Rufus Wainwright



"I think that any gay person in the world would be seduced at one point by a certain kind of camp. For certain people it's kind of a saving grace."

- Rufus, on camp

Rufus Wainwright is known for his lush, theatrical Baroque Pop. He came from a musical family. His parents (Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III) were folk singers. His sister, Martha Wainwright, is another musician. He is openly gay, which is reflected in his music, and his husband, Jörn Weisbrodt, is the artistic director (as of early 2021) of the WNET streaming platform ALL ARTS.

His voice is very hard to describe. See for yourself.


 * Rufus Wainwright (1998)
 * Poses (2001)
 * Want One (2003)
 * Want Two (2004)
 * Release the Stars (2007)
 * Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall (2007)
 * Milwaukee at Last!!! (2009)
 * All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu (2010)

""I wasn't a huge gay marriage supporter before I met Jorn because I love the whole old-school promiscuous Oscar Wilde freak show of what 'being gay' once was. But since meeting Jorn that all changed.""
 * A Date with Rosie Palms: "One Man Guy"
 * Which becomes even funnier (or disturbing) when you remember the song was actually written by his father Loudon.
 * Adorkable - Oh boy, is he. He's an avid opera and literature fan and has even written his own opera entirely in French, and has a tendency to run his hand through his hair during live performances, rendering it more and more foofy as the show progresses, but it just makes him look even more adorable.
 * All Gays Are Promiscuous - Before settling down with his long-term boyfriend, Rufus certainly embraced this image.

"Neither of us is really that much older than each other anymore. [...]There's not much time for us to really be that angry at each other anymore."
 * Between My Legs - Has a song with this very title.
 * Big OMG - "Between My Legs" starts with a woman screaming "Oh my God!" presumably because she saw something lewd.
 * Brother-Sister Team - Often performs with younger sister / musician Martha Wainwright. "Little Sister" refers to their musical Sibling Rivalry as children. "Martha" discusses growing up / growing out of this.

"Then came hallelujah sounding like Ophelia, for me in my room living, turn back and you will stay, under the Memphis Skyline"
 * Camp Gay – He even recreated Judy Garland's April 23, 1961 concert (which is Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall) and performed a couple of numbers in Judy drag.
 * Just look at the quote on top!
 * The Cover Changes the Meaning – His cover of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows" changes...well, suddenly it sounds like its set amidst a casino underworld that's about to crumble and is having one last revel in its own shallowness and debauchery. Worth a listen
 * This version also contains a hilarious story about when Rufus actually met Leonard Cohen. I'm not going to explain it, just watch it.
 * Creator Breakdown – Rufus recorded All Days Are Nights: Songs For Lulu while his mother was dying of cancer. His previous albums, known for lush full orchestrations, are not anywhere near as depressing as this. All it is is Rufus singing with piano, nothing more.
 * Likewise, he struggled with a drug addiction in the early 2000s, and even temporarily lost his sight before he checked himself into rehab.
 * Crucified Hero Shot - In the video for "Going To A Town" Rufus' character assumes this pose.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Double Entendre: "Gay Messiah"
 * Fake-Out Fade-Out - "Rebel Prince". He still manages to fool people in concert.
 * Faux Symbolism - Pretty much the entirety of the video "Going To A Town", done very intentionally.
 * Gratuitous French - "Rebel Prince" has the first verse repeated in French halfway through the song, and Rufus lived in Montreal for much of his youth.
 * He's also written an entire opera in French with "Prima Donna".
 * "God Is Love" Songs - Inverted brilliantly with "Gay Messiah."
 * Heavy Mithril - "Between My Legs," written as "fantasy about being able to save your object of desire when the apocalypse comes, and bring him to some sort of hidden paradise."
 * Hot Consort - The title character of "The Consort".
 * Hot Dad - On February 2, 2011, he welcomed his daughter Viva Katherine Wainwright Cohen. Lorca Cohen, daughter of Leonard Cohen, was the surrogate, and is helping raise Viva along with Jorn and Rufus.
 * Incredibly Long Note - "Vibrate" has one that lasts for 19 seconds in at least one live performance.
 * In the Blood - His musical talent, since he's the son of two very talented musicians and his sister Martha Wainwright is successful in her own career.
 * "I Want" Song - "Want", from Want One, obviously, and a recurring theme in his works. And according to Rufus, Release The Stars is an I Want Album.
 * Kaleidoscope Eyes - Enter his name into any image search and try to pin his eye color down. Go ahead, try it.
 * Keet - He's a bit more mellow than most, but watch any interview he's in and watch how much he moves during it. It gets to the point that people unfamiliar with him think he's drunk.
 * Last Chorus Slow-Down – He loves this trope.
 * Leaving You to Find Myself - "Leaving For Paris No. 2", which was originally written as part of the backstory of Satine in Moulin Rouge.
 * Lonely Piano Piece - He even has a whole album of them (All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu).
 * Meaningful Name - Rufus (Latin for "red") tended to wear a lot of red early in his career.
 * One-Woman Song
 * "Martha": about his younger sister Martha Wainwright and and their aging.
 * "Natasha": about his friend, actress Natasha Lyonne.
 * Precocious Crush - "The Art Teacher" is told from the point of view of a woman who fell in love with the titular teacher.
 * Rebel Prince - The subject of his song of the same name, who he wants to come and spirit him away.
 * Refrain From Assuming - "Greek Song" is sometimes referred to as "You Turn Me On" after the phrase repeated seven times in the first verse.
 * Shout-Out - Lots.
 * The video for "April Fools" has Rufus try to save the opera heroines Cho-Cho-San ("Madame Butterfly"), Carmen ("Carmen"), Mimi ("La Boheme"), Tosca ("Tosca") and Gilda ("Rigoletto") from their tragic deaths.
 * He also mentions these characters by name in the song "Damned Ladies."
 * "California" mentions "my new grandma Bea Arthur" as well.
 * "Dinner At Eight" has the line "I'm gonna take you down with one little stone" referencing The Bible and David and Goliath in particular.
 * "Gay Messiah" has multiple references to gay culture and biblical stories.
 * "Grey Gardens" to the documentary of the same name, and also to Thomas Mann's Death in Venice.
 * "I Don't Know What It Is" references "is there anyone else who thinks Three's Company" with "knock on the door, take a step that is new."
 * "Memphis Skyline" is about Jeff Buckley.
 * "Oh What a World" is titled after the dying screams of the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz, and the song's Bolero Effect is a direct musical reference to, well, "Bolero".
 * "Vibrate" mentions Britney Spears.
 * The famous Phantom of the Opera theme is used in "Between My Legs."
 * "Fuggi regal fantasima," the Gratuitous Foreign Language in "Barcelona," is from Verdi's opera of Macbeth.
 * Shout-Out/To Shakespeare - "Memphis Skyline" has the line

