{"id":2455171,"date":"2026-06-11T19:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2455171"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:50:21","slug":"leland-used-drag-race-to-write-new-music-for-stop-that-train","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/leland-used-drag-race-to-write-new-music-for-stop-that-train\/","title":{"rendered":"Leland Used &#8216;Drag Race&#8217; to Write New Music for &#8216;Stop! That! Train!&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div><iframe class=\"trinity-player trinity-iframe\" src=\"https:\/\/trinitymedia.ai\/player\/trinity-i\/2900023920\/?pageURL=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thewrap.com%2Fcreative-content%2Fmusic%2Fstop-that-train-songs-drag-race-music-leland-interview%2F&amp;readContentType=URL\" style=\"border: 0; display: block; width: 100% !important; height: 80px !important\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019ve ever stepped foot in a gay bar or tuned into MTV on a Friday night, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re familiar with Leland\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to writing hit songs for artists like Troye Sivan and Ava Max, the Golden Globe nominee is also responsible for dozens of original tracks for \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race\u201d \u2014 including \u201cWigloose,\u201d \u201cMoulin Ru\u201d and \u201cJoan: The Unauthorized Rusical.\u201d Now, he\u2019s taking his talents to the big screen in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/stop-that-train-rupaul-movie-drag-race-producers-interview\/\">\u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWriting these songs feels like taking a Rusical off of the main stage and putting it into a movie theater, and that is such a joy. Writing a Rusical already is one of my favorite things in the world to do, so to write something for Adam Shankman to direct in this context, it was just a dream,\u201d Leland told TheWrap. \u201cIt\u2019s such a different beast \u2026 such a fun vision that Randy [Barbato] and Fenton [Bailey] and Ru and Tom [Campbell] fought to bring to life. I hope that this is the start of an era of us making movies like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-wrap-read-more\">\n<div class=\"the-wrap-read-more__container\">\n\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"the-wrap-read-more__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/stop-that-train-cast-rupaul-drag-race-winner-symone-interview\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Thanks to his many contributions to the queer community, Leland has even been a guest judge on <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/stop-that-train-cast-rupaul-drag-race-winner-symone-interview\/\">\u201cDrag Race.\u201d<\/a> \u201cI feel like, at this point, I have a good barometer of what makes Ru laugh,\u201d he said after gifting the world iconic songs like \u201cI\u2019m That Bitch,\u201d \u201cBreak Up (Bye Bye)\u201d and \u201cUK Hun?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think one of the reasons why the show is still on after so many years is just the joy that it brings to people and the stories that it tells. It\u2019s a reflection of what\u2019s happening in the world and the human experience and different people\u2019s experiences; their resilience, sometimes despite their circumstances,\u201d the songwriter added. \u201cWhat\u2019s so interesting is a lot of these queens that have come through \u2018Drag Race\u2019 have gone through so much, but yet they\u2019re able to be funny and be talented and really showcase such a special skill set. It\u2019s just the combination of Ru and the judges and the queens and the magic of the show that helps something like this live outside of the show.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThankfully, the show just keeps getting bigger and bigger, so the audience is there. You can feel it when you go to a gay bar,\u201d Leland continued. \u201cEspecially right now, what we need is joy. This movie is so funny and so stupid and does not take itself seriously. That is something we really want to impress upon people: Like, sure, you can go be critical of it, but go have fun and bring your friends \u2014 there\u2019s so much in this world to be serious about, this is not one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cStop! That! Train!\u201d crashes into theaters this Friday, while \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag Race All Stars\u201d Season 11 airs Fridays on Paramount+.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-block-the-wrap-read-more\">\n<div class=\"the-wrap-read-more__container\">\n\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"the-wrap-read-more__image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/creative-content\/movies\/stop-that-train-rupaul-movie-drag-race-producers-interview\/\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?fit=300%2C169&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"Stop! That! Train!, Stop That Train\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?w=1200&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=300%2C169&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=1024%2C576&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=768%2C432&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=320%2C180&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 320w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=640%2C360&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 640w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=380%2C214&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 380w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=760%2C428&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 760w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=394%2C222&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 394w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=788%2C444&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 788w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=778%2C438&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 778w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=976%2C549&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 976w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thewrap.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/stop-that-train.jpg?resize=990%2C557&amp;quality=89&amp;ssl=1 990w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" data-portal-copyright=\"TheWrap\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.thewrap.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you\u2019ve ever stepped foot in a gay bar or tuned into MTV on a Friday night, there\u2019s a good chance you\u2019re familiar with Leland\u2019s work. In addition to writing hit songs for artists like Troye Sivan and Ava Max, the Golden Globe nominee is also responsible for dozens of original tracks for \u201cRuPaul\u2019s Drag [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2455172,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[352451,375271,482583],"class_list":["post-2455171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-drag-race","tag-leland","tag-stop-that-train"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Leland-Used-Drag-Race-to-Write-New-Music-for-Stop.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2455171"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2455173,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2455171\/revisions\/2455173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2455172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2455171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2455171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2455171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}