Tate McRae

Tate Rosner McRae (/teɪt məˈkreɪ/ born July 1, 2003) is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and dancer. At the age of thirteen, she gained prominence as the first Canadian finalist on the American reality TV show So You Think You Can Dance. McRae caught the attention of RCA Records in 2019 after her original song "One Day" (2017) went viral on YouTube, subsequently releasing her debut EP, All the Things I Never Said (2020). McRae soon gained wider recognition after her song "You Broke Me First" became an international hit. In 2020, McRae was the youngest musician featured on Forbes ' 30 Under 30 list.

Early Life
Tate Rosner McRae was born in Calgary on July 1, 2003, to a Canadian father of Scottish descent who worked in the Canadian Armed Forces and a German mother. At age four, due to her father's work, she moved with her family to Oman, where her mother taught dance lessons, and lived there for three years. During her time in Oman, McRae attended The American International School Muscat (TAISM). McRae began recreational dance training at age six. Having returned to Calgary, at the age of eight, she began to train more intensively in dance and competed with Drewitz Dance Productions. From age 11, she began training in all styles of dance at YYC Dance Project, a dance company owned by her mother, and undergoing ballet training at the School of Alberta Ballet, the training school for the Alberta Ballet Company.

2013–2018: Dance career
Shortly after McRae began dancing competitively, she was awarded Best Female Dancer in the "Mini" category at the 2013 Dance Awards in New York City. After gaining some prominence, she became a brand ambassador for the American dance manufacturer Capezio. She became a finalist at the New York City Dance Alliance's 2014 National Gala.

In 2015, McRae was awarded a two-week scholarship at the Berlin State Ballet company after winning the silver medal as a soloist and bronze medal for her duet at the 2015 Youth America Grand Prix. She danced in the music video for Walk off the Earth's platinum-certified single "Rule The World". For the second time, McRae was awarded the Best Female Dancer award at the 2015 Dance Awards, this time in the "Junior" category. McRae had been a consistently active voice actress for the Lalaloopsy franchise, voicing the part of "Spot Splatter Splash" since the show's inception in 2013.

In April 2016, McRae performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show as part of the DancerPalooza troupe. She also performed with Justin Bieber as part of his Purpose World Tour in June 2016, before taking part in the thirteenth season of American television show So You Think You Can Dance. While competing for the America's Favorite Dancer title as a non-American, she was mentored by American dancer and actress Kathryn McCormick. She advanced further in the competition than any other Canadian in the show's history, placing third on the final episode. Canadian TV host Murtz Jaffer from Toronto Sun reacted, "The fact that Canadians couldn’t vote for Tate makes her third-place finish all the more impressive. While she might not have been voted America’s favourite dancer, she certainly might be Canada’s." She performed at the 2016 Teen Choice Awards as a finalist from the SYTYCD cast.She performed again on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2016 as part of the Jump Dance Convention troupe.

In May 2017, she was featured in a pas de deux in Alberta Ballet Company's production, "Our Canada" choreographed by Jean Grand-Maître. In November 2017, after performing a dance to Demi Lovato's song Tell Me You Love Me she was invited by Lovato to rehearse with her dancers for her performance at the American Music Awards. For the third time, she won Best Female Dancer at the 2018 Dance Awards in Las Vegas, this time in the "Teen" category, making her the first dancer in the competition's history to win in all categories from mini to teen. In April 2018, she choreographed and danced in the music video for the song "Just Say When" by American rock band Nothing More.

2017–2019: Music career beginnings
Since its creation in 2011, McRae's YouTube channel has featured a fairly consistent stream of primarily dance videos. In 2017 she started "Create With Tate" a video series, focused on showcasing original songs she wrote and recorded in her bedroom. Her upload of the series' first song "One Day" which she wrote at the age of 14, attracted over 35 million views, prompting her to self-release the song as an independent single. The song would eventually be certified gold in Canada, making it the first certification of her career. From 2017 to 2019, McRae continued to upload and release independent singles as part of her "Create With Tate" series. Notable songs include "Dear Ex Best Friend" which has over 35 million YouTube views and "Dear Parents" with over 20 million views. The series led to her being named a YouTube "Artist on the Rise".

Her earlier upload of "One Day" caught the attention of RCA Records, where she signed in August 2019. Following her signing, McRae announced her debut EP All the Things I Never Said (stylized in all lowercase) in December 2019. She released the five-track EP on January 24, 2020 and announced her first headlining tour of Europe and North America. Each stop on the tour was sold out. The EP's lead single, "Tear Myself Apart", was co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, and together with "All My Friends Are Fake" had amassed over 10 million streams by December 2019. The songs currently have over 60 million Spotify streams combined. The EP's final single, "Stupid" clocked 4 million Spotify streams in December 2019, and currently has over 120 million Spotify streams. "Stupid" also charted in Ireland and Canada, earning significant radio airplay performance in the latter, peaking within the top 15 of the Canadian pop radio charts. "Stupid" was certified gold in Canada, making it her third Canadian certification. Each song on the EP is also stylized in lowercase.

