Conor McGinty performing on X Factor three years ago
Former X Factor star and Derry-born musician Conor McGinty recorded Moving On (No Going Back) as part of the Pathway to Peace Initiative.
The PPI is spearheaded by Presbyterian minister Rev David Latimer.
The song, inspired by hundreds of peace messages written by school children from the nine counties of Ulster, was recorded by Conor shortly before Ms McKee was shot dead.
The journalist was observing by the New IRA in Derry on April 19.
Mr McGinty told the Belfast Telegraph: “Rev Latimer approached me quite a while back about the idea of a peace anthem as part of his Pathways to Peace initiative and I was only too happy to be part of this.
“He sent me the messages written by all the school children and the one recurring theme was the desire of the young people to move on and that there would be no going back to the dark days.
“For a long time I, along with my music producer Eamon Karran, worked on putting something together but it was never quite right.
“So I sent a song I had written called Love Emerges to Ben Kelly from The Voice UK and he re-worked it and came back with Moving On (No Going Back).
“I knew right away it was perfect and David Latimer agreed so we recorded it in Dublin about six weeks ago.
“A week before the murder of Lyra we got it back and last week at the Sing for Peace event, which was organised by Dr Nicola Herron, we were asked to launch it at the rally.”
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