After going viral in the pandemic with bruised ballad You Broke Me First, 21-year-old Canadian YouTuber and professional dancer turned pop superstar Tate McRae has shifted through the gears at lightning speed. Her last two albums, 2023’s Think Later and February’s So Close to What, have produced a litany of trap-pop smashes slathered in Y2K influences, all paired with videos that throw back to a bygone era ruled by the choreographed precision of peak Britney.
On her first arena tour, McRae is keen to show how much work that’s taken. During a lengthy ballad section on a small B-stage she introduces three older songs, some written when she was 13, with the weariness of a veteran, while 2022’s piano-led Chaotic is about having a “midlife crisis at 17”. Work is even part of the show’s backdrop. Flanked by two giant yellow “Tate”-emblazoned cranes, and with part of the stage raised on steel girders, it feels as if McRae and her eight back-up dancers are breaking several regulations on a building site – you half expect a foreman to show up and question the suitability of McRae’s heeled boots.
A natural performer, McRae is in her happy place when she locks into elaborate choreography, relishing the dance break that anchors sugary recent single 2 Hands, or utilising pop’s best prop, the chair, for the elastic, Pussycat Dolls-esque Sports Car. The climax of trap-adjacent kiss-off Exes, meanwhile, is McRae – resplendent in a leopard print leotard and matching flat cap – jumping into the splits, a move that elicits both cheers and gasps from the hopped-up, mainly female crowd.
The sheer amount of massed dancing, however, means McRae isn’t always the show’s main focus. Her charisma is showcased better when things get looser, as on the sugary new wave strut of She’s All I Wanna Be, which has her skipping around the stage by herself. The atmospheric midtempo Siren Sounds is another solo highlight, McRae projecting its emotional and blown-out chorus to the rafters.
Slick, professional and clearly a fan of overtime, McRae’s work rate is second to none. But while the results are impressive, she’s still learning to make it all look effortless.
