{"id":403679,"date":"2026-04-17T16:33:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403679\/"},"modified":"2026-04-17T16:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T16:33:11","slug":"most-meaningful-songs-women-in-music-dream-collaborators","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/403679\/","title":{"rendered":"Most Meaningful Songs, Women in Music, Dream Collaborators"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tBefore there was Tate McRae<\/a>, ultra-polished pop performer, there was Tate McRae, preteen from Calgary, Alberta, writing songs at home and uploading them to YouTube.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd while McRae\u2019s high-caliber, intricately choreographed performances and visually striking, maximalist music videos have arguably become the focal points of her public image today (manifesting in a fierce alter ego she calls Tatiana), it\u2019s her other side that Billboard is honoring as this year\u2019s Women in Music Hitmaker \u2014 the one who used to take solace in crafting lyrics to sing not in front of more than 10,000 screaming fans but alone in her bedroom. The 22-year-old\u2019s underappreciated pen is just as lethal as her performance capabilities. After a modest debut in the familiar lane of Gen\u00a0Z pop melancholia \u2014 making her first Billboard Hot\u00a0100<\/a> appearance in 2020 with \u201cYou Broke Me First\u201d \u2014 McRae enlisted fellow hit-makers Ryan Tedder and Amy Allen to help craft pristine, radio-\u00adfriendly pop bangers that she could actually move to, tapping into her upbringing as a competitive dancer onstage and channeling past pop icons such as Britney Spears (to whom she\u2019s now \u00adfrequently compared).<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTate was dedicated and disciplined to become the absolute best,\u201d recalls renowned choreographer Sean Bankhead (Lil Nas\u00a0X, Victoria Mon\u00e9t, Normani), whom McRae tapped specifically to help with her transformation, of first meeting her. \u201cI have always wanted to mold the next big pop girlie who could not just write amazing songs and sing them live but of course command every stage she stepped foot on. And with Tate we accomplished that in a very quick two years.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\tWatch Billboard\u2019s Women in Music 2026 live on YouTube.com\/Billboard and Billboard.com on April 29, beginning at 9:30 p.m. ET\/6:30 p.m. PT. For more coverage on Women in Music, click here<\/a>.\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWith her 2023 breakthrough, Think Later, and its 2025 follow-up, the Billboard\u00a0200<\/a>-topping So Close to What, McRae became a chart regular, as songs like \u201cGreedy,\u201d \u201cIt\u2019s Ok I\u2019m Ok\u201d and her post-The Kid LAROI breakup anthem \u201cTit for Tat\u201d all landed in the top\u00a020 of the Hot\u00a0100. Last May, her Morgan Wallen collaboration \u201cWhat I Want\u201d became her first Hot\u00a0100 No.\u00a01, and despite swerving from her now-signature pop sound, the team-up didn\u2019t feel \u201cout of the ordinary\u201d for McRae. \u201cI used to write to only guitar in the studio, so it felt natural,\u201d she tells Billboard matter-of-factly.<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, on a drizzly Friday afternoon in February, she\u2019s somewhere in between the two aforementioned Tates \u2014 still in full glam from the photo shoot she just wrapped as stylists flutter around her but also chatting freely about her burgeoning love for Jersey City (near where rumored boyfriend Jack Hughes of the NHL\u2019s New Jersey Devils and the Olympic gold medal-\u00adwinning U.S. hockey team is based) and whether there\u2019s still time to enjoy her favorite weather here in New York, where she now lives. \u201cIs it still raining?\u201d she asks hopefully, craning her neck to see. \u201cI love the rain!\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tate<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tWolford bodysuit and tights.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Hazzan<\/p>\n

\n\tWith fame has come noisier online speculation about her politics and personal life \u2014 and she\u2019s spoken in the past about her complicated feelings, post-proverbial \u201crebrand,\u201d around the public\u2019s way of sexualizing young female pop stars. But she says she\u2019s combated this by ditching social media and \u201cromanticizing\u201d her real life instead. And with her $110.8\u00a0million-grossing (according to Billboard Boxscore) Miss Possessive arena tour in the books since November, she confirms she\u2019s back in the studio, feeling inspired by everything from her recent travels to Paris to her newfound obsession with Scottish dream-pop legends Cocteau Twins. (She\u2019ll return to the road this summer, with headlining turns at Montreal\u2019s Osheaga and Chicago\u2019s Lollapalooza.)<\/p>\n

