The Stunning Transformation Of Tate McRae
Fans of current pop music are certainly familiar with Tate McRae, the Canadian singer-songwriter who made it big with her 2017 single "One Day." Released when she was still a high school student in her native Canada, that single put her on the radar of the music industry. Since then, she's released solo albums and multiple hit singles, headlined concert tours, appeared on television, and generally made her mark as one of the most exciting new talents on the pop landscape.
Becoming an overnight sensation at such a young age — she celebrated her 20th birthday in 2023 — has been understandably heady for her. "It's been a wild experience," she marveled in an interview with Vogue. "In fact, it's been such a surreal experience that I can't really explain it — even just seeing my name among all my idols up on the charts," she said of skyrocketing to stardom. "It's totally magical, and I'm still trying to process it all."
What even her most ardent fans may not realize is that her overnight success has been a long time in the making. From her early years as a child dance prodigy to her musical breakthrough via the power of social media, this talented young star's journey so far has been a fascinating one — and it's only just beginning. Read on to experience the stunning transformation of Canadian pop singer Tate McRae.
She lived in Oman as a child
Tate McRae was born on July 1, 2003, in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta. When her father's career took him to the Middle East, the whole family moved to Oman when she was around 4 years old. "We lived there for three years and I got to explore Oman, as well as many places around there," McRae recalled in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "We went to Dubai in the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, [and] Egypt and then explored a lot of countries in Europe."
Living in a foreign country during such a formative stage in her life left her with a far more expansive perspective on life than she might have held otherwise. As she told the Tribune, her unique childhood, and all the places she visited at such a young age, had given her an open-mindedness about new experiences and unfamiliar cultures. "Cultures are all so diverse and different and you can learn so much from the people," she explained.
While living in Oman, McRae's mother taught dance classes. As a result, the youngster couldn't help but become immersed in the world of movement as a child and would often improvise dances she created herself. After three years abroad, she and her family returned to Canada.
She began dance training at age 6
When Tate McRae and her family moved back to Calgary from Oman, she followed in her mother's footsteps by studying dance. As she told Everly Mag, she initially saw dance as more of a hobby than anything else, and it certainly wasn't something she took all that seriously — particularly when it came to discipline and following instructions. "I loved performing," she admitted, "but hated when I actually had to do what I was told."
When she was 8 years old, her mother took her to New York City, where she was able to see world-class dance. That experience changed her attitude, giving her a desire to study dance in earnest and become the best dancer she could be. "I was extremely inspired and motivated!" she said. "It gave me something to work toward and was the moment when I realized I wanted to dance for the rest of my life."'
That was when she began studying ballet, and it wasn't long before she was competing in local dance competitions. By the time she was 9 years old, she was participating in national competitions in Canada and the United States. At that time, dance was McRae's primary focus, and where she eventually envisioned herself when thinking about a future career. "When I was a dancer, I definitely thought I would become a backup dancer or part of a company," she told Today.
Tate McRae won awards for dance and studied ballet
The focus that young Tate McRae put into her dance studies was extraordinary and paid dividends fairly quickly. When she was 10, McRae was featured in the Calgary Herald, her hometown newspaper, as part of a "new generation of artists." The article noted that she'd recently competed at the Dance Nationals in New York, competing against 500 others. After making it to the final three, McRae emerged with the title of best mini dancer in her age category (7- to 10-year-olds), resulting in touring North America with the faculty of the awards.
McRae had also begun seriously studying ballet. In 2015, when she was 11, she received a silver medal in her age group after competing in the International Ballet Competition Youth Grand Prix. That same year, she received a scholarship offer to attend to the prestigious Berlin State Ballet School, where she took a two-week intensive training program.
Despite McRae's subsequent success in music, dance has never stopped being a passion for her. "Dance means everything to me," she told Numéro Netherlands. "I mean, I feel like it was my first found passion in life. So obviously, that's going to be so special to me."