2020–2021: "You Broke Me First"
In April 2020, McRae released the single "You Broke Me First" amid the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, ahead of her second EP titled Too Young to Be Sad. In mid-June 2020, she released the single "Vicious" featuring American rapper Lil Mosey. In July 2020, McRae was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Push Best New Artist. She also performed during the pre-show for the ceremony in August 2020. That month, she uploaded an original song titled "Don't Be Sad", which was inspired by her life and amassed over 170,000 views in one day. The commercially re-released version has since gathered over 2.5 million views and 10 million Spotify streams. In September 2020, she made her first-ever music publication cover on that month's Dork Magazine issue. She also appeared on the cover of Notion in November 2020.

McRae performed "You Broke Me First" at the pre-show for the 2020 MTV Video Music Awards in August 2020, after the song had gained popularity on the video-sharing platform TikTok and was commercially successful internationally. By September 2020, the song had accumulated over 150 million streams and became her first single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. The track peaked at no 1 on the Mediabase top 40 chart, becoming her first number one single at pop radio and breaking the record for the longest climb to no 1 by a female solo artist at 28 weeks. You Broke Me First is also the longest charting song released by a female artist in 2020 on the Billboard Hot 100, at 33 weeks. It currently has over 1 billion streams across platforms and nearly 600 million streams on Spotify alone. The song became an international hit, peaking within the top ten of the charts in Australia, Belgium (Flanders) & (Wallonia), Canada, Finland, Latvia, Malaysia, Norway, the Netherlands, the Republic of Ireland, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden and the United Kingdom, becoming her debut charting song in all except the Republic of Ireland. She appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on October 21 performing "You Broke Me First".

In October 2020, McRae released the single "Lie to Me" with Canadian singer Ali Gatie. The song charted in Canada, making it her 3rd single to do so, and currently has over 35 million Spotify streams. She again performed "You Broke Me First" in November 2020 at the 2020 MTV Europe Music Awards and was praised by NME and Billboard for being one of the stand out performers. In December 2020, she released the second single from her upcoming EP, "R U OK", which headlined Billboard 's list of ten cool new pop songs for the week, and charted on the Hot Singles Chart in New Zealand, so far peaking at number 19.

McRae gained notable recognition as a rising artist in 2020. She received support from multiple platforms, being named YouTube's Artist on the Rise, MTV's Push Artist for the month of July, and a Vevo DSCVR artist. She was featured on Billboard's 21 Under 21 One to Watch list. In December 2020, she was the youngest person named by Forbes as one of the Forbes 30 Under 30 in the music category. In the same month, she was named one of Rolling Stones top ten biggest breakthrough artists of 2020. She was also named on TikTok's "The Come Up: Emerging Artists" list as one of the top emerging artists on the platform. She was featured on Harper's Bazaar's "On the Rise" series which spotlights breakout talents. Towards the end of the year, following the success of "You Broke Me First", she signed a worldwide publishing deal with Sony/ATV. McRae was also named by Pandora, The Independent, NME, Amazon Music, and Uproxx as an artist to watch in 2021.

In January 2021, McRae performed "You Broke Me First" on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, making it her fourth live performance of the song. The following day, she released the song "Rubberband" as the third single from her upcoming EP. On March 3, 2021, she released another single called "Slower" and announced her second EP called Too Young to Be Sad, which was released on March 26, 2021, and includes the singles "You Broke Me First", "R U OK", "Rubberband" and "Slower", as well as two additional songs, "Bad Ones" and "Wish I Loved You in the 90s". On that same day, she was named by Apple Music as an Up Next artist. In March 2021, McRae appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! performing "Slower".

In April 2021, McRae inked a deal with CCS Rights Management under their newly launched neighboring rights division. On April 16, 2021 McRae released the track You alongside Regard and Troye Sivan. Jason Lipshutz of Billboard remarked that the track has "one of the most straightforward but delectable choruses of 2021".

Reception
McRae has been described as "the teen dance star turned future pop idol" by i-D, "the new teen queen" by Notion, "Canada's answer to Billie Eilish" by Elle, and "one of pop’s bright young hopes" by The Independent. She has also been noted for her honest lyrics, impressive vocals and relatable music. As of April 2021, her YouTube channel has 3.3 million subscribers and over 500 million views, and she has gained over 1.3 billion combined streams on Spotify.

Personal life
As of early 2020, McRae attended Western Canada High School. She eventually had to revert to online school due to her busy schedule. By January 2021, she had graduated from high school.