SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER Releases 'When You Believe' and 'Next Year' as Singles Available to Stream

The producers and songwriters of SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER have announced today's release of singles, "When You Believe," with powerhouse vocalists Cynthia Erivo and Shoshana Bean, accompanied by esteemed composer Stephen Schwartz, as well as the original song, "Next Year," sung by composer/musician Shaina Taub and actor/singer Skylar Astin. All profits from both re-recorded and remastered singles will benefit Jews For Racial & Economic Justice (JFREJ).

SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER originally aired as a YouTube Premiere on April 11, 2020, to benefit the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus (COVID-19) Emergency Response Fund. It has raised over $3 million to date, and can be streamed at www.saturdaynightseder.com.

The iconic ballad "When You Believe," by Broadway legend Stephen Schwartz, speaks to the transformative power of hope and faith to carry people through troubled times. The new release features a collaboration by superstar vocalists Cynthia Erivo and Shoshana Bean which first appeared in SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER.

"Next Year" was written by Hannah Friedman, Benj Pasek, Mark Sonnenblick, and Shaina Taub. The inspirational song, which closes out the Seder, features Taub on piano and vocals, joined by childhood friend and vocalist Skylar Astin.

Traditionally, the Passover Seder ends with the emotionally significant phrase, "next year in Jerusalem," a sentiment of hope for a world with more peace, more justice, and more light in the coming year. The team used this as a jumping off point for the moving ballad, "Next Year," which expanded the traditional theme to include the uncertainty of working through a global pandemic. This gave voice to a message of hopefulness and solidarity to bring us through tumultuous times.

"It's a song to serve as a reminder that we have crossed oceans and deserts before, and we can do so again," said composer/musician Shaina Taub. "Taking that Jewish notion and applying it to our human community at large was our inspiration for 'Next Year.'"

Hannah Friedman, a writer and songwriter on the SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER team, comments, "Although we were all spread across the country in quarantine, only inhabiting little Zoom windows in each other's laptops, the level of connection we developed in order to get this done was extraordinary and unlike any other collaboration I've been a part of. From the producers to the musicians to the extraordinarily talented performers who all decided to lend their time and energy to this for free, it was definitely a labor of love.

It also felt like a constructive way to be of service during an intense and isolating time. It wasn't lost on us that we were retelling a story of people who move from confinement to hopeful liberation during a time when we all really needed to hear that same message. Sharing the themes and the community of Passover with the widest table we'd ever been a part of was such a joy and a privilege.

When we read the comments from people of all faiths thanking us for inviting them to be a part of our Passover table, that was so satisfying. We hoped this would be inclusive, uplifting. And the final song, 'Next Year,' speaks to the universality of the Passover message about looking toward "next year" as a moment of more freedom and more hope than might exist in this dark moment. That really resonated with us, and we hoped to share it in a way that was inclusive to anyone who might be feeling lost, stuck, afraid, hopeless. Together we look toward next year, together we retell this ancient story which takes on new resonance, together we weather the storm."

SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER was hosted by Jason Alexander and includes appearances by Pamela Adlon, Jason Alexander, Reza Aslan, Skylar Astin, Shoshana Bean, Mayim Bialik, Rachel Brosnahan, Rabbi Sharon Brous, D'Arcy Carden, Andy Cohen, Darren Criss, Fran Drescher, Billy Eichner, Cynthia Erivo, Liz Feldman, Beanie Feldstein, Harvey Fierstein, Tan France, Eliot Glazer, Ilana Glazer, Judy Gold, Josh Groban, Sarah Hurwitz, Richard Kind, Julie Klausner, Nick Kroll, Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie, Dan Levy, Judith Light, Joshua Malina, Camryn Manheim, Milo Manheim, Alan Menken, Idina Menzel, Debra Messing, Bette Midler, Isaac Mizrahi, Busy Philipps, Ben Platt, Billy Porter, Senator Chuck Schumer, Stephen Schwartz, Sarah Silverman, Michael Solomonov, Shaina Taub, Nina West, Henry Winkler, Finn Wolfhard, and Rabbi David Wolpe.

Rooted in tradition but rewritten to include comedy, music and sketches, SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER was a grassroots effort put together in just over two weeks by a team working remotely around the country, including writers Alex Edelman (Head Writer), Hannah Friedman, Sas Goldberg, Josh Harmon, Michael Mitnick, Benj Pasek, and Mark Sonnenblick, Producers Rebecca Halperin, Jen Snow, Rachel Sussman, and Aly Mifa Solot, and Executive Producers Erich Bergen, Talia Halperin, Adam Kantor, Benj Pasek, Reboot, and StoryCourse. It was independently created to raise funds to benefit the CDC Foundation's Coronavirus Emergency Response Fund as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER has been submitted for Emmy® consideration in the following categories: Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded), Outstanding Writing for a Variety Special, Original Music and Lyrics for "Next Year," and Original Music and Lyrics for "Dayenu."

Purchase or stream SONGS FROM SATURDAY NIGHT SEDER: https://ghostlightrecords.lnk.to/saturdaynightseder