Calgary, AB · pop

Tate McRae

2 festivals played ↓

Dancer-first pop stardom — precision choreography and inescapable hooks, delivered at full sprint with a dance captain's discipline.

Tate McRae was born in Calgary, Alberta, on Canada Day 2003, to a German dance instructor mother and a lawyer father. She began dancing at six, competed with Drewitz Dance Productions, then trained more intensively at YYC Dance Project, her mother's company, alongside ballet study at the School of Alberta Ballet.

McRae's dance career built momentum through national competitions and a stint as a Capezio brand ambassador, culminating in a run on the reality series So You Think You Can Dance in 2016, when she was thirteen. She also danced at Justin Bieber's Calgary show that year and appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

She signed to RCA Records in 2019, and her online songwriting videos led to the EPs All the Things I Never Said (2020) and Too Young to Be Sad (2021); the latter, powered by the single 'You Broke Me First,' her first entry on the Billboard Hot 100, became the most streamed female EP of 2021 on Spotify.

McRae's debut album, I Used to Think I Could Fly (2022), reached number three in Canada, led by 'She's All I Wanna Be.' Think Later (2023) pushed further into pop and produced the global number-one 'Greedy,' while So Close to What (2025) topped the US Billboard 200 with the hits 'Sports Car,' 'Revolving Door' and 'Tit for Tat.' That year also brought her first US number-one single via a feature on Morgan Wallen's 'What I Want,' plus a first Grammy nomination for the soundtrack song 'Just Keep Watching.'

The music sits between dance-pop and contemporary R&B, built on breathy, close-miked vocals, sparse rhythmic productions and choruses written for repetition. Dance remains central to how the songs are presented: her live shows are choreographed throughout, with McRae performing routines alongside a company of dancers rather than standing at a microphone. She is among the more prominent of the Gen Z pop artists to emerge in the 2020s.

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