Rebekah Del Rio, a singer-songwriter who achieved cinematic legend with her performance of “Llorando” in David Lynch‘s 2001 opus “Mulholland Drive,” died June 23 at her residence in Los Angeles. She was 57 years old.
Del Rio’s death was confirmed through the Los Angeles Coroner’s Office. No further details about her death are currently available.
Lynch was first introduced to Del Rio by their mutual CAA agent Brian Loucks in the mid-’90s. The singer was working under a country record deal in Nashville, Tenn., which she had landed off of her recording of “Llorando,” a Spanish-language cover of Roy Orbison’s “Crying.” Upon their meeting, Lynch asked Del Rio to perform the number and covertly recorded her. The performance became the basis for the Club Silencio scene, an addition by Lynch to his by-then-rejected ABC pilot “Mulholland Drive,” which he was reworking into a feature film.
The Silencio sequence marks a reality-shattering crescendo to Lynch’s film — and an emotional outburst, with leads Naomi Watts and Laura Elena Harring both bursting into tears while viewing Del Rio’s performance in the cavernous club. While the sequence ends with Del Rio’s character fainting, revealing that she had been lip-syncing, the singer belted out the number for every take while filming.
“There were many takes. And with every take, I sang along, because I felt I had to produce that same feeling with the vibrato in my throat so the audience could see it,” Del Rio told IndieWire in a 2022 interview. I also wanted the beautiful girls in the balcony, [the film’s stars] Laura Harring and Naomi Watts, to experience it live. They were present while I was doing my scene, so I sang to them.”
The brief but memorable performance put Del Rio on the map in the film industry. She was called upon by writer-director Richard Kelly for his star-studded 2006 sci-fi dystopia “Southland Tales,” in which Del Rio sang “The Star-Spangled Banner” during an apocalyptic final act. Her vocals can also be heard on the soundtracks for “Sin City,” “Man on Fire” and “Streets of Legend.”
Del Rio’s connection to Lynch continued through the rest of the filmmaker’s career. (Lynch died in January at the age of 78.) She performed alongside Moby in one of the episode-capping roadhouse sequences of Showtime’s revival series “Twin Peaks: The Return.” She also joined for touring performances of The Red Room Orchestra Plays the Music of Twin Peaks over recent years. Less than two weeks before her death, Del Rio performed live at a charity event “Mulholland Drive” screening at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles.
Born July 10, 1967 in Chula Vista, Calif., Del Rio began performing in San Diego before moving to Los Angeles. She had a son, Phillip C. DeMars, in 1986. DeMars died in 2009 at the age of 23.
