“It’s slippery here, like an ice skating rink!” Tate McRae shouts from the stage of the Afas Live in Amsterdam. A slippery stage is not convenient for most artists, but certainly not for her: the twenty-year-old Canadian singer is known for her impressive dance moves. Fortunately, Tate can laugh about it: “I go on record at least once every show.”
McRae had already collected millions of streams with emotional pop ballads such as ‘You Broke Me First’ (2020) and ‘Chaotic’ (2022), but it was the up-tempo dance song ‘Greedy’ that provided the real breakthrough last year. It gave her a bigger audience than ever: the packed Afas Live is her biggest headline show to date.
Since childhood, McRae has been toiling in dance studios, and you can see that in the music video for ‘Greedy’: in an ice hockey stadium (with an ice rink, indeed) McRae shows her supple moves in different sporty outfits, her long blonde hair whipping around. She also shows these movements in Afas Live, of course: opening song ‘Think Later’, a kind of 2024 version of ‘Bad Girls’ (2012) by MIA, is immediately accompanied by a powerful choreography. McRae is often compared to Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, and that is mainly due to her dancing style: first fast, then slow, flowing movements that come to a halt in sexy poses, and yes, lots of swaying hair.
Sporty Spice
The girls in the audience – mainly teenagers between the ages of 16 and 20 – react in exactly the right way: with enthusiastic screams and an instinctive movement to grab the phone to capture the moment. Many girls dressed à la Tate: in sweatpants or football jersey, but with large earrings or a vintage handbag. Sporty Spice would be proud.
“Sad girl bit got a little boring,” McRae sings on “Cut My Hair,” the opening track of her latest album Think Later (2023). On that album she takes a step away from the emotional heartbreak ballads with which she started her career as a teenager, and towards a more confident, more danceable sound. In Afas Live she visibly enjoys the moments when she can really be a pop star; together with her dancers she is completely absorbed in the choreography. Still, her fans are far from done with the ‘sad girl bit‘. It is precisely the emotional songs that elicit the biggest response. With the first notes of ‘Feel Like Shit’ (2022) you feel the collective blood pressure rising: this is my song!
McRae sings her ballads with passion, sometimes with her eyes closed or an emphatic hand gesture, but without choreography or dancers. She can also easily command the stage on her own; she has a natural stage presence and a lot of charisma. Her voice also has something Britneyesque: a little pinched, sometimes sighing or whispering.
The ratio between ballads and uptempo songs is approximately fifty-fifty; understandable, given the enthusiasm with which the slow songs are always received. Still, a few more of those dance songs would be welcome. Especially in that one dance breaks Tate McRae is the most magnetic. There she shows what makes her unique as a pop diva in the making.
To share
Email the editor
