Tate McRae: ‘I find the Britney Spears comparisons so flattering and scary’


Tate McRae: ‘I find the Britney Spears comparisons so flattering and scary’

Sunday 23 February 2025 06:00 GMT In the week that I speak with Canadian pop star Tate McRae, she’s inescapable. Posters for her world tour are plastered across social media. Her songs are blasting from the speakers in Tesco. When I arrive at my Wednesday night dance class, the teacher is busy choreographing a routine to McRae’s turbo-charged, innuendo-filled latest release “Sports Car”. It makes sense that McRae is everywhere right now, having just released her third, much-anticipated album. So Close To What is a punchier, more decisive offering compared to the vaguely radio-ready songs about teenage angst and lust that defined her early releases. Simply put, it’s more grown up – partly because, well, McRae has grown up. “I feel so much more confident in my taste and the way I am as a person,” she tells me, speaking from her pristine showroom-looking apartment in Los Angeles. “I started writing music when I was 16, I really knew nothing. I didn’t really know what the f*** releasing a debut album meant. I was so young.” Granted, she’s only 21 now, but 17 already feels like a lifetime ago.