Gigi Perez Releases "Favor," the Deeply Personal Song She Wrote From Grief for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping

At the stroke of midnight on Friday, Gigi Perez handed the world of Panem its newest original song. The 26-year-old Cuban-American singer-songwriter released "Favor," a brand-new track written specifically for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (The Album) — and she is calling it one of the most personal songs she has ever made.

For Perez, the commission is the fulfillment of a fandom that goes back to childhood. Days before the release, she told her Instagram followers she had loved the franchise "for as long as i can remember" and was "so incredibly honored to be a part of this next chapter."

In an official statement, she put the weight of the moment into sharper focus. "It is truly an honor to have created a song for The Hunger Games," she said. "I've been greatly impacted by the stories told through The Hunger Games since I was 12 years old. Writing this song allowed me to share another part of who I am, drawing from my own experiences with grief and the longing to reconnect with the ones I love who are no longer on this earth. It is a privilege to share something so personal within a story that has meant so much to me for so long."

Grief has always been the engine of Perez's songwriting. She broke through in 2024 with "Sailor Song," a lovesick folk ballad that became a global TikTok phenomenon, climbed to Number 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart and has since passed a billion streams on Spotify. The song's confessional, wounded-romantic core came from the same place "Favor" does: Perez has spoken openly about losing her sister Celene — the person who introduced her to music, raised on bootleg musicals and cast albums — and about turning that loss into song. In a candid interview with Music Week, she described the night-sky ceiling-staring uncertainty of her early years in Florida, posting raw acoustic songs to TikTok while working toward the miracle of a music career. The miracle arrived: after early SoundCloud singles like "Sometimes (Backwood)" and "Celene," a debut EP (How to Catch a Falling Knife, 2023) and her debut album At the Beach, in Every Life (2025), she spent the first half of 2025 opening for Hozier on tour and supporting fellow soundtrack artist Noah Kahan — a full-circle detail, given they now share album space on the Hunger Games record.

"Favor" was co-written and co-produced by Perez alongside Aidan Hobbs, the rising songwriter-producer whose recent credits include Alex Warren and Mumford & Sons.

The track is the latest reveal from what is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious soundtrack campaigns in recent franchise history. The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping (The Album) arrives November 13 via MCA, executive-produced by Grammy winner Dave Cobb — the Nashville heavyweight behind Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson — and gathers 29 cross-genre artists, each contributing music written exclusively for the world of Panem.

The rollout began October 2 with the lead single "Draw You Out" from Noah Kahan, co-written and co-produced with The National's Aaron Dessner and inspired by the bond between Haymitch Abernathy and Lenore Dove Baird. Two weeks later, on October 16, the Smashing Pumpkins released "Black Stars" with an accompanying music video. With Perez's "Favor" now out, the remaining artist reveals are expected to arrive in a steady drumbeat across the next two weeks.

The film itself lands in US theaters on November 20 via Lionsgate, one week after the album. Francis Lawrence returns to direct — his fifth Hunger Games film after Catching Fire, both Mockingjay installments and 2023's The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Sunrise on the Reaping adapts Suzanne Collins's 2025 novel, rewinding 24 years before Katniss Everdeen's story to the morning of the reaping for the 50th Hunger Games — the Second Quarter Quell, in which the Capitol doubles the horror by sending 48 tributes into the arena instead of 24.

At its center is 16-year-old Haymitch Abernathy, played by newcomer Joseph Zada — the future mentor Woody Harrelson made iconic. Around him: Whitney Peak as Haymitch's love Lenore Dove Baird, Mckenna Grace pulling double duty as tribute Maysilee Donner and her twin sister Merrilee, Elle Fanning as a young Effie Trinket, Jesse Plemons as a young Plutarch Heavensbee, Kieran Culkin as Caesar Flickerman, Ralph Fiennes as President Coriolanus Snow, Glenn Close as escort Drusilla Sickle, plus Maya Hawke as Wiress and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Beetee. The screenplay comes from Billy Ray and Michael Lesslie, with producers Nina Jacobson, Brad Simpson and Lawrence. James Newton Howard returns to score — his sixth Hunger Games film and eighth collaboration with Lawrence — and the separate score album, including the already-released "Haymitch Meets Snow," arrives the same day as the movie. The film runs 2 hours 38 minutes, rated PG-13.

The franchise has always treated its music as canon-adjacent event releases: Taylor Swift's "Safe & Sound" announced the first film's arrival in 2012, Lorde curated the entire Mockingjay – Part 1 soundtrack in 2014, and Olivia Rodrigo's "Can't Catch Me Now" anchored The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. Perez's "Favor" joins that lineage — and it arrives as the film's UK campaign gathers pace. Sunrise on the Reaping premiered in London on October 28, where Ralph Fiennes attended a fan screening earlier this week — fitting, given Perez's own UK chart-topping history.

For readers, the math is simple: the song is out now on all platforms, the 29-track album lands November 13, and the film — with Haymitch's devastating origin story at its center — opens November 20. If "Favor" is any indication of the album's emotional register, Panem's return is going to hurt in the best possible way.