Tate McRae brought her first-ever award show performance of “Greedy” to the 2023 Billboard Music Awards Presented by Marriott Bonvoy, and the pop star explained just why choreography had such an important role in the number. Elsewhere in our sitdown interview, McRae teased a track called “My Hometown” off her new album, Think Later, dropping Dec. 8.
Tate McRae:
It is so exciting to perform “Greedy” today — it’s my first ever award show performance of it. For years I’ve been trying to figure out how to dance and sing at the same time. It’s been like an ongoing battle of, like, my songwriter side and my dancer side. And for the first time, I wrote a song that I can, like, fully dance to dance, influence on music so much just because I’ve been surrounded by it my whole life. My mom was my dance teacher at the age of two. She was just, like, putting so much music in front of me as a dancer — you just hear music different, you feel it. And I think that’s what makes me a pretty, like, soulful writer.
Tate McRae:
Got to go to some very cool places. Honestly, one of the best places to go is Australia. For me, I think one of my craziest crowds are in Australia. I’ve no idea why. But I remember going last year for the first time — it was pretty nuts, just know, like, that far away across the world, people were listening to all my lyrics is surreal.
Tate McRae:
I used to be scared of singing in front of people. And then I got to be able to tour for the first time. I’m just, like, I have the coolest fans who just want to have a good time and screaming lyrics as loud as possible. And that’s why I feel like it’s so special when I bring it — to see them even in a setting like this just to be able to interact with them any way just always makes me very happy.
I have a song on my upcoming album. It’s actually called “My Hometown.” It was actually, like, I remember going home for, like, a break for, like, two weeks and ended up writing the song, like, as I was there after I, like, just gotten home from a night out. And I, like, started the song and then finished it back in L.A., but it’s very personal to me. Fans can expect a totally different side of my personality. I usually always write to talk about, like, my deepest darkest fears and, like, the worst parts of my life, and this time I wanted to explore just having fun in the studio. It’s the coolest thing ever, charting on Billboard. I think you just go your whole life, like, looking at your favorite artists and your idols charting. And so it feels very surreal when you’re seeing the name up there. Yeah, every time it shocks me.