Rufus Wainwright

The New York Times credits him with "genuine originality," which is a rarer compliment than it sounds. Rufus Wainwright, born in New York and raised in Montreal, has spent his career refusing to stay in one lane, and has become one of the great male vocalists, songwriters, and composers of his generation in the process. Ten studio albums, three DVDs, and three live albums including the Grammy-nominated Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall.

The list of people who have wanted to work with him says the rest: Elton John, Burt Bacharach, Miley Cyrus, David Byrne, Boy George, Joni Mitchell, the Pet Shop Boys, Heart, Carly Rae Jepsen, Robbie Williams, Jessye Norman, Billy Joel, Paul Simon, Sting, and producer Mark Ronson, among many others. He has also written two operas and songs for film and television.

Recent years have been his most adventurous. His Grammy-nominated 2020 album of originals, Unfollow the Rules, found him at full artistic maturity. In 2023 he went back to his family's folk roots with the Grammy-nominated Folkocracy, reinventing folk standards as duets with Chaka Khan, Brandi Carlile, John Legend, Anohni, and others. In 2025 he released I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Wainwright does Weill, a live album of Kurt Weill classics recorded with the Pacific Jazz Orchestra and the Metropole Orkest.