Tate McRae has dropped a new single, “Sports Car,” along with a music video for the track. The sultry song was written and produced by Ryan Tedder, Grant Boutin, and Julia Michaels.
The video, directed by Bardia Zeinali and styled by Brett Alan Nelson, sees the singer posing in various fashion-forward ensembles as she performs the song. “There was so much discomfort with this video,” McRae told Vogue about creating the clip. “I wore wigs for the first time, which was a risk for me because I’ve always had my hair and my look. But Bardia and Brett, for this video, pushed me in a scary direction. I think I got to show so many characters that I didn’t even know existed.”
She added of the track itself, “This was such a fun song to write. I wrote it with Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder, and Grant and we wanted to kind of capture the adrenaline of love, sex, and the excitement of it all. I felt like a sports car reminded me of that feeling of love, and like you are right in the middle of it. We referenced the Ying Yang twins with the whisper chorus and it ended up being really fun.”
“Sports Car” will appear on McRae’s upcoming third LP, So Close To What, out Feb. 21 via RCA Records. The album is a follow-up to her 2023 effort, Think Later, which spawned two massive hits for the Canadian pop star, “Greedy” and “Exes.”
“With this album, there’s a lot of experimenting,” McRae told Vogue. “It’s way more daring lyrically and musically than anything I’ve ever put out before. I feel like it was such an exciting thing for me to do, to be able to sit in the chair in the opening and be the watcher. Being in my position, I’m opening the doors for everyone to judge and watch me and put out their opinion of me. This video felt like I was taking back control and owning it, because this time I get to judge myself and see the different sides of me first. You can do it later, but I get to do it first.”
McRae will kick off her 50-date Miss Possessive Tour with a headlining gig at Mexico City’s Pepsi Centre in March. The trek will span North America, South America, Europe, and the U.K., with a few festival spots along the way. Zara Larsson will open for McRae in the Americas, while Benee will join her for Europe and the U.K.