\n\tShe has no idea where her writing will take her next \u2014 but that\u2019s perfectly OK with her. \u201cI\u2019m just constantly trying to make art that feels somewhat timeless and [give] performances that feel like they can eventually stand up beside my favorite performances,\u201d McRae says with a shrug.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt definitely feels like the beginning,\u201d she adds. \u201cI feel like right now I\u2019m looking at a blank page being like, \u2018Where do I take this?\u2019\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow would you define a hit song?<\/p>\n

\n\tYou have to think with the most extreme and open mind when you\u2019re writing\u00a0\u2026 [otherwise] it\u2019s the most uninspiring work. Everything\u2019s been done before \u2014 every key has been played, every word has been used. All you have is your own unique perspective.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tate<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tTate McRae photographed on February 20, 2026 in New York.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Hazzan<\/p>\n

\n\tWhich of your hits have been the most meaningful?<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cSports Car\u201d is one of my favorite songs of mine. It was such a swing and such a fun song to write.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cGreedy\u201d was a very meaningful song to me. When I think back to that phase of my life, I was so lost. I was 19, and this big singing career felt so daunting to me, and it felt like this was one of the first times where I had pure clarity and direction on where I wanted to go visually and sonically.<\/p>\n

\n\tWho\u2019s your dream collaborator?<\/p>\n

\n\tLana Del Rey. I listen to Lana 24\/7 \u2014 I\u2019m just the biggest fan.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhich other women in the industry do you admire?<\/p>\n

\n\tI love Olivia Dean, Sabrina [Carpenter], Gracie [Abrams]. Olivia [Rodrigo] \u2014 I\u2019m so excited for her to drop music again. She\u2019s an unbelievable songwriter. She never fears brutal honesty or laying out all her insecurities or feelings on the table. She\u2019s like that as a friend too, just the most open, honest person.<\/p>\n

\n\tI always look to Rihanna and think she\u2019s got the best career ever. She\u2019s just the coolest woman alive.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeople love to talk about your \u201crebrand,\u201d but what steps did you take to become the performer you are today?<\/p>\n

\n\tI had a very specific vision. I remember being like, \u201cI want to be a pop star. I want Sean Bankhead. I want to write over this tempo. I want to do it in a hockey rink. I want this to be the aesthetic.\u201d I could see it all in my brain.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt was about collecting the right people around me to make it a reality. Sometimes you get signs and messages on where you\u2019re supposed to go in life, and you ignore it. And then finally, it becomes the most piercing feeling in your gut, and you wake up and you\u2019re like, \u201cAll right. No more time to waste.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tate<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Hazzan<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Tate<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tHeather Hazzan<\/p>\n

\n\tAre there ways in which you\u2019ve felt misunderstood by the public?<\/p>\n

\n\tSo many different ways. As a woman, you just have to understand that you\u2019re constantly going to be under a microscope, and sometimes that\u2019s a really scary and overwhelming feeling. But on the optimistic side of that, with scrutiny and opinions and people\u2019s perceptions of you, it just leads to a lot of growth and doubling down on who you are.<\/p>\n

\n\tI could say that people\u2019s comments don\u2019t affect me, but of course they do. I\u2019m a girl. I have emotions and feelings and insecurities. It sucks to have people commenting on your body or commenting on who you are or having perceptions that are completely off.<\/p>\n

\n\tBut for me, I\u2019m just here to make art. Trying to explain yourself is a game that I can never win.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis story appears in the April 18, 2026, issue of Billboard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before there was Tate McRae, ultra-polished pop performer, there was Tate McRae, preteen from Calgary, Alberta, writing songs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403680,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[93,821,61,60,709,278,176589],"class_list":{"0":"post-403679","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-genre-pop","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-magazine","13":"tag-music","14":"tag-women-in-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403679"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403679\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}