Canadian-American singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright was BOTD in 1973. Born in Rhinebeck, New York, the son of folk musicians Loudon Wainwright and Anna McGarrigle, his parents divorced when he was three, and he was raised in Montreal by his mother. A talented musician from early childhood, he began performing professionally in his teens with his mother, aunt and sister Martha. In 1988, aged 14, he appeared in the children’s musical film Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller, earning a Genie Award nomination for his original I’m a’Runnin’. While promoting the film in London, he was raped and assaulted by a man he met at a bar, triggering years of alcohol and drug addiction. His self-titled first album was released in 1988, followed by Poses in 2001. Both albums were critically acclaimed, and developed loyal LGBTQ fanbases. After a fun but chaotic party in 2002 with Barbara Bush, Marianne Faithfull, Anohni and the cast of Absolutely Fabulous, Wainwright sought treatment for his crystal meth addiction. He achieved wider commercial success with his 2003 album Want, a theatrical medley of baroque pop and torch song ballads, many referencing his struggles with his sexuality, family and drug addiction. A companion album Want II followed in 2004, and released together in 2005. A lifetime fan of Judy Garland, he created her 1961 Carnegie Hall concert at the same venue in 2006, repeating the performance at venues in London, Paris and Los Angeles. His New York concert recording was released in 2007 as Rufus Does Judy at Carnegie Hall, earning him his first Grammy nomination. His subsequent albums All Days Are Nights: Songs for Lulu, Out of the Game and Unfollow the Rules were critically praised but failed to find wide audiences. In recent years, he has written predominantly for the stage, including the operas Prima Donna, Hadrian and Dream Requiem and a song cycle based on Shakespeare‘s sonnets. Wainwright married his partner Jörn Weisbrodt in 2012, in a ceremony officiated by Justin Vivian Bond, and fathered a daughter with Lorca Cohen.