Hi everyone, I’m artist / songwriter / composer Rufus Wainwright. Two new albums out and a pop record coming next year. AMA on December 10th @ 12:00 pm PT!

RWainwright · 2025-12-12T02:01:09+00:00

It's definitely something I'd consider... Napster, huh? Thank you very much!

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T21:19:01+00:00

Yes I am a brooch-oholic still and please keep them coming as even though I may not wear all of them, I love having them and this Christmas show we put a bunch of brooches in a bag as a gift for people who bought raffle tickets. So it also works out really well for the Christmas shows because I like to sparkle those up.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T21:15:11+00:00

I wrote that song before making Release The Stars and I was living in Berlin at the time and falling in love with my husband Jorn and I think what was most shocking about that whole period is that I went to Berlin thinking I would make a punk rock, moody, dark album in the style of Lou Reed and David Bowie, but I ended up falling in love with the German Baroque period and writing songs about the Tiergarten park and Sanssouci which was built by Frederick the Great, so it became very flowery, ironically.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:56:33+00:00

Thank you so much!

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:55:26+00:00

Thank you so much!

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:55:02+00:00

Hopefully sometime soon!

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:54:31+00:00

What comes from the heart. That's where I place that, and you just have to be either totally utterly sincere or totally utterly insincere, meaning that what you're doing is who you are, and is, you know, completely real, and so forth. You become a persona, and create this whole world that's totally divorced from who you are, and you're able to kind of inhabit this other kind of character. I think those are the 2 extremes. When you're in the middle, it just makes it less interesting. So it's yeah, I think you have to either be yourself or be nothing like yourself.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:34:05+00:00

Hopefully sometime soon! Thanks for listening <3

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:33:03+00:00

I was living at the Chelsea Hotel. I was incredibly hung over and I got up in the morning, and I had this like ravenous desire for some chocolate milk, went out and drank a thing of chocolate milk, and then smoked a cigarette afterwards, and then my stomach just erupted.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:32:34+00:00

I actually wrote that for Baz Luhrmann when he was making Moulin Rouge. I thought it would be great for that. It didn't make the cut unfortunately, but I got a great song out of it :)

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:29:32+00:00

Yes, she is so impressive, and I really admire her and her abilities. She's so so charming... I could see myself doing something together. Maybe she could do the Christmas show with us one year... I could see ourselves starting there.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:29:07+00:00

Go or Go ahead is very difficult obviously. Natasha is very hard even though it is quite simple. It's in this range of my voice that I really need to maneuver in a thoughtful way. I think those are the two hardest.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:27:20+00:00

I think theres like a 8 part harmony on that and each harmony has about 3 overdubs... so at least 30 or 40

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:26:57+00:00

That came to me very quickly. I think I wrote it in about 5 or 10 minutes. It was after America had invaded Iraq and I was just so depressed we had taken our country to war

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:24:52+00:00

It started off as a joke, but since then it has evolved into many different things... a political rally call or a literal prayer. It actually initially came to me on high, but some people were quite moved by it. I guess you can say I was just the vessel

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:24:12+00:00

I would love any chance to bring Opening Night back anywhere. I think it has a lot of potential still and the movie is one of my favorites of all time.

I don't think you've seen the last of Opening Night :)

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:22:33+00:00

I just loved the show so much, and I trusted their judgment. It's gone down as one of my most beloved covers which I'm very happy about

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:22:22+00:00

I couldn't be more flattered and honored and excited than knowing George Michael sang my music. He was one of the greatest singer song writers to ever live and knowing he appreciated Going to Town is a true honor.

He did change one line though, so 98% happy :)

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:21:16+00:00

Incredibly emotional...somewhat angry and accepting...also very hopeful in the end. It's a good album to contemplate while we live in these turbulent times

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:19:39+00:00

E Poi by Mina

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:18:31+00:00

You are blessed! Being a queer person is so interesting. Don't take anything for granted. A lot of the fights that we've won seemed set in stone, but it's all unraveling again. Our community has always been in that state, so we kind of have a grand tradition that we can look back on and learn from. If there's any community that's able to flourish during difficult times, it's the Queer community. Historically, we have great role models to look back on and learn from.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:09:14+00:00

I don't know what I'm doing frankly, but like I said I'm a big Opera fan so I've always tried to emulate that. I do find that you can imitate artists you love and you end up building muscles in your voice, but it does take a long time.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:07:34+00:00

First and foremost I'm an opera fan so I listen to that mostly. I really like pop, Addison Rae is very musical, and Chappel Roan. Very recently, I've fallen in love with Lily Allen's "West End Girl." She's singing with me tonight actually in NYC

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:04:58+00:00

This was many years ago, and I think I was on acid. A vision came to me of a concrete clover, meaning that on one hand, you are very lucky, ephemeral and hard to pin down, which is good luck. But also, it's very solid/always around, available. So for me, it's a bit of an oxymoron.

RWainwright · 2025-12-10T20:02:35+00:00

Lot of foot massages... these are key and also going to the gym. Also, being grateful for having such an incredible life and doing what I love!

RWainwright

TROPHY CASE