Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He has recorded five albums of original music, several EPs, and numerous tracks included on compilations and film soundtracks. He is the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, brother of Martha Wainwright, and half-brother of Lucy Wainwright Roche.
Wainwright came out as gay while still a teenager. In 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his son's homosexuality early on. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass' and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well. Wainwright later said in another interview that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really."
Wainwright became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. (For instance, the song "Barcelona" features lyrics from the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Macbeth.) During this time, he also became deeply interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson, and Judy Garland.
At the age of 14, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar. He remained celibate for five years after the incident, which he claims postponed his becoming promiscuous. In an interview several years later, he described the event: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me". Wainwright claims that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic and faking a seizure.
In December 1998, he appeared in a Gap commercial directed by Phil Harder, performing Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?". The promotion dramatically increased both his visibility and his record sales. In March 1999, Wainwright began a headlining tour at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Seeking guidance, he telephoned his friend Elton John, who persuaded him to check in to rehab at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. He detoxed and underwent therapy at the facility, which he has stated in several interviews gave him "a second chance". He refrains from discussing his experience in rehab or answering questions about his subsequent sobriety, although he adamantly opposes crystal meth use.
The Want One and Want Two albums were repackaged as Want for a November 2005 release to coincide with the beginning of a British tour. This version of Want One contains two extra songs, "Es Muß Sein" and "Velvet Curtain Rag". The Want package in the UK has two bonus tracks: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (Leonard Cohen cover) and "In With the Ladies", which replace "Coeur de Parisienne — Reprise d'Arletty" and "Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours" from 2004's augmented edition.
He often performs with his sister, Martha Wainwright, on backup vocals. Despite a growing cult following and critical acclaim, Wainwright has experienced somewhat limited commercial success in the United States, although the release of Release the Stars saw increased media attention there, as did the associated 2007 US tour.
In 2005, the All I Want DVD was released. It features a full-length documentary (A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright), performances at Central Park SummerStage and Cambridge Corn Exchange, studio sessions, music videos, and two bonus Easter eggs: a 12-minute documentary from 1998, featuring Rufus and his family, and a short tribute to the McGarrigle sisters featuring Rufus and Martha.
In May 2006, Wainwright was one of three special guests (along with Robbie Williams and Frances Barber) to star with the Pet Shop Boys in a concert at London's Mermaid Theatre. He covered the Pet Shop Boys' "Casanova in Hell", from Fundamental. The critically acclaimed show was broadcast on the UK's BBC Radio 2 and repeated on BBC 6 Music, and released as a CD (Concrete) in October 2006.
In June 2007, Wainwright was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, The Gossip, the Indigo Girls, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, and Erasure. Profits went to the Human Rights Campaign. In August 2007, Wainwright said that he considered it a "great honor" to perform on the gay rights tour.
Wainwright continued to tour during 2007, and embraced forms of expression not usually part of mainstream American music concerts. These included dressing in red lipstick and stiletto heeled shoes to perform Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation. His performances were critically acclaimed.
Religion and religious imagery also appear in his music ("Agnus Dei", "Gay Messiah", and "Greek Song"). Wainwright also sings about experiences in the world and distant geography ("Oh What a World" and "April Fools"). Several songs address his experiences with crystal meth and rehab ("Go Or Go Ahead" and "I Don't Know What it Is").
Wainwright wrote the song "Millbrook" about his high school, Millbrook School, in Millbrook, New York. This song was also the inspiration and namesake of the Los Angeles indie band Millbrook. The song "Matinee Idol" from that album was written about River Phoenix. "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to the late singer Jeff Buckley, who drowned in Memphis in the Wolf River (a tributary of the Mississippi) on May 29, 1997. The two met briefly in the 1990s when Wainwright was an up-and-coming act. By this time, Buckley had already released his first album Grace, and was well on his way to stardom. He has said that he had been irritated that Buckley played at Sin-é, a café on the Lower East Side, as Wainwright had been rejected three times by the club. The two met several months prior to Buckley's drowning, during a gig by Wainwright. Buckley helped out with some technical problems, and the two chatted over beers for a few hours. The song references "Hallelujah", a Leonard Cohen song covered by Buckley (and later by Wainwright).
The song "Sanssouci" ("carefree" in French) was inspired by 18th century Prussian monarch Frederick the Great's Rococo summer palace of the same name in Potsdam, outside Berlin, Germany. "Tiergarten", also from Release the Stars, refers to the Berlin Tiergarten, and is written about his boyfriend of three years, German arts administrator Jörn Weisbrodt.
Rufus McGarrigle Wainwright (born July 22, 1973) is a Canadian-American singer-songwriter. He has recorded five albums of original music, several EPs, and numerous tracks included on compilations and film soundtracks. He is the son of Loudon Wainwright III and Kate McGarrigle, brother of Martha Wainwright, and half-brother of Lucy Wainwright Roche.
Wainwright came out as gay while still a teenager. In 1999, he told Rolling Stone that his father recognized his son's homosexuality early on. "We'd drive around in the car, he'd play 'Heart of Glass' and I'd sort of mouth the words, pretend to be Blondie. Just a sign of many other things to come as well. Wainwright later said in another interview that his "mother and father could not even handle me being gay. We never talked about it really."
