The song I do at karaoke
My daughter is a typical teenager. She’s 13 and not interested in much that I do, but the other day I was singing Begin the Beguine by Cole Porter and she actually came down and asked: “What the hell was that?” So that song has some magic to it. It always elevates the world around me.

The song I can no longer listen to
Stephen Sondheim is brilliant, but I can’t stand Send in the Clowns. It just gets on my tits. Yes, I know that’s a very British expression. I’m pandering to you guys.

The first single I bought
Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) by Eurythmics, on 45, from this great record store in Montreal called Phantasmagoria, when I was 10. I’d seen Annie Lennox on television and felt as if I was witnessing a celestial being.

The best song to play at a party
The Way You Make Me Feel by Michael Jackson. I find pre-Thriller Michael Jackson is less overt.

The song that changed my life
I was about four or five when I first saw The Wizard of Oz on television. When I heard Judy Garland sing Over the Rainbow, it instantly became my anthem, and I subsequently started dressing up like Judy and scaring my parents.

The song I inexplicably know every lyric to
Hotel California by the Eagles has been hammered into me inexplicably. I’m always drawn to the story and melody through morbid curiosity.

The song I secretly like, but tell everyone I hate
I hate all of the pro-American, crazy flag-waving crap, but The Star-Spangled Banner, the American national anthem, is a hell of a lot of fun to sing. It’s got a real payoff. The Whitney Houston version deserves to be the most famous version. Have I ever been asked to sing it? Not yet. I’m not sure if I would.

The song that gets me up in the morning
Dancing in the Dark by Bruce Springsteen is one of the great energising songs. It acknowledges the sadness, but gets you going.

The song that makes me cry
I covered Heading for Home by Peggy Seeger on my Folkocracy record. What I love is that it’s about accepting age and embracing death.

The song I want played at my funeral
I would have a viola piece called Offertorium from my new classical album. I’ve always loved classical music, but now that I’m a classical artist, it doesn’t come up if you put “Rufus Wainwright”. It only comes up if you put “Wainwright”. So now I’m officially mononymous, like Mozart and Madonna.

Rufus Wainwright’s new classical album, Dream Requiem, is out now.