Rufus Wainwright

Rufus Wainwright is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter and composer, whose music has been influenced by cabaret, opera, and Tin Pan Alley. ∙ The son of folk musicians Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, he began studying piano at age six. ∙ When he was 15, Wainwright received a Best Young Artist Juno Award nomination for his song “I’m Running,” which was featured in the 1988 film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller. ∙ His self-titled debut LP, produced by Jon Brion (Fiona Apple, Aimee Mann), won a Juno for Best Alternative Album and inspired Rolling Stone to name him the Best New Artist of 1998. ∙ In 2005, he sang guest vocals on “Go Ask Shakespeare” from Burt Bacharach’s Grammy Award-winning album At This Time. ∙ Release the Stars, from 2007, was his most commercially successful album, peaking at No. 23 on the Billboard 200 chart and reaching No. 2 in the UK. ∙ Canada’s CBC radio network ranked Wainwright No. 9 on their list of the 25 Greatest Canadian Singers Ever. ∙ After an eight-year break, he released 2020’s Unfollow the Rules and performed an Austin City Limits televised concert filmed without an audience due to the COVID-19 pandemic.