This is the year of Tate McRae

«I recognize myself a quality: I am tenacious. I learned him dancing. ” When he says “dancing”, Tate McRae really means, as a professional. It has been doing it since she was a child: competitions, scholarships around the world, dance bodies on TV and not (at 13 she was also a very young protagonist of So you think you can danceUS reality for Ballerini). The tenacity learned it there, he says, and looking at his performances he comes to be believed. The future, however, had something else in store, or rather, Tate would not have only made the dancer, but would become one of the most famous pop stars in the world.

To achieve the goal it took almost ten years: his first single was released in 2017, he had been published on YouTube, on a channel in which he played a few covers on the keyboard, alternating with original songs and dance videos. All strictly in the bedroom. He was about 14 years old: the song was a small case in Canada, with millions of views. From there everything began: the “real” labels arrived, the first singles, a couple of EP and an album a few years later.

And if in America his name had been circulating for a while, he is with the individual Greedyfrom 2023, that things really change. The song begins to climb the rankings and becomes a global hit very soon. Follows the album Think Latera tour, his popularity grows so much that Drake cites it in a piece (Small Town Fame: “Bitch, the Feel Like Tate McRae“). Shortly thereafter another album arrives, I know close to what?with whom Tate, still only 21 years old, is a big leap.

Looking at her performing on stage can only make you think of the great pop stars of twenty years ago. Someone says she is the new Britney, we go very slowly with these comparisons but we just say that, however, she certainly likes Britney (and she also paid homage to her by dressing like her on the red carpet of the latest VMas: “she had to be done”). In common with the Princess of Pop There is a lot, yes: a certain type of sexy attitude, the obsessive attention to the choreography of each song, some references in the videos. But Tate did not take not only from there. Inside his music, his videos, his lives there is a lot of pop who went around in the early 2000s. Many references that those who start having some wrinkles will grasp very well.

She tells us herself, in Videocall. It is evening with us, from her it's morning. He is smiling, wears a hat with a visor and is about to leave with his second world tour in two years. Five years ago we met her on the Red Carpet of the MTV EMA, and nobody could imagine that things would go so well. The day before he had been a guest of BBC Radio Lounge, that program of the English radio in which the covers are sung. She did The One That Got Away By Katy Perry: “I remember, I love that song.”

But now it is time for others to canton his, of songs. Over the past five years his life has changed a lot: «Completely distorted. I moved to Los Angeles, I feel I grew up as a person, I did a lot of music, I did a lot of dates. We can say that my life has taken a complete tour ». A tour that was also possible thanks to the discipline, the imprinting that we said before: «As a dancer, perfectionism has always been part of me. I started in a classical dance school, where everything revolves around the mirror and trying to be perfect. That mentality has remained with me, but now I feel much more free. I can make my decisions, give my direction, have fun ».

The disc is one of those in which pop lovers will not miss a song not even. Inside there is something of Ciara, Aaliyah, Pussycat Dolls, Britney (as we said before): “I wrote it during this year's tour. I was traveling all the time and, every time I could, I went to the studio. I made myself inspired by all of them. I tried to listen as much music as possible, to range among the genres, to let me transport. I had a precise sound in mind to recreate, especially for the tour: something that was danceable, R&B, pop. Compared to my previous works it is more feminine, more dance -oriented and with many more vocal stratifications. I feel that my extension has changed, it is wider. Vocally it is very different from my previous album, which was perhaps more homogeneous. Here I experienced more with my voice ».

The disc debuted at number 1 in the American ranking, a decidedly important stage and, if we want, a milestone that once again marks the beautiful period that the new generation of girls struggling with pop, from Charli XCX to Sabrina Carpenter passing through Chappell Roan and Addison Rae is passing.

A pop with which Tate also tries to say something. Does it with what could be the manifest trace of the disc, Purple lace brain which he sings: “Listen to me only when they are without clothes, you only feel what you like and nothing else, I'm losing my head because making you enjoy is the only way I think I have depths”.

A sort of response to comments on his body and how he performs. The usual old story of the judgment on the body of women, on how they use it, above and under the stage: «Purple lace bra He talks about my relationship with the media and the press, but also of my being a woman. Feeling me sure, then insecure, then judged because I'm sure of me. There are many things that I had never experienced before and that I experienced for the first time during the promotion of this album. I had never had the opportunity to talk about it, so writing a song about this was liberating ».

Tate McRae. Photo: Print

“I think women receive more recognition and respect now, but that at the same time they are even the most criticized and judged by the media,” he continues. «As much as things change, that type of gaze is always present. I also see it with my colleagues: people like to take it out with girls, it is inevitable. We are going in the right direction, but the problem is still very present ». His Piece of me?

We ask her if she expected to reach the Billboard summit, she almost laughs: «At all. I didn't expect the album to debut like this, imagine. I had no expectations, so it was an incredible surprise ».

Twenty -one years old, we said, an already quite long career behind him, one wonders how he remained lucid: «I meditate a lot. I think that the only way to not be influenced is to close in and work on itself. In the end, if you think about it, the only goal of life is to get to know each other, to grow, and become the best version of themselves. If at the end of the day I feel good with who I am and with what I am doing, I sleep very well ». Ah, the discipline.

Tate McRae will be on tour in Italy next summer with the Miss Possessive Tour. The appointment is for June 13, 2025 at the Unipol Arena in Bologna.