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Pop star Tate McRae is facing heat after publicly endorsing Team USA in the 2026 Winter Olympics.
McRae, a Canadian native, took to Instagram on Wednesday and appeared in an NBC ad for the Milan Cortina Olympics, in which she expressed support for Team USA.
“I’m trying to get to Milan for an amazing opening ceremony and meet Team USA. Gonna spend the week with some of America’s best skating for gold and Lindsey Vonn’s epic comeback. And back to the states for the big game, Super Bowl LX,” she said in the commercial.
Tate McRae faced backlash after participating in a 2026 Winter Olympics commercial. (Aeon/GC Images)
Her post was filled with thousands of comments, some calling her a “traitor” to her country, which sparked her to address those comments on her Instagram story.
CANADIAN-BORN SINGER TATE MCRAE SPARKS FURY AFTER BACKING TEAM USA IN OLYMPICS AD: ‘TRAITOR’
McRae, 22, posted a childhood photo of herself holding a Canadian flag.
“… y’all know I’m Canada down,” she wrote, simply addressing the backlash.
Tate McRae defended her Canadian roots after endorsing Team USA for the 2026 Winter Olympics. (Tate McRae/Instagram)
Below is everything to know about the Canadian-born pop star that is wildly popular among Gen Z.
“… y’all know I’m Canada down.”
Dance roots
McRae began her dancing career at 4-years-old. Her mother, who was a dance teacher, began training her at a very young age.
When she was 6, her father bought her a piano, and shortly after, she began taking singing lessons and writing her own songs.
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“I realized that poetry is the same thing as music,” she told TIME Magazine in 2025 in September.
Her father, who is an oil and gas attorney, then moved their family to Oman — a small country in the Middle East — for three years before they returned to her home of Calgary — a city within Alberta, Canada.
At 8, McRae enrolled in the School of Alberta Ballet.
“We were a very competitive family. My brother played hockey. My dad was watching my brother’s hockey games [while] my mom was watching me in the studio,” she told TIME.
Tate McRae and Emma Hellenkamp performing on “So You Think You Can Dance.” (FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
She went on to explain that she was bullied at school, which led to homeschooling starting in middle school, and dance quickly became her escape.
“[Dancing] was almost like a shield. I could go into the studio and block everything out. That was my one thing that I knew I was good at, and I knew I could feel safe,” McRae said.
Big break
In 2011, McRae created a YouTube account and started uploading videos of herself dancing.
McRae’s big break came after she competed on FOX’s “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2016 when she was 12.
Tate McRae competed on “So You Think You Can Dance” when she was 12. (FOX Image Collection via Getty Images)
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McRae placed 13th on the competition show, but earned praise from Judge Paula Abdul.
“I wish there was a word that would describe how much you touched me. That was perfection, and I mean that,” Abdul told McRae at the time, according to TIME.
In 2017, McRae went back to her YouTube roots and uploaded a video of herself singing an original ballad. The video went viral and McRae independently released her song — “One Day.”
Record label
In 2019, McRae signed to RCA Records and released one of her first pop songs — “Tear Myself Apart,” which was co-written by Billie Eilish.
Tate McRae signed to a record label in 2019. (Getty Images)
She then released “All My Friends Are Fake,” and “Stupid” before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
During that time, she released her song, “You Broke Me First,” which went viral on TikTok.
McRae hit the road in 2025 with her Miss Possessive Tour, which debuted in March and concluded in November. The tour consisted of 83 shows and marked her first arena tour.
LA transplant
In 2021, McRae left Canada behind and moved to Los Angeles.
McRae told TIME that she had a hard time transitioning to life in California as a professional singer.
Tate McRae moved to Los Angeles in 2021. (Jesse Grant/Variety via Getty Images)
“When I first got [to L.A.], I was juggling through so many different personalities. I had no idea what I wanted, no idea who was guiding me in the right direction [or] the wrong direction,” she said.
In January, McRae sat down for an interview with Rolling Stone Magazine and shared her favorite part about living in LA is driving at dusk with the windows down listening to music.
“I’m such a sucker for nighttimes on the beach. The moon and the water… it’s so water sign of me,” McRae said.
Ditching LA for NYC
During her same interview with Rolling Stone Magazine, McRae said she left Los Angeles for New York City in 2025 to enter a “new era.”
Tate McRae at the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards in LA. (Gilbert Flores/Billboard via Getty Images)
“For 22, New York is my vibe,” she began. “I just feel more alive there. I feel creatively inspired. I feel like I’ll actually leave my house. In LA, I feel like I’m just a hermit and don’t move. So it’s really refreshing and a good new era.”
McRae and Kid LAROI split
McRae was in her biggest public relationship with fellow musician, Kid LAROI.
Paparazzi first spotted McRae and LAROI, whose real name is Charlton Kenneth Jeffrey Howard, in Jan. 2024.
Tate McRae and Kid LAROI dated for about a year. (Getty Images)
The couple was first spotted showing PDA at a NHL All-Star Game in Toronto in Feb. 2024. McRae and LAROI went Instagram official in July 2024, but the pair ended their relationship roughly a year later.
In September, McRae released her hit song, “Tit For That,” which fans viewed as a diss-track to her ex.
The Grammy-nominated singer told Rolling Stone that “it was really scary and overwhelming” recording and releasing that song.
“I would never talk that way, even about my friends’ lives. I didn’t realize how much it would affect me, the public knowing my private life—because no one knows the full story of anything, ever. I also hate people painting a situation that’s worse than it is,” she told the outlet in December.
Tate McRae attended the 2024 MTV Video Music Awards. (Gotham/WireImage)
She’s aware that as an artist, it is normal to process her emotions through her work.
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“What I’ve had to realize is that he’s going to write songs, and I’m going to write songs, and that’s our way of expressing ourselves. That’s our art, that’s our job. And once it’s out there, it’s not mine anymore,” McRae said.
Tate + an Olympian
McRae and New Jersey Devils hockey star, Jack Hughes, have been rumored to be dating over the past several months.
They were first spotted out in New York City together on Dec. 22, the day after she was seen attending the hockey center’s game.
Jack Hughes is rumored to be dating Tate McRae. (Getty Images)
Deuxmoi showed pictures of McRae and Hughes dining at Anton’s in the West Village the month prior.
Reddit pages and TikTok users have been weighing in on the pair’s rumored relationship for the past several months, but neither McRae nor Hughes have defined what their relationship is.
Hughes is expected to be available for Team USA during the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan after suffering a minor injury, according to The Athletic.
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