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Billboard Women in Music 2026 Hitmaker Award recipient, Tate McRae, opens up about her artistic journey, songwriting process, and the raw vulnerability that drives her music. From her roots in Calgary to the global stage, Tate shares what it means to create songs that resonate deeply with listeners. She shares the inspiration behind her hit songs "Greedy," "Tit for Tat," and "Sports Car, " the power of manifestation and how her lyrics shape her reality, collaborating with Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder, and Amy Allen and more!
Transcript
00:00I want people to listen to my music and feel like the best, most elevated version.
00:07That's what I approach in songwriting.
00:09I'm either honing in on my deepest vulnerabilities and insecurities or I'm dreaming as big as I can.
00:23This award means a lot to me.
00:25Obviously my true initial passion for all of this was writing short stories or writing poetry and starting it in
00:34my bedroom and I think creating something of this sort of career from just back in my bedroom back in
00:44Calgary, Alberta is pretty crazy to me to think that I've done so much.
00:49It means the world to me and I think that because I'm such a performer or dancer, I think it's
00:54always nice to be recognized for the creation part of it because that's all of it to me.
00:59For me, a hit song is when all the puzzle pieces come together, when the song feels like the full
01:06story has been told and there's nothing left to say and there's no fine tuning done.
01:11You can feel that in your chest and then the listener can feel that in their chest and the exact,
01:17precise message comes across.
01:19To me, that feels like a hit song.
01:21You just have to think with the most extreme and open mind when you're writing.
01:27I say put it all out on the table when you're in the room.
01:30You don't have to release it.
01:32You don't have to put it out there, but I think that it's all about exhausting your emotions and that's
01:37the most beautiful thing about songwriting is going to the farthest depth of what one person can think.
01:45What's your favorite lyric you've ever written in?
01:47Oh gosh.
01:49I don't know.
01:50Why did my brain go, we can't, uh-uh in it.
01:57I, uh, gosh damn.
02:00Um, I think my favorite lyric, I feel like I've written so many songs now.
02:05I say this all the time, but this is one of my favorite lyrics in one of my songs called
02:09Nostalgia.
02:10It just says, uh, and I manifested you would leave, so the day you did I had you beat.
02:15Three steps ahead of everything.
02:17I manifested you would leave, so the day you did I had you beat.
02:22Three steps ahead of everything.
02:25And I think that was such a perfect way for me to describe being a songwriter and being a manifester.
02:32The power of your tongue and the power of words and how sometimes I can write a song and it
02:37can completely manifest into my reality.
02:39I was proud of that one.
02:40I think for at least me, whenever I think rationally in a writing session, it's the most uninspiring work I
02:48could create.
02:48Because everything's been done before, every key has been played, every word has been used, so I think all you
02:54have is your own unique perspective.
02:56I mean, my brain at least, I can think all day long and every single second and dissect everything about
03:04why we're here.
03:05That's the writing session and talking my feelings out with chords behind me is how I can figure out or
03:14get any sense of what those thoughts mean.
03:16And so I think you always have to try and figure out the farthest place of that.
03:22Honestly, I think a per se Tatiana song is me just writing from the highest version of myself.
03:30Some people, at least when they approach me, they say they feel things in my music.
03:36It makes them feel like the best version of themselves, which to me is a very high compliment because I
03:42want people to listen to my music and feel like the best, most elevated version.
03:49That's what I approach in songwriting.
03:50I'm either honing in on my deepest vulnerabilities and insecurities or I'm dreaming as big as I can.
03:56In a writing session, the energy is so intense with so many creative brains in one room, the producer playing
04:05chords and the energy of Amy or Julia who I'm writing with.
04:09And the flow in the conversation, there's like this energy that you feel like you can literally feel and see
04:14in the room like a smog around you.
04:17And it's up to you to decipher and figure out what you want that to feel like.
04:21It can make you feel like unstoppable.
04:24If you write a specific song, which is so cool.
04:28It's so incredible working with Julia and Tedder and Amy.
04:31I just find them very inspiring.
04:33And I feel so lucky as a 22-year-old to be able to just learn from them like sisters
04:38as well and gather knowledge from their brains on how they create and how they've lived their lives.
04:44And yeah, for sure, I'm going to work with them again.
04:46I love them as collaborators.
04:48I'm definitely in the creative process of starting whatever the hell is coming next.
04:54It definitely feels like the beginning.
04:56Right now I'm looking at a blank page being like, where do I take this?
04:59So much is inspiring me right now.
05:01Life in general, I feel so inspired just by my surroundings.
05:07Romanticizing life a little bit and reading lots of books, not having social media on my phone, and seeing friends,
05:18talking, conversations, good music.
05:20I've been listening to the Cocteau Twins, which are such a cool sound that I've been narrating my Paris trip.
05:29And so many cool bands that I feel like I'm learning about.
05:32I write on tour all the time, especially in Europe this year, just journaling a lot and writing in my
05:38diary, writing poetry.
05:39Obviously being around such incredible architecture and nature just brings a different energy to the music.
05:46And so a lot of my deluxe songs were actually started.
05:49Like one was in Italy, the one line, I knew I must have dropped my diary in the pool for
05:53a reason, erased your every line,
05:55was literally me at a pool in Italy and I fully dropped like my nicest diary.
06:00I was devastated and every single love poem I had written was completely blurred out and destroyed.
06:07And I thought that was a really sad but interesting metaphor for what I was going through.
06:13I had a very specific vision.
06:15I remember being like, I want Sean Bankhead.
06:18I want to be a pop star.
06:21I want to write over this tempo BPM.