""The meaning is very plain, mainly that I'm having problems with the United States at the moment, as we all are. We all love America, I think everybody does in a certain way. But we have to admit that there's just been too many mistakes made in the recent past over too many issues, and we've just got to deal with that fact.""
 * This is especially poignant because Jeff Buckley, who the song is dedicated to, drowned in the Wolf River.
 * He also set 3 of Shakespeare's sonnets (10, 20, and 43) to music on his album All Days are Nights: Songs for Lulu.
 * The song "Damned Ladies" features the line, "Desdemona, do not go to sleep."
 * Signature Song - "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk". "Gay Messiah" is probably another of his best known songs.
 * "Hallelujah" was this for a while, but after hearing Justin Timberlake cover it at the Hope For Haiti event Rufus announced that he'd be shelving it for a bit.
 * Sophisticated As Hell: Definitely a feature of some of his songs.
 * Take That - "California" is three and a half minutes of this directed at said state. And yet some people still manage to miss the point and think he's praising the state.
 * Also, "Going to a Town" is him saying how disappointed he is in the United States under the Bush administration.


 * "Tulsa" is a good humored Take That to Brandon Flowers, former lead singer of The Killers. Flowers loved the song.
 * There Is Only One Bed - The video for "April Fools" opens with Rufus waking up in a bed with the opera heroines. It's definitely not intended to be sexual.
 * The Cameo - sister Martha Wainwright, Melissa Auf Der Mar, and Gwen Stefani (as the waitress) all show up in the video for "April Fools."
 * The Something Song – “Greek Song,” "The Money Song"
 * Vocal Evolution - 21-year-old Rufus' voice, as heard on his demo tape, is much higher and more nasally than how he sounded even on his debut album released only three years later. In his own words, "like a little old man."
 * "Well Done, Son" Guy - Rufus has some well publicized issues with his father, though they appear to have become more amicable in the last few years. "Dinner At Eight" in particular is about a dinner he had with his father and a disagreement they had while on a shoot for Rolling Stone magazine.
 * "Do I Disappoint You" is not actually addressed to his father (we think) but has the same sort of theme, although the song is ultimately about firing back and defending your own frailties.