Tate McRae, a performer from Canada who excels as a singer, dancer, and actress, merges introspective alternative pop with high-energy dance-pop marked by R&B rhythms. After gaining widespread attention through online videos in 2017, she issued her first EP, All the Things I Never Said, in 2020, which contained the track "Tear Myself Apart" written in collaboration with Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. She next scored her initial Billboard Top 20 single, "You Broke Me First," on the 2021 EP Too Young to Be Sad. McRae then unveiled her full-length debut, I Used to Think I Could Fly, in 2022, which reached the Top Five in Canada and entered the Top 20 on the Billboard 200. Her mainstream breakthrough arrived with the 2023 album Think Later, highlighted by the single "Greedy," while the ILYA-produced track "It's Ok I'm Ok" surfaced at the start of 2024.
Born Tate Rosner McRae in 2003, the artist from Calgary began dancing lessons at age six and trained at the Alberta Ballet. She entered her debut dance competition in 2011 and later secured the silver medal during the Youth America Grand Prix finals held in New York City in 2015, which led to a scholarship for a two-week intensive program at the Berlin State Ballet School. In the following year she appeared on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, where she placed third. McRae also explored singing and acting, lending her voice to the character Spot Splatter Splash in Nickelodeon's Lalaloopsy series. During 2017 she started a YouTube channel with a song composed in a single day; the resulting "One Day" clip spread rapidly, earned gold certification in both Canada and the United States, and prompted additional releases that led to her signing with RCA. Numerous singles issued through 2019 were later gathered on the One Day mixtape.
McRae returned in 2020 with the EP All the Things I Never Said, featuring "Tear Myself Apart" co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell along with "Stupid," her first single to chart and achieve platinum status. One year afterward, the follow-up EP Too Young to Be Sad included the major hit "You Broke Me First," which ascended charts internationally and attained multi-platinum certification across North America, Australasia, and Europe. Between her own albums she joined Ali Gatie on "Lie to Me," Regard and Troye Sivan on "You," Blackbear on "U Love U," Khalid on "Working," and Jeremy Zucker on "That Way."
Tracks such as the candid and exposed "Feel Like Shit" and the multi-platinum "She's All I Wanna Be" preceded her first studio album, I Used to Think I Could Fly, which appeared in May 2022 and peaked at number three in Canada and number 13 in the United States. Ahead of her subsequent album campaign the next year, McRae partnered with Tiësto on the international Top Ten single "10:35."
Her second album era began in 2023 with "Greedy," marking her first number-one hit, followed swiftly by "Exes." The full project Think Later arrived that December, reaching number four on the Billboard 200. Executive produced in part by OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, the record was supported by an extensive world tour and performances on Saturday Night Live and at the Billboard Music Awards. McRae also received a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. The independent single "It's Ok I'm Ok," produced by ILYA, emerged in September 2024 and entered the Top 20 of the Hot 100.