Wainwright became interested in opera during his adolescent years, and the genre strongly influences his music. (For instance, the song "Barcelona" features lyrics from the libretto of Giuseppe Verdi's opera, Macbeth.) During this time, he also became deeply interested in Édith Piaf, Al Jolson, and Judy Garland.
At the age of 14, Wainwright was sexually assaulted in London's Hyde Park after picking up a man at a bar. He remained celibate for five years after the incident, which he claims postponed his becoming promiscuous. In an interview several years later, he described the event: "I said I wanted to go to the park and see where this big concert was going on. I thought it was going to be a romantic walk in the park, but he raped me and robbed me afterwards and tried to strangle me". Wainwright claims that he survived only by pretending to be an epileptic and faking a seizure.
In December 1998, he appeared in a Gap commercial directed by Phil Harder, performing Frank Loesser's "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?". The promotion dramatically increased both his visibility and his record sales. In March 1999, Wainwright began a headlining tour at Maxwell's in Hoboken, New Jersey.
Seeking guidance, he telephoned his friend Elton John, who persuaded him to check in to rehab at the Hazelden Foundation in Minnesota. He detoxed and underwent therapy at the facility, which he has stated in several interviews gave him "a second chance". He refrains from discussing his experience in rehab or answering questions about his subsequent sobriety, although he adamantly opposes crystal meth use.
The Want One and Want Two albums were repackaged as Want for a November 2005 release to coincide with the beginning of a British tour. This version of Want One contains two extra songs, "Es Muß Sein" and "Velvet Curtain Rag". The Want package in the UK has two bonus tracks: "Chelsea Hotel No. 2" (Leonard Cohen cover) and "In With the Ladies", which replace "Coeur de Parisienne — Reprise d'Arletty" and "Quand Vous Mourez de Nos Amours" from 2004's augmented edition.
He often performs with his sister, Martha Wainwright, on backup vocals. Despite a growing cult following and critical acclaim, Wainwright has experienced somewhat limited commercial success in the United States, although the release of Release the Stars saw increased media attention there, as did the associated 2007 US tour.
In 2005, the All I Want DVD was released. It features a full-length documentary (A Portrait of Rufus Wainwright), performances at Central Park SummerStage and Cambridge Corn Exchange, studio sessions, music videos, and two bonus Easter eggs: a 12-minute documentary from 1998, featuring Rufus and his family, and a short tribute to the McGarrigle sisters featuring Rufus and Martha.
In May 2006, Wainwright was one of three special guests (along with Robbie Williams and Frances Barber) to star with the Pet Shop Boys in a concert at London's Mermaid Theatre. He covered the Pet Shop Boys' "Casanova in Hell", from Fundamental. The critically acclaimed show was broadcast on the UK's BBC Radio 2 and repeated on BBC 6 Music, and released as a CD (Concrete) in October 2006.
In June 2007, Wainwright was a part of the multi-artist True Colors Tour, which traveled through 15 cities in the United States and Canada. The tour, sponsored by the Logo channel, began on June 8, 2007. Hosted by comedian Margaret Cho and headlined by Cyndi Lauper, the tour also included Debbie Harry, The Gossip, the Indigo Girls, The Dresden Dolls, The MisShapes, and Erasure. Profits went to the Human Rights Campaign. In August 2007, Wainwright said that he considered it a "great honor" to perform on the gay rights tour.
Wainwright continued to tour during 2007, and embraced forms of expression not usually part of mainstream American music concerts. These included dressing in red lipstick and stiletto heeled shoes to perform Judy Garland songs, and expressing his concerns against the current U.S. political situation. His performances were critically acclaimed.
Religion and religious imagery also appear in his music ("Agnus Dei", "Gay Messiah", and "Greek Song"). Wainwright also sings about experiences in the world and distant geography ("Oh What a World" and "April Fools"). Several songs address his experiences with crystal meth and rehab ("Go Or Go Ahead" and "I Don't Know What it Is").
Wainwright wrote the song "Millbrook" about his high school, Millbrook School, in Millbrook, New York. This song was also the inspiration and namesake of the Los Angeles indie band Millbrook. The song "Matinee Idol" from that album was written about River Phoenix. "Memphis Skyline" is a tribute to the late singer Jeff Buckley, who drowned in Memphis in the Wolf River (a tributary of the Mississippi) on May 29, 1997. The two met briefly in the 1990s when Wainwright was an up-and-coming act. By this time, Buckley had already released his first album Grace, and was well on his way to stardom. He has said that he had been irritated that Buckley played at Sin-é, a café on the Lower East Side, as Wainwright had been rejected three times by the club. The two met several months prior to Buckley's drowning, during a gig by Wainwright. Buckley helped out with some technical problems, and the two chatted over beers for a few hours. The song references "Hallelujah", a Leonard Cohen song covered by Buckley (and later by Wainwright).
The song "Sanssouci" ("carefree" in French) was inspired by 18th century Prussian monarch Frederick the Great's Rococo summer palace of the same name in Potsdam, outside Berlin, Germany. "Tiergarten", also from Release the Stars, refers to the Berlin Tiergarten, and is written about his boyfriend of three years, German arts administrator Jörn Weisbrodt.
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