She became a voice actor in an animated TV series
In 2015, Tate McRae was primarily recognized for her dance skills when she embarked on a whole other artistic endeavor. That was when she was cast as a voice actor in Nickelodeon's animated series, "Lalaloopsy." Joining the cast, McRae voiced Spot Splatter Splash, one of the series' rag dolls who'd magically come to life and had an affinity for arts and crafts.
Speaking with Entertainment LA when she was just 12, McRae explained how she came to become part of "Lalaloopsy," and how quickly it all happened for her. "I got into acting through my dancing and singing," she said. "I love musical theater and had to learn to develop characters for my songs. Then, the same day I got an agent I booked a job doing voiceovers for the show 'Lalaloopsy.'" In that interview, McRae balked at the notion that she already had a "successful career" at such a young age. "I do not really think of myself as having a career yet," she explained. "I am learning and getting amazing opportunities that I can hopefully turn into a career when I am older."
That said, she also revealed she loved the experience of voice acting, although she did find it to be challenging on occasion. "A few times I had to play two characters in one episode. So I had to sound different," she said, noting one scene required her to sing perfectly, and then deliberately badly.
She danced for Justin Bieber and Ellen DeGeneres
Tate McRae received another big boost of fame when she was chosen to dance onstage with singer Justin Bieber during his Purpose tour in 2016. "I'm a big fan," McRae told CBC News at the time. "He's one of my favorite artists." While some reports claimed that she was hired as a backup dancer for the tour, the truth is somewhat different. As she told UpRoxx, at each stop on the tour, Bieber's team would audition young dancers, ultimately picking four of them to dance with Bieber during the show. "But it, like, wasn't that big of a deal," McRae insisted of dancing with Bieber when she was just 12 years old. "There were a lot of kids that did this."
That same year, McRae was among the dancers who competed at DancerPalooza, an annual dance festival held in Long Beach, California. Her talent caught the eye of fellow dancer Stephen "tWitch" Boss, who was then the DJ and executive producer of "The Ellen DeGeneres Show." Boss put together a dance presentation for the show and invited McRae to participate.
The next time she appeared on the show, she was interviewed by Boss (sitting in as replacement host) to discuss her new role as a teenage pop star. "I remember actually sitting in these chairs when I was 12," she reminisced, "thinking this would be crazy to come here one day."
She competed on So You Think You Can Dance
When Fox TV dance competition "So You Think You Can Dance" announced a special edition focusing on under-18 dancers, 12-year-old Tate McRae saw an opportunity. She auditioned and wound up being among the dancers chosen for the 2016 series, "So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation." She wound up making it into the season's top 10 and ultimately ended up in third place at the end of the season.
"I never expected to get this far in the competition," McRae told CTV News. "Hopefully new doors will open from this experience and more opportunities will come."
One of those opportunities arose the following year. It all started when McRae posted a video on YouTube in which she performed a dance routine to one of Demi Lovato's songs. That video caught the eye of Lovato's creator director, who brought it to the singer's attention. "Apparently, she, like, cried, and she loved it, and that was, like, such an honor already," McRae recalled in a vlog. Lovato then invited McRae to rehearse with her backup dancers for her performance of "Sorry Not Sorry" at the American Music Awards; while McRae, then just 14, was too young to perform on the actual show, she was still able to enjoy the experience of rehearsing the routine with Lovato's backup dancers.
She launched a YouTube channel focusing on her music
In 2017, Tate McRae launched her own YouTube channel, Create with Tate. She planned to post videos of her dance videos, including routines that she was choreographing. However, McRae was also finding herself drawn to creating music and began early explorations into songwriting. In fact, noted Billboard, she began to write lyrics she'd composed, along with memorable quotes, and poetry she'd written on the walls of her bedroom.
The direction of Tate McRae's life changed indelibly on October 20, 2017. When she was unable to get into a dance studio, she posted a video on YouTube that had nothing to do with dance, a vocal performance in which she sang a song that she'd written — in a mere 20 minutes — called "One Day."
