The 17-year-old Internet sensation explains to L&rsquo;OFFICIEL why she feels older than her age and how she's coming to understand her own identity.

After joining <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/justin-bieber-style-evolution-songs-baby" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Justin Bieber</a> on stage for his Purpose World Tour as a backup dancer, appearing on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and placing third on So You Think You Can Dance, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/tatemcrae/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tate McRae</a> could have had a full career in a single art form. However, even as a 13-year-old, the creative polymath knew that she also wanted to cultivate her songwriting and singing abilities, as showcased on her <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQh6LB206jF3JxpCDD-fp5Q" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube channel</a>, which now has over 3 million subscribers. But, as she recalls, despite plenty of initial interest in turning her into a pop star, it was difficult to convey her vision to those who saw her simply as one thing.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I would bounce from label to label, and a lot of them told me I had to stop dancing if you want to do this,&rdquo; McRae tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. &ldquo;That was a massive red flag for me.&rdquo;
It&rsquo;s an awareness that's rare in adults let alone a teenager. But McRae, who eventually signed with RCA, says she&rsquo;s always had a strong sense of what she wants. Even now, while we wait out what feels like a forever COVID-19 lockdown, she&rsquo;s learning to balance the time and expectations that come with releasing music. &ldquo;It's non-stop. Because you can do everything in one day, you do it,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It's definitely been a hard process to figure out and nail down being in isolation.&rdquo; If that sounds like a case of being wise beyond her years, know that the singer has heard that tired phrase before.

Photo: Sami Drasin

&ldquo;I've gotten that since I was 11,&rdquo; she laughs. &ldquo;I've just always been that child that spent a lot of time around adults when I was younger...I feel like I am super observant of everything everything around me, and I think that makes me a little wise beyond my years. People say I'm like a 40-year-old in a 17-year-old's body.&rdquo;
As a self-described <a href="https://twitter.com/tatemcrae/status/1364411552258908160">Twitter Grandma</a>, McRae also can&rsquo;t get behind her generation&rsquo;s relationship with social media. From waxing poetic on landlines (&ldquo;You picked up the phone to call someone, and everyone else in your in your house could listen&mdash;that whole idea that is so fascinating!&rdquo;) to the way it&rsquo;s facilitated lazy interactions, she&rsquo;s more interested in maintaining a certain level of privacy than collecting followers. &ldquo;Which is ironic because I'm a public figure,&rdquo; McRae laughs. It&rsquo;s also the reason she&rsquo;s not terribly interested in discussing the meaning behind her songs.&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;The cool thing about writing is that you can write anything you want, and no one ever has to know what you were thinking,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;It's almost that you can't give yourself away, and I think that's just a part of human nature. If you do give yourself away, there's gonna be nothing left for yourself. And I need that for my own sanity sometimes.&rdquo;

Her explorations can run deep&mdash;as was the case with her Billboard charting single, &ldquo;You Broke Me First,&rdquo; a downbeat ballad where McRae addresses an emotionally distant ex, desperate to get back together despite cheating. While the track might have fueled a few rumors, she makes it clear that at 17, she&rsquo;s still got plenty of living to do before writing from her own experiences.&nbsp;
&ldquo;It's funny because everyone always thinks it's about one dude who seriously broke my heart,&rdquo; she explain. &ldquo;But I've never gone through a <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/art/contemporary-art-interview-bunny-rogers-andra-ursuta" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heartbreak</a> before. I feel like at my age, I have to do that a lot. I have to grab from anything I see and experience and put myself in other people's perspectives, because I've only experienced 17 years of life. There's only so much I can grab from of my own! I&rsquo;ll pick up on people's energies and I can read a room, and I can feel every single person and put it on my back.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Tate McRae "You Broke Me First"

Tate McRae - you broke me first (Official Video)

McRae&rsquo;s new single &ldquo;Slower,&rdquo; is another example of the artist&rsquo;s ever-changing approach to music. While the lyrics are likely to resonate with turmoil-filled 17-year-olds (&ldquo;I'm going through changes/It's a roller-coaster/But I might be somebody/You might not even know her&rdquo;), she wrote the song at 14 during one of her first co-writing sessions. It wasn&rsquo;t until it was revived, that the artist realized it still spoke to her.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
&ldquo;I hated it at first,&rdquo; she admits, explaining she rewrote some lyrics and reproduced some of the orchestration. &ldquo;Now it's completely come to life again. I get very defensive on what I want to put out, because I feel like I have a very good grasp on which songs connected with me and will connect with my fans. I really had to have an open mind for this song, because I was really closed off at first, thinking that 14-year-old me didn't know what she was talking about.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Like anyone moving through their teen years, McRae admits that she&rsquo;s changed a lot. She recently graduated from high school, was nominated for a Juno for Breakthrough Artist of the Year, and has even been called Canada&rsquo;s answer to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/music/billie-eilish-book-new-music" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Billie Eilish</a>. (Having worked with Eilish on &ldquo;Tear Myself Apart,&rdquo; she&rsquo;s a fan.) Now she has a new 6-track EP, <a href="https://forms.sonymusicfans.com/campaign/tytbs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Too Young to be Sad,</a> slated to drop tomorrow, which features two brand new songs alongside her singles "You Broke Me First," "Slower," "R U OK," and "Rubberband." But even as the attention to her work grows, creativity continues to be a refuge. That&rsquo;s something that she doesn&rsquo;t see changing.&nbsp;

&ldquo;I don't want to be anyone else when I'm dancing, which is a really really good feeling,&rdquo; McRae says. &ldquo;Dancing has just been such a huge part of my life. Same with music. I would never let go of it just as much as music, even if I'm doing singing more now. I will never let go of it until the day that I die.&rdquo;

How Tate McRae Went From Dancing Queen to Singing Star

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