Glee Cast Honor Naya Rivera With New Single, ‘Prayer For The Broken’

For Glee friends and fans around the world, Christmas has always held a special place, but even more so since the passing of Naya Rivera, who portrayed Santana Lopez in the series. In honor of the late singer, her former Glee castmates have turned Christmas into a massive fundraiser for the past 3 years, and they’re back with a fourth edition!

Launched in 2020, the fundraiser, affectionately named Snixxmas after Rivera’s annual holiday party, benefits Los Angeles’ local Alexandria House, which is a charity the late actress supported. Alexandria House provides safe and supportive housing for women and children in the process of moving from emergency shelter to economic stability and permanent housing. Located in the densely populated and ethnically diverse Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles, they also serve our broader neighborhood community by providing educational and enrichment opportunities for our neighbors as well as our residents

To kick off the fourth edition of the fundraising campaign this year, the Glee cast had a very special surprise for the fans. In an interview with E!’s Keltie Knight, Kevin McHale and Jenna Ushkowitz announced the release of a song Rivera recorded back in 2012.

“We got permission [from the song’s writers, Lindy Robbins and Isaac Hasson, Rivera’s mother, Yolanda Previtire] to release an unheard/unreleased song that Naya recorded back in 2012, called ‘Prayer for the broken’,” McHale shared emotionally. “It’s just a very special song now that we’ll have and more importantly the fans will have to be able to hear her voice again,” Ushkowitz added.

“Prayer For The Broken” features Rivera’s vocals, along with backing vocals from her Glee castmates, including McHale and Ushkowitz but also Heather Morris, Vanessa Lengies, Amber Riley, and Ashley Fink.

In the latest episode of their podcast, ‘and that’s what you Really missed,’ McHale and Ushkowitz also shared the backstory of how the song came alive.

“I had this demo from Naya from 2012 because we always shared our music with each other. I remember when she played it for me and her Range Rover behind All about the bread, off Melrose, probably a lunch break or something. […] Her voice could do anything, it could touch you emotionally, it could make you want to dance, it could do all things. […] When she passed, the song was such a source of – when I could eventually listen to it cause it took a minute-, but it provided me such a source of comfort.”

McHale additionally shared how difficult it was to get the song out there. “We all talked about it like in the back of our heads, how do we get this song to people? Because it means so much to us. There’s no way that it’s not going to mean a lot of other people.” It took a few years for McHale to figure out who had written and produced ‘Prayer For The Broken‘. “This was the only Naya song that I had that I did not know who the writers and producers of the song were,” McHale laughs. “If it was one of the other songs, I could’ve found that stuff in a day.”

Check out the lyrics of “Prayer For The Broken” HERE.

The song is now available on all platforms, with proceeds going straight to Alexandria House. You can also make a direct donation to Alexandria House HERE.