As the 21-year-old Canadian pop star releases her third album ‘So Close To What’, she speaks to Ellie Muir about fame, toxic relationships and making music with her rapper boyfriend Kid Laroi
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.
It comes as little surprise, then, that McRae is frequently compared to her forebears like Christina Aguilera and The Pussycat Dolls. The one she gets the most, though, is a young Britney Spears. “I find that flattering and scary. It’s such a crazy statement because no one can compare to Britney Spears. It’s like comparing someone to Michael Jackson!” she says almost shrieking, manically waving her French-manicured hands in the air. “That’s the blueprint!”
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