Rebekah Del Rio
All My Life
"Mulholland Drive" Club Silencio singer "La Llorona De Los Angeles" 10 English/Spanish songs from Easy Listening to Latin Jazz and traditional Mexican Boleros. The sultry style of Ms. Del Rio's voice will surely have it's way with you.
Singer/songwriter Rebekah Del Rio, as seen in David Lynch's Award Winning film Mulholland Drive, began her professional music career when she was just 11 years old.
Always a fan favorite, Rebekah performed in Southern California clubs at night, while working as many as 3 jobs during the day. Her sultry good looks, stage presence, and breathtaking vocal range were noted by the San Diego Tribune as the paper hailed her as one of the Top 10 Singers in San Diego when she was barely 20. Her unique style is perhaps best represented in her signature song, the wrenchingly beautiful ballad "Llorando", a Spanish-language version of Roy Orbison's "Crying," which strongly evokes both her Latin roots as well as such vocal influences as Patsy Cline, Linda Ronstadt, Vikki Carr, and Karen Carpenter. In 1994, on the strength of that song, Rebekah moved to Nashville where she was signed to Irving Azoff's label, Giant Records.
Rebekah opened for Rod Stewart at the 25th Annual WEA convention, and cut her first album, called "Nobody's Angel." The title track was released on a compilation album for WEA, and the single shot to #2 in Holland. Ms. Del Rio then went on to do a recording project for James Stroud at DreamWorks' Nashville Label. Then she was cast as a principal character in "The Next Big Thing", an animated series, produced by Bob Doyle (Manager for Garth Brooks) where Rebekah plays a sultry Mexican-American Country Singer trying to make it in the music business. Not a far stretch from the truth.
Before moving back to Los Angeles, David Lynch cast her as herself in his nightmarish hymn to L.A., Mulholland Drive. In a pivotal scene, Rebekah plays an otherworldly cabaret singer at the dilapidated, near empty Club Silencio who sings an electrifying a capella rendition of "Llorando". Overcome while miming her own vocal, she collapses onstage midsong. The song goes on, even as she's carried off stage by the master of ceremonies. Her noteworthy performance has been universally praised as "a dazzling star turn," by John Powers in the L.A. Weekly, to "uniquely twisted," and "utterly enthralling," by Gregory Weinkauf from the New Times.
In a Village Voice interview, Lynch describes his partnership with Rebekah as a "happy accident": A music agent friend brought her over to his recording studio, and "four minutes off the street, she hadn't even had her coffee," Del Rio belted out a stunning a capella "Llorando". Duly impressed, Mr. Lynch wrote her and that very recording into his film. To hear him tell it, her choice of song was destiny." In 1985, going through Central Park, I heard Roy Orbison's version of "Crying" on the radio. "I was riding with Kyle MacLachlan, and we were going down to start shooting Blue Velvet, and I said, I gotta get that song! I got an album with Roy's greatest hits, and I listened to "Crying," but listening to it again, it didn't marry with the film. I was a little bit depressed, but I kept listening... And years later, through Rebekah it comes back in a completely different way."
"Working with David is like a dream", says Rebekah of her experience with the famous Director. Rebekah has written a song with Mr. Lynch and has worked with the 'Master of Strange' on an Internet series called 'Rabbits', opposite Naomi Watts.
Ms. Del Rio was received with a standing ovation at the 12th Annual Rainforest Foundation Benefit Concert at Carnegie Hall in April 2002 after singing "Llorando" a capella. Rebekah was joined by Sting, Sir Elton John, & James Taylor clad in sombreros and maracas while she sang "La Bamba" for a tribute to the 60's. Rebekah was also featured in Divas Simply Singing.
Ms. Del Rio sang with the Royal Philharmonic in England for thousands of fans and performed at The Sabera Foundation Fundraising Event in Cannes for a star-studded crowd which included Bono, Andrea Bocelli, Ricky Martin and Pamela Anderson. Ms. Del Rio's talents were expressed in the award winning film, Quattro Noza by Joey Curtis which was released in 2005 as "Streets of Legend", in "Sin City", and in the new Richard Kelly film, "Southland Tales".
Rebekah is currently writing for her Los Angeles based Music Publishing Company, Baja Basement Music, and is represented by Brian Loucks at Creative Artists Agency
-- Matt Severson
Easy Listening: Love Songs