Born Tate Rosner McRae in 2003, the Calgary native initially started out as a dancer at age six and studied at the Alberta Ballet. She entered her first dance competition in 2011 and later took the silver medal at the final round of the Youth America Grand Prix in New York City in 2015. Out of the competition, she earned a scholarship for a two-week intensive course at the Berlin State Ballet School. The following year, McRae competed on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, finishing in third place. Along with dance, she developed an interest in singing and acting, appearing as the voice of the rag doll Spot Splatter Splash in Nickelodeon's Lalaloopsy animated series. In 2017, she launched her own YouTube channel by posting a song she had written in one day. The video went viral and helped her build buzz. More songs followed, and she eventually signed with RCA.
In 2020, McRae released her debut EP, All the Things I Never Said. Included in the set was the song "Tear Myself Apart," co-written by Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell. A year later, her second EP, Too Young to Be Sad, featured the single "You Broke Me First," which reached number 17 on the U.S. Hot 100 and number eight in Canada. The raw and vulnerable stand-alone single "Feel Like Shit" arrived later that November, followed in early 2022 by the hit "She's All I Wanna Be." Both songs appeared on McRae's debut album, I Used to Think I Could Fly, which was released in May of that year. ~ Matt Collar, Rovi