In early June, Tate McRae celebrated her recent move to New York by catching Knicks fever. It was less than a year since she relocated from Los Angeles, where she kick-started her career as music’s next Main Pop Girl, yet she could feel the electricity coursing through her new city over a potential championship win. So she did what any young celebrity would do: She put on a Knicks T-shirt and headed up to Madison Square Garden to watch Game 4 from a suite with her close friend Hailey Bieber. “I really was the one who jumped on the bandwagon. I was like, ‘I love New York!’” says McRae with a laugh.
It’s now a few weeks later — the late afternoon of the Knicks’ victory parade — and she’s seated in a conference room of a photo studio overlooking the Flatiron District. On the streets below, vendors are hawking bootleg merchandise as stragglers from the festivities color the sidewalks with blue-and-orange jerseys and hats.
David Roemer for Variety
McRae, meanwhile, is just trying to blend in. Near the end of the shoot, she glides from room to room, swarmed by her team. Few heads turn despite her tall, unmistakable frame shuffling across the floor. As much as she has been seen these days — which has been a lot, to the tune of more than a million Tater Tots (her fandom name) at her latest tour — she’s still unsure how to deal with the glare of thousands of iPhones. She’s figuring herself out, like any 23-year-old would, by clinging to her journal.
