Tate McRae
Canadian singer, dancer, and actress Tate McRae balances emotive, intimate alternative pop and pulse-pounding, R&B-inflected dance-pop. Following her viral emergence in 2017, she released her debut EP, 2020's All the Things I Never Said, featuring the Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell co-write "Tear Myself Apart." She followed with her first Billboard Top 20 hit, "You Broke Me First," from 2021's Too Young to Be Sad EP. McRae delivered her official debut album, I Used to Think I Could Fly, the following year, hitting the Top Five in Canada and cracking the Top 20 of the Billboard 200. In 2023, she released her mainstream breakthrough, Think Later, featuring the hit "Greedy." She returned with 2025's So Close to What, topping the Billboard 200.
Born Tate Rosner McRae in 2003, the Calgary native initially started out as a dancer at age six and studied at the Alberta Ballet. She entered her first dance competition in 2011 and later took the silver medal at the final round of the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City in 2015. Out of the competition, she earned a scholarship for a two-week intensive course at the Berlin State Ballet School. The following year, McRae competed on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, finishing in third place. Along with dance, she developed an interest in singing and acting, appearing as the voice of the rag doll Spot Splatter Splash in Nickelodeon's Lalaloopsy animated series. In 2017, she launched her own YouTube channel by posting a song she had written in one day. The "One Day" video went viral and helped her build buzz, eventually earning gold certification in Canada and the U.S. More songs followed, and she signed with RCA. A flood of singles were released into 2019, all of which were collected on the One Day compilation (which was reissued in 2025 as the One Day LP).
In 2020, McRae released her first EP, All the Things I Never Said. Included in the set was the song "Tear Myself Apart," co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, and "Stupid," her first charting single and platinum certification. A year later, her second EP, Too Young to Be Sad, featured the smash single "You Broke Me First," which climbed the charts around the world and went multi-platinum in North America, Australasia, and Europe. In the gap between solo albums, McRae teamed with Ali Gatie ("Lie to Me"), Regard and Troye Sivan ("You"), Blackbear ("U Love U"), Khalid ("Working"), and Jeremy Zucker ("That Way").
Solo tracks such as the raw and vulnerable "Feel Like Shit" and multi-platinum "She's All I Wanna Be" heralded the arrival of her debut album, 2022's I Used to Think I Could Fly, which was released in May of that year. The LP rose to number three in Canada and number 13 in the U.S. Before McRae's next album cycle was initiated just a year later, she teamed with Tiësto for the international Top Ten hit "10:35."
Her sophomore era kicked off in 2023 with "Greedy," her very first chart-topper. "Exes" followed quickly after, and her sophomore full-length, Think Later, landed that December, hitting number four on the Billboard 200 and becoming a Top 10 hit around the globe. Co-executive produced by OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, the set was promoted with a lengthy world tour as well as appearances on the Saturday Night Live and Billboard Music Awards stages. McRae also earned a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist.
A single, the ILYA-produced "It's Ok I'm Ok," appeared in September 2024, cracking the Top 20 of Hot 100 and paving the way for her third full-length, So Close to What. Released in February 2025, the album spawned more singles, including "2 Hands" and the Top Ten "Sports Car." It also topped the charts in several countries and debuted at number one the Billboard 200. That year she scored additional chart hits: first with country star Morgan Wallen on his number one "What I Want" and then with her own singles "Tit for Tat" (from the deluxe edition of So Close to What) and "Just Keep Watching" (from F1 the Album). Capitalizing on the flurry of chart activity, her One Day LP was also released on streaming platforms, with a physical release following in 2026. ~ Matt Collar & Neil Z. Yeung