"So I put it out there, I wasn't expecting anything," she told the Calgary Herald. "But it kind of blew up overnight. I didn't even have a title, I just called it 'I wrote a song.' That's how it all started." That video has gone on to amass more than 40 million views as of February 2024 and served as her first step toward her eventual shift toward a music career when it attracted the attention of several record labels.
Her independently-released first single went gold
As she grew older, Tate McRae's focus increasingly began shifting from dance to songwriting. As she explained in an interview with Numéro Netherlands, moving from dancer to singer-songwriter had been in the works a lot longer than it may have appeared. "In my head, from a young age, I was like 'I want to be a pop star.' I always said that to my mom," she said. "And as a dancer, I was asking myself how am I gonna become a pop star from literally not even singing. I feel like once the music thing just naturally started to happen and naturally came into my life, it was all very in the moment."
Thanks to the unexpected success of that video, McRae took the logical step of releasing "One Day" as a single via Canadian label Nettwerk Music Group in 2017. The song began gaining steam; by the early part of 2018, McRae (who was still a high school student) and her parents flew to New York City to take meetings with record labels champing at the bit to sign her.
It took a while, but in September 2020 — three years after its initial release — "One Day" was certified gold in Canada.
She signed to a major label and released an EP (featuring a Billie Eilish collab)
In 2019, Tate McRae signed a deal with RCA, and began work on writing and recording the collection of songs that would make up her debut EP, "All the Things I Never Said." "She was so young then, obviously, but so determined and really in some ways sort of moved like a competitive athlete, which makes a lot of sense, given her dance background," RCA COO John Fleckenstein told Billboard of McRae, noting that despite her youth, she held a strong vision of where she saw herself moving in the future. "But still, even at that age, she was so clear on where she wanted to go and what was important to her."
The first song that McRae recorded for her debut EP was "Tear Yourself Apart," her collaboration with Billie Eilish and her brother, Finneas O'Connell. "I'm a huge fan of both of them," she told Harper's Bazaar of working with the siblings. "It was a really cool experience overall."
Within a month of its release, songs from the EP received a staggering 53 million streams on Spotify. "This first EP is very much an introduction of myself," she told 1883 magazine. "It's the first time I'm putting out music that is produced and a full story and a whole picture of who I am in the current moment ... It feels like the start of a new vision."
Her first headlining tour was a major success
Following the release of her major-label EP, Tate McRae — all of 17 years old — hit the road for her first-ever concert tour. While performing in front of a live audience as a dancer had become old hat for her, as had performing her music via YouTube, the experience of singing in front of a crowd of people was new. However, she proved to be a natural when it came to entertaining in concert.
In early 2020, McRae hit the road for her All the Things I Never Said tour, which kicked off in Toronto before veering to Europe, with dates in Berlin, Amsterdam, and London. The first few dates on the tour were sell-outs, indicative of the interest that the fledgling singer-songwriter had generated through her music.
"It's the most surreal feeling ever — everything that I didn't expect is happening," McRae told Seventeen in 2022, reflecting on how much she'd grown as a live performer during that relatively brief period. "I think my fans are louder than I could have ever expected. The crowds are bigger than I thought. I thought no one was gonna show up and they all showed up. It's been so wild, I think everyone's been having a blast on tour and it's been incredible."
Even bigger success with her second EP and blockbuster single You Broke Me First
Tate McRae struck while the iron was still hot by releasing a second EP in early 2021 called "Too Young to Be Sad." Featuring six new tracks, the EP was propelled by the first single, "You Broke Me First," which she'd released previously in early 2020. Building on her earlier success, the new single debuted at No. 95 on the Billboard charts. "This song is about someone in a relationship who couldn't care less for the other person and then six months later decides to crawl back," McRae said in a statement, via NME. "It's the feeling of knowing how much they meant to you, but this time not letting them back in. I hope everyone can connect to this song like I do."
