Amber Riley (who goes by the stage name Riley) performed a touching and bittersweet tribute to her former
Glee co-star and friend, the late Naya Rivera, on Thursday’s
Jimmy Kimmel Live! Bathed in a black and white filter, Riley performed her original song, “A Moment” to honour Riverea who tragically lost her life during a boating accident on July 8.The song, which was written by Riley, had fans in their feelings over lyrics like, “Now I need a moment alone with my soul/ I can’t stop these thoughts, I need these/ I’m ready to fight, I’m ready to see what’s on the other side/ I’m ready to cry and just let it be.”
One of the most moving aspects of Riley’s heartfelt performance, other than her angelic voice and obvious emotions, was the inclusion of personal family photographs of Naya projected in the background during the song. There’s even a glimpse of a note Naya wrote as a child where she writes in big letters, “Singing is my dream!” Talk about a gut-punch. According to Riley, those never-before-seen pics were supplied by
Naya’s mother, Yolanda Previtire.Riley, who admitted on social media that she didn’t make it 15 seconds into her performance before
tears began to fall, played Mercedes Jones on the hit high school musical show
Glee, alongside Rivera’s Santana Lopez. Both being powerhouse singers who could belt a ballad, they had many memorable duets on the hit musical series, with fans picking favourites like their mash-up of “
Rumour Has It/Someone Like You” by Adele and "
River Deep Mountain High" by Ike and Tina Turner.There were a few surprises accompanying Riley’s moving
Kimmel performance, the first being that this song, “A Moment,” will appear on her
upcoming self-titled EP, set for release on October 2. Speaking about her music and her drive to release it independently, Riley
said on social media, “I’m an INDEPENDENT artist, who funded and executive produced her own EP and visuals. I’m my own boss, my own decision maker, and my own marketing team. I WISH I had the power a major machine behind me would to get things out quicker, but I don’t… But what I do have is ownership of my s**t. I’m no slave, I own my masters. The project is coming, because this time, no one can tell me [no]. So...stay tuned and get ready. This music is playin NO GAMES. I came with a vocal and a pen ready to slay the girls.”The other surprise came from guest host Lil Rel Howery, who was also a friend of Naya's (the two even
did Lip Sync Battle together). Howery revealed on
social media that he and Riley wanted to do this tribute and took their idea directly to the
Jimmy Kimmel Live! staff for approval. “Quick backstory the musical guest on this show backed out and I called them and asked if we can do this tribute and let Amber kill it the Kimmel team said yes!!! Thank You!!!” he wrote on Twitter.[video_embed id='2023788']RELATED: Tyrese Gibson responds to George Floyd's death and police brutality in new song 'Legendary'[/video_embed]Lil Rel also introduced Riley’s performance on a solemn note, saying, “Not too long ago, we both lost a really good friend in a tragic accident and we both will miss her forever.”Howery, who will appear in the upcoming film
Judas and the Black Messiah, also took opportunity as the guest host to
speak on the police shooting of Jacob Blake this week and the fact that his story is not unique. After expressing his grief at yet another Black man being shot by the organization meant to serve and protect all citizens, Howery shouted out the
boycott action by the NBA and WNBA and make a case for defunding the police, comparing the JBlake shooting to the story of white
17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse who shot and killed two protesters but was arrested after the fact, unharmed."[Blake] got shot in broad daylight in front of the community and in front of his babies," Howery said. "The police love to say, 'Oh we think he was going after something; we felt endangered'--whatever... [Rittenhouse] shot two people and killed them, allegedly. But this is what's not allegedly: he got up with a full-blown gun on him and people yelling at the police, 'Hey, that guy just shot some people!' with his hands up like this, walked right past the police—wasn't touched, wasn't stopped, wasn't yelled at.""A lot of us have said, '
Please defund the police,' I say it all the time," he continued. "Because that funding
can go somewhere else, especially if you're not going to use the funding to protect and do your job properly. The police get billions of dollars—
billions of dollars... and those same states are complaining they don't have money for education."[video_embed id='2023176']RELATED: Pro-athletes launch widespread sports boycotts over anti-Black violence [/video_embed]
