Tate McRae is all we wanna be with her new single, 'She's All I Wanna Be'

18-year-old Canadian Tate McRae's career took off in 2019 and has gone from strength to strength ever since.

From writing the title track of her first EP with the sibling superpower that is Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell to her placement as the youngest member of the 2021 Forbes' '30 under 30' music section, Tate has been carving a name for herself.

Tate hit the mainstream with her mid-lockdown release, 'You Broke Me First'.

This new track taps into musical nostalgia, with reference to 80s electronic and dance music, something that has been dominating the chart for the past couple of years and has been providing inspiration for many of the industry's big names. The Weeknd has been hitting listeners with powerful synths on hits such as 'Blinding Lights', giving the sort of sound that would have your dad getting out his A-ha CDs and reminiscing on his youth. One of pop’s leading ladies, Dua Lipa, has also chimed into this with her recent record 'Future Nostalgia' and Tate's track has a similar sound to Dua’s 2020 release 'Physical', feeling like it’s come straight out of a Flashdance style class combined with a good dose of punk-rock. 

The video is a testament to Tate's multifaceted talent, with a dance audition being the main focus; this also further gives listeners the feeling of the 80's dance reference. 

The video sees Tate competing against several other dancers, but mainly in a personal face-off with one specific girl. The visuals connect well with the lyrical narrative of the song, describing a girl who’s been gaslit and is now expressing her grievances. The verses start with a dose of self-doubt "You want the girl with the small waist / And the perfect smile", and progress to the partner's ‘reassurance’ that is teeming with toxicity "You tell me I shouldn't stress out / Say it's not that hard", but this doesn't quite get past Tate.

The chorus then has a mix of awareness towards the partner's inadequacy, but also sees the effects of the gaslighting. The lyrics "She's got everything that I don't have / How could I ever compete with that?" indicate Tate’s paranoid rationale, predicting that her partner will become bored with her and eventually move on.

The song gives a series of events that will have listeners collectively wanting to find the protagonist or, as Tate perfectly puts it, the “stupid boy”, and give him a piece of their minds screaming the chorus lines "Stupid boy makin' me so sad".

This track is definitely one to put in the playlist to get out the Flashdance moves for a kitchen performance.  

  Francesca Riley

@frankieariley

Image: 'She’s All I Wanna Be' Official Single Cover