson, is now out there to buy and stream with proceeds benefiting Alexandria Home.
The Glee household has honored Rivera’s legacy each Christmas since her dying with an occasion they name the Annual Snixxmas Charity Fundraiser, named for Rivera’s legendary vacation events. Every December, former Glee stars come collectively for an occasion to lift funds for Alexandria Home. Rivera was a vocal supporter of the group, which gives housing for ladies and youngsters.
The yearly Snixxmas occasion has raised almost $250,000 for Alexandra Home since its inception, McHale and Ushkowitz defined on the Friday, December 1, episode of iHeartMedia’s “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast.
“Out now is an unreleased song that Naya, from some of her solo music, recorded back in 2012,” Ushkowitz, 37, stated. “At the wonderful gracious approval of the writers of this song and Yolanda, Naya’s mother, we are releasing this for you all to hear the incredible vocals and the amazing talents of Naya.”
McHale, 35, stated he’d been sitting on an unfinished model of the observe for fairly a while. “Being able to hear Naya’s voice in this way is also what made this whole thing happen in the first place,” he defined. “I had this demo from Naya in 2012 and I remember when she played it for me … Obviously Naya could sing. Her voice could do anything. It could touch you emotionally, it could make you wanna dance, it could do all things. And this was another one of those layers of ‘Oh, wow. Here you are outside of Glee doing this thing.’”
Finally, the track was by no means launched. “Then life happens where we all recorded music, none of it came out, whatever,” McHale continued. “But I’ve always listened to this song. … When she passed, the song was such a source of — when I could eventually listen to it, it took a minute — but it provided me such a source of comfort and just being like, ‘Thank God I have this. Like, thank God we have all these episodes and Glee songs of hers and all the other work she’s done outside of Glee.’ To just see her talent, to see her face and beauty and wit and charm, all of it. Everything we have from Naya is finite now.”
With that in thoughts, McHale stated Naya’s family and friends wished to place out extra of the work she left behind. “If it means so much to us, there’s no way it’s not going to mean a lot to other people,” he reasoned.
Final 12 months, McHale solely instructed Us Weekly that Rivera’s dying led to therapeutic among the many surviving Glee solid members. (The musical comedy aired on Fox from 2009 to 2015.)
“Everyone was so emotionally raw and just sort of like, ‘How is this happening? Why is this happening?’ Let’s talk about it,” McHale instructed Us in October 2022. “Let’s talk about everything. … It was really nice that everybody could find a space to feel comfortable and open and trusting enough to do that.”
“[Cory] did bring us together as well … but we were still doing the show,” Ushkowitz added. “There was a lot to lose. There were, you know, jobs at stake. There was just a lot. Like Kevin said, after Naya passed, 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 also really good for us because we had had the time to reflect.”