Music

Review: St. Paul concert suggests Tate McRae could be the next J. Lo or Britney Spears

The summer’s hot pop star dazzled with her dancing, not her voice.

By Jon Bream

The Minnesota Star Tribune

August 14, 2025 at 4:43AM

Tate McRae encourages fans to sing along Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center. (Jon Bream)

It seems to happen every year when school’s out: A pop star totally dominates the conversation, playlists and social feeds of every young woman.

Two years ago, it was Taylor Swift and the Eras Tour. In 2024, it was the Summer of Sabrina (as in Carpenter) and/or the Brat Summer, courtesy of Charli XCX. Both stars were having a moment.

This year, it’s Tatey’s Time. Tate McRae is the pop darling du jour.

McRae is all over hit radio right now, from tunes like “Revolving Door” and “It’s OK I’m OK” to Morgan Wallen’s former No. 1 hit “What I Want,” featuring McRae.

KDWB DJs have been breathlessly hyping her sold-out concert Wednesday in St. Paul, promising ticket giveaways. She’s the talk of the summer (though Taylor Swift was a distraction this week after announcing that her 12th album, “The Life of a Showgirl,” will drop on Oct. 3).

“Tater Tots” — the nickname of McRae’s fan base — showed up and showed out at Xcel Energy Center in mini-shorts and micro-skirts with numerous “T8” football and hockey jerseys (McRae is Canadian, from Calgary, home of the NHL’s Flames).

We’re convinced that Charli XCX and Carpenter, who has a new album coming on Aug. 29, will be more than one-big-album wonders. Both presented triumphant concerts in the Twin Cities in the past year.

But what’s McRae’s future? The proof is partly in her ability to produce in concert.

It was hard to tell Wednesday if McRae is going to be the next Britney Spears or the next Jennifer Lopez. She’s definitely not the next Sabrina or Charli, even though the 15,000 Tater Tots embraced her like she was.

Like Spears and J. Lo, McRae, who turned 22 last month, is a better dancer than singer. In fact, she’s a terrific dancer. Physical, expressive with articulate movements big and small, the shake of a shoulder, the twitch of an arm, the subtle roll of her hips, the glam strut of a runway model. More nuanced than Janet Jackson, more artful than Dua Lipa, sexier than Madonna, the OG of dancers-turned-singers.

Ultimately, though, it came back to Britney and J. Lo.

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Evoked Britney because:

McRae’s voice is breathy and girlish, with a propensity for elongated vowels in her phrasing. On recordings, her voice is often technically manipulated like Spears.’ McRae at least seemed to be singing live on some of the tunes — but not all — on Wednesday, notably on the belted “Siren Sounds”; can’t say that happened in Spears’ arena and Vegas shows.
McRae favors outfits that show a lot of skin, and she loves provocative poses, especially in her videos. Well, she did don a gown Wednesday for a short set of ballads on a satellite stage.
She has mastered the hair flip. That gesture worked for a couple of other Canadians — Celine Dion and Shania Twain — back in the day.

Evoked J. Lo because:

McRae is a seriously trained dancer. She started classes at age 6, attended the School of Alberta Ballet, won national youth dance competitions in 2013 and ’15 and competed on TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance” in ’16. Since 2011, she has had a YouTube channel of her dance and music videos.
On Wednesday, McRae surrounded herself with eight dancers doing challenging choreography on scaffolding, runways, chairs and other platforms. Despite a Spartan stage with only two musicians and plenty of pyro, the show was so flashy, energetic and visually arresting that sometimes you forgot she was singing. Or rather lip-synching. And she even went for a stripper pole in “Uh Oh.” In any case, this performance oozed a joie de la danse.
Like J. Lo’s, McRae’s singing voice is not distinctive, and her material is generic — though an arena full of young women, mostly under the age of 30, were screaming along even to tunes McRae posted on YouTube when she was 13.
Like Jenny from the Block, L.A.-based McRae has mastered the hair flip of her honey-hued mane, as mentioned. Swift and Beyoncé certainly perfected that flirty move. But McRae shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence as those mega-icons.
Like J. Lo, McRae has entered the TMZ zone. While Lopez has exited her high-profile marriage to Ben Affleck, McRae split just three weeks ago with Kid Laroi, the Australian singer/rapper whom she’d been dating for about a year. They did manage to record a duet together, “I Know Love.” Oddly, it was broadcast Wednesday after the encore as fans exited. For the record, his new single, “Hot Girl Problems,” was not broadcast between sets by McRae and opening act, Swedish electro-pop singer Zara Larsson, who captured the crowd with “Never Forget You” and “Symphony.”
By the way, Tater Tots don’t call her T. Mac, but rather Tatey or Taters or simply T8.

McRae’s Miss Possessive Tour show was divided into four segments (with an outfit change for each), embracing material from her three albums as well as her new single from the “F1” film soundtrack, “Just Keep Watching.”

Highlights of her performance included her 2020 breakthrough ballad “You Broke Me First,” 2023’s vibrant “Exes,” the current dizzying “Revolving Door” and the self-empowering “Blood on My Hands,” during which McRae and her dancers jumped into the pit in front of the stage and posed for selfies while miming blowing blood off their hands.

After 22 songs and countless hair flips in 95 minutes, the confetti-showered fans left Xcel Energy Center buzzing about Tatey as much as about the night’s monumental announcement of a new album by Tay Tay.

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about the writer

Jon Bream

Critic / Reporter

Jon Bream has been a music critic at the Star Tribune since 1975, making him the longest tenured pop critic at a U.S. daily newspaper. He has attended more than 8,000 concerts and written four books (on Prince, Led Zeppelin, Neil Diamond and Bob Dylan). Thus far, he has ignored readers’ suggestions that he take a music-appreciation class.