06:25I want to do it in a hockey rink.
06:27I want this to be the aesthetic.
06:28I just had such a clear idea and vision of where I was going.
06:32All those performances, like I did the Billboard Music Awards and that was my first Grady performance,
06:38the idea of the security guards in front of me and splitting them open in the bedazzled blue,
06:43like I could see it all in my brain.
06:44And so all it was was collecting the right people around me to make it become a reality.
06:49I think sometimes you get signs and messages on where you're supposed to go in life
06:53and you ignore it and you ignore it.
06:54And then finally, it becomes the most piercing feeling in your gut and you wake up and you're like,
07:00all right, no more time to waste.
07:02I know exactly how I need to execute this.
07:05And luckily my collaborators, Ryan and Amy and Grant and my choreographers and creative directors,
07:11it all came to life.
07:12But I think that you definitely have to put your foot down sometimes and be like,
07:17all right, enough with everybody else's opinions.
07:19This is how I see this going.
07:21But I honestly think every single time you start to create a project or even think you got anything figured
07:29out,
07:29you kind of get slapped in the face with, oh, you have so much to learn and there's so much
07:35to still figure out.
07:37And at 22, sometimes I feel like I can wake up one morning and feel so wise and feel like
07:43I know exactly who I am.
07:45And the next morning I can wake up and have a full existential crisis of why I'm here.
07:49And so I think that it is a lot of back and forth and so much overanalyzing and observing and
07:56starting from scratch over and over again.
07:59I always go into the studio with a lot of reference images, so many playlists, so many sounds and sonics
08:07to give to the producers.
08:08You never know where you're going to veer after that.
08:11But I think having a baseline of what your initial vision is is very important.
08:17But that's what helps me find clarity before I start writing is what world am I starting to build
08:23and what kind of person do I want to feel like walking into the studio.
08:27I've been training in dance since I was seven years old.
08:31That has been really interesting, being able to incorporate that into my life as a singer
08:37because it's muscle memory to me.
08:39And those 40-hour weeks that I had for 10 years are sticking with me now
08:45and are really supporting my performances and my work ethic now.
08:55Tip for Tap to me was such a faded experience.
08:59I was just so highly sensitive and emotional over tour this year.
09:04Didn't have social media on my phone.
09:06Felt like I was just frolicking around Europe, writing in my diary and being a really emotional cancer.
09:15That's all I can describe it and I think when Tip for Tap came along it was one of those
09:20moments
09:21where I hadn't written in a really long time and it was right in the middle of tour
09:24and it was just fully pure honest expression and then I dropped it two weeks later.
09:30Whether that's a breakup or a relationship or whatever's happening,
09:34I hope that's how I continue to write throughout this year,
09:38finding sparks of inspiration and writing as freely as that.
09:41I was really surprised by the reaction of Tip for Tat when it first came out.
09:47I always think things are going to be much smaller than they are
09:51or never think that people are going to react to anything.
09:55I'll always assume that two people are going to know what I'm doing and be grateful for that.
10:00When Tip for Tat dropped, I wasn't even thinking about the perception of how people were going to receive that
10:06song
10:06and I think it really helped people through some breakups and some hard situations
10:11and that's all I can ask for.
10:14I would say Greedy was a very meaningful song to me.
10:23When I think back to that phase of my life, I was so lost.
10:27I was 19, this big singing career felt so daunting to me.
10:31This was one of the first times where I had pure clarity and direction on where I wanted to go
10:36visually and sonically.
10:39When that song came about, it felt so aligned with me at that time.
10:43It felt like such a shift in a new chapter.
10:45So Greedy's really special to me.
10:47And then I would say Sports Car is one of my favorite songs of mine.
10:50It was such a swing and such a fun song to write.
10:53We wrote it so fast and it came out so quickly.
10:56I still adore that song.
10:58I think it's so fun to perform live.
11:00The music industry right now is just booming with incredible women.
11:04It's not hard to find inspiration in today's music.
11:08Right now especially, I feel like everyone's perspective is incredibly unique.
11:13There's nothing that feels the same to me is really inspiring
11:16and also makes me want to go into the studio and find out more about myself
11:21and honestly at the end of the day just figure out who I am and what my identity is
11:25for my own satisfaction as a human being
11:28because that's the whole purpose to just figure out who you are
11:31and why you want to live this life and writing is such a beautiful way to find that out.
11:35I mean I love Olivia Dean right now.
11:37I love Sabrina, Gracie, Olivia.
11:40I'm so excited for her to drop music again.
11:42She's an unbelievable songwriter.
11:44What I admire most is how truthful she is.
11:46This industry can be really hard to navigate
11:49and all of us have insecurities and feelings
11:52and she never fears brutal honesty
11:57or laying out all of her insecurities or feelings on the table
12:01which I think is so admirable.
12:02She's like that as a friend too, just like the most open, honest person
12:06and I think that that's beautiful.
12:08Dream collaborators right now I think would be Lana Del Rey.
12:13I always look to Rihanna and think she's got the best career ever
12:19and she's just the coolest woman alive.
12:22I'm just constantly trying to make art that feels somewhat timeless
12:25and performances that feel like they can, you know,
12:30eventually stand up beside my favorite performances
12:33and that's the goal at the end of the day is right now
12:36I'm just trying to make the best possible work
12:39and I don't know what direction that's going to be in.
12:42I don't even know if fans will be able to expect it or not expect it
12:46but for me it's a personal goal
12:49of just trying to beat out everything I've once done.
12:51I don't know.
12:54I don't know.
13:00You
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