21-year-old Canadian singer, Tate McRae, released her third studio album on February 21, 2025. The album is titled So Close to What and immediately topped the charts in multiple countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, and more. So Close to What achieved multiple personal records for McRae, such as 137.30 million streams and 71,000 album sales. As for records in the music industry as a whole, So Close to What took the place of the largest female studio album release of 2025 so far.
McRae revealed that she had been writing So Close to What while on tour for her second studio album, Think Later. The first song from So Close to What that was released was “It’s ok I’m ok”, releasing on September 12, 2024. This song was placed on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. On November 14, 2024, McRae released hit song “2 hands” as well as announced when the album as a whole would be released.
Unfortunately, before the release date of February 21st, McRae found out through a fan DM that the album had been leaked. This was on January 16th. Although McRae expresses sadness at the fact that the album was released on terms other than her own, she took her power back by adding two songs to the track list.
The album includes two features, one with Flo Milli and another with McRae’s boyfriend, the Kid Laroi. McRae maintains upbeat rhythms until the final song on the album, “Nostalgia”, a song inspired by a conversation with her father.
One song on the album that sparked a lot of conversation on social media is “Purple lace bra”. McRae describes how this song is about being objectified within the music industry and trying to deal with that at such a young age where she is trying to explore creativity within her songs and music videos.
McRae recently performed on Saturday Night Live (SNL), performing songs “Sports car” and “Dear god”. Similarly, she was interviewed on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, coming back to perform “Revolving door” the next week.
On March 18, 2025, McRae will begin her first arena tour in Mexico City. The tour will end on November 8th in Inglewood, California. There are 83 planned shows with Zara Larsson as a special guest.
So Close to What by Tate McRae has started 2025 well for the music industry. With female pop stars such as Sabrina Carpenter rising to high fame, McRae is no different.
