On Thursday night, actress, musician and lawyer Demi Lovato paid a heartfelt tribute to the late, great Glee actress Naya Rivera. Lovato was a friend of Rivera’s Santana and also played her friend in the Fox music series.
The tribute honors the ten-year anniversary of Santana’s lesbians in the GLAAD Media award-winning series. As Lovato pointed out, it was a groundbreaking character for the Latinx LGBTQ representation on television. “Her ambition and accomplishments have inspired Latina women around the world,” said Lovato of Rivera. ‘This is the power of a show like Glee.”
The special tributes included Jacob Artist, Chris Colfer, Darren Criss, Jessalyn Gilsig, Dot Marie-Jones, Vanessa Lengies, Jane Lynch, Kevin McHale, Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison, Alex Newell, Lauren Potter, Amber Riley, Harry Shum Jr. , Becca Tobin, and Jenna Ushkowitz.
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“There was so much more than Naya could see with her eyes,” Criss said.
Lynch recalled how impressed she was with how great Rivera was as an artist when she became a series host. Tobin, Ushkowitz and Newell celebrated her amazing performance of “Nutbush City Limits”.
McHale said everyone said the same thing about Rivera when she treated everyone kindly. Ushkowitz added: “She made everyone laugh on screen and outside, but the real victory is if you made her laugh because you knew you were doing something really funny.”
Morrison talked about how great a mother she was and Riley pointed out that she has twice hosted the GLAAD Media Awards – once alone and with the late Cory Monteith.
The cast shared the heartbreaking scene when Santana’s grandmother beat her out of the house because she was gay and addressed what impact she had on the foreign and Latinx community.
Rivera’s mother, Yolanda Previtire, was unable to attend the tribute, but she did share a message: ‘Naya is very honored to receive this recognition. When Naya informed me that Santana was going to be a lesbian, she called me to let me know. I asked her how she felt about it and she said, ‘I feel great about it!’ ‘
“Little did we know that she would influence so many people in the LGBTQ community,” Previtire continued. ‘Her desire was to always be an advocate for those who do not have a voice. I do not believe she realized how important she was to this world. I am thankful that my oldest daughter helped change the landscape of how I see and see each other. Thank you GLAAD for keeping my daughter’s legacy alive. ”
Check out the full tribute above.