18-year-old Canadian singer Tate McRae is a force to be reckoned with. Performing at Austin City Limits Music Festival on both weekends, the young star dominated the stage with dance breaks and strong vocals—doing her famed leg tilt to kick off the set.
Racking up over 20 million monthly listeners on Spotify, McRae has released her newest single ‘that way’ featuring Jeremy Zucker this past September. With artist inspiration stemming from Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, and Post Malone, McRae will join the stage with Shawn Mendes during his tour as the opener in 2022.
_Flaunt_ caught up with McRae after her performance.
**How were you feeling before your set?**
I was super excited. I've never been to Austin before… honestly you just never know what the crowd’s gonna be like when you first walk into a place. I didn't expect it to be as hot it was, but it was it was pretty sick.
**You have a dancing background. When did you get into dancing?**
I started dancing when I was six. My mom was my dance teacher. I competed for like 10 years. It was really intense training, like 40 hours a week, and then I switched to singing.
**What do you enjoy most about performing?**
Usually it's just looking at the audience and when they sing back lyrics, it's like the most validating feeling as an artist. I just never experienced that before, and so now I'm doing these run of festivals and it's like the weirdest high ever.
**The Ladybird stage is known to host some of the biggest acts on the lineup. How does that make you feel?**
I didn't realize how big the stage was going to be. Because there were so many people and the stage was so huge, I was like ‘I don't really know what's going on right now.’ I kept on trying to run from side to side of this. I'm like ‘I'm dying.’
**How do you manage such great voice control when doing intense choreography while performing?**
I feel like it's gradually getting better per show. But my first show, I was like ‘this is the most exhausting thing I've ever experienced.’ Because as a dancer, you have to do it all in your lungs. Then as a singer, you have to do it in your stomach, but it's like stuck in your stomach because the dance…There's no possible way to get air unless you just do it a whole bunch of times.
**Where do you get song inspiration from?**
Everything is pulled from real experiences. I feel like this is the thing…I won't talk about stuff with people. I'm just very closed off in that way with my deepest feelings. So when I end up writing everything down, the whole world knows what's going on in my life, but like, you know, my feeling like everyone knows everything that's going on.
**Thoughts on opening for Shawn Mendes on tour next year?**
I'm so excited. I'm such a huge fan of him. He's the sweetest human being ever and honestly, performing in arenas is gonna be just the wildest. It feels like a bit of a dream. I don't even believe that it's happening. So many people. I feel very, very lucky.
**What are you most excited about for tour?**
I was writing with Charlie Puth the other day and basically, he was showing me videos because he opened up for Shawn…he was showing me videos of the arena and him singing ‘See You Again’ with all the lights and like, every single human being in the crowd, and I just got all giddy and excited because I'm like, I can't believe that's actually gonna happen. It's so exciting.
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