The song proved to be her most successful effort yet, reaching number one on Billboard's Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart and landing in the Top 20 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100.
Released amid the global pandemic, "You Broke Me First" placed the 17-year-old in the eye of the music-industry hurricane. "That song changed everything for me," she told American Songwriter, noting that she wrote the song in the basement of her parents' house during quarantine lockdown, with no inkling of the success it would go on to achieve. "I had no idea what the music industry was and what it meant for songs to go global."
Her debut album arrived in 2022
With the success of her two EPs and multiple singles, Tate McRae released a new single in late 2021 called "Feel Like S***." The single was accompanied by a music video that took her full circle and featured her dance skills in support of her musical talents. "I am so insanely excited that this song and video are finally out," McRae said in a statement to Variety. "This is the first time that I am fully dancing in one of my own music videos, therefore I feel like I was really able to tell the story of the aftermath of a breakup through what I know best; movement."
That was followed by another single called "She's All I Wanna Be" along with the announcement of another tour, far more expansive than her previous one. Finally, in spring 2022 she unveiled her first-ever album, "I Used to Think I Could Fly."
The album's title, McRae told Variety, stemmed from her childhood dream of literally being able to fly, but which she'd now shifted to a metaphor to describe her entry into adulthood. She also revealed what she hoped her fans would take away from her debut album. "I want them to go through a rollercoaster of emotions — I want them to genuinely feel like they're watching a movie, because my intention is for them to experience every emotion and feel every story," she explained.
Further hits with her second album and SNL debut
While "I Used to Think I Could Fly" and its singles resonated with viewers, Tate McRae returned in September 2023 with "Greedy," the first single from her forthcoming sophomore album. In a press release promoting the single — which McRae co-wrote with Ryan Tedder, Amy Allen, and Jasper Harris — she described "Greedy" as reflecting her growing confidence as an artist. "I feel like this is the first time where people are seeing a feistier and more playful side of me," she said, as reported by Rolling Stone. "This song is so unexpected, and I cannot wait for everyone to hear it."
"Greedy" was every bit the smash that McRae had hoped, racking up more than 3.3 million global streams on Spotify within its first week of release to land at No. 1 on Spotify's global streaming chart.
In November 2023, McRae announced via Instagram that her second album, "Think Later" would be arriving the following month. "We're here guys. My sophomore album," she wrote in the caption, accompanying a photo of the album's cover. "This album means sooo much to me ..." Not only was the album an instant hit — debuting at No. 4 on Billboard's album chart, marking her first-ever top-10 debut — its success also led to her first-ever appearance on "Saturday Night Live" as musical guest, appearing in an episode hosted by Jason Momoa.
Rumored romance with The Kid LAROI
Tate McRae's romantic history has long inspired her music. In early 2024, however, rumors began emerging that she was dating a fellow pop sensation: The Kid LAROI. The rumors began in January when McRae posted a selfie on Instagram of herself on vacation wearing a button-down shirt that some fans theorized belonged to the Australian rapper when he left an emoji comment to the post. That was followed by reports that the two had been spotted partying together in Mexico. They were subsequently seen stepping out for dinner together in Los Angeles.
That February, People reported that McRae and LAROI had been spotted holding hands while attending the NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Following that appearance, the two were subsequently seen getting cozy at an even bigger sporting event; as ETOnline reported, an eyewitness saw the two stars once again holding hands while attending Michael Rubin's 2024 Fanatics Super Bowl Party, held at the Marquee Nightclub at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.
Interestingly, around the same time those dating rumors began surfacing, McRae discussed her love life with Today, describing a scenario that may or may not have described her rumored relationship with The Kid LAROI. "A lot of this year was surrounded by relationships I went through where I didn't really use my head in a lot of scenarios," she explained. "I just dove right into passion and lust and the feeling of the adrenaline of being with a person."