Rufus Wainwright Delivers Toronto a Low Blow

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Canadian folk princling and Juno award winner Rufus Wainwright took some time out of his busy European tour schedule to sit down with The Guardian UK's Sunday paper The Observer to fill out a quick travel-related questionnaire.

While most of the answers were simple and trivial, cute even, one of the last ones has been throwing Torontonians through a bit of a loop.

I'll never go back to ...
Toronto. I can't stand it - the place drives me mad. I'm allowed to say this because I'm Canadian. I have friends there, I work there, but I find it really hard to like. I will have to go back there, but I wish I didn't have to. It's trying to be the New York of the Midwest. I much prefer Montreal.
-- Source: The Observer - Sunday June 8th 2008

Now, this really isn't a shock because Torontonians are used to this self-hating dialogue, especially considering most of us are imports from other suburbs, cities, provinces or countries. But whether it's serious discontent or just Wainwright rolling in a too-cool Let's All Hate Toronto phase, we won't know until he eventually trundles back to the city and explains himself.

But that may not be anytime in the near future, his last performances in Toronto were two sold out shows at the Danforth Music Hall a year ago today, and according to his tour calendar he has no upcoming Toronto dates in the near future. Could it be that he meant what he said?

But that's ok, we'll always have Martha. She can be next seen performing at the Harbourfront Centre this Canada Day, as part of a free concert series. She also has a new cd out, which I consider pretty badass.