
Tate McRae at 3Arena review: An impressive performance
Tate McRae
3Arena, Dublin
★★★★☆
The popular phrase 'the girls, gays and theys' may not be one that appears in The Irish Times all that often, but it is essential when writing about the audience at the first of two nights of Tate McRae's
3Arena
shows.
Even if you haven't heard of this Canadian singer-songwriter and dancer, you've definitely heard a few of her hits on
TikTok
. Friday night at Point Village, however, is taken over by fans, the majority of whom have on some form of hockey or American football jersey – a signature style among the fan base.
Inside the venue, an impressive stage has been configured – made up of moving platforms, a T-shaped extension into the standing pit, scaffolding and two huge yellow cranes. While it's just the standard set-up for the singer's Miss Possessive world tour, one can't help but feel it fits right in down at Dublin's docks.
McRae, who made a name for herself through
YouTube
, puts on a pretty impressive show. Supported at most times by a team of dancers, the choreography is so polished that it's satisfying, such as during Revolving Door when McRae sings and dances as the others glide – you guessed it – revolving doors around her, creating an interesting visual effect.
READ MORE
Make no mistake, she can hold her own, too, such as when she casually skips around the stage alone, dancing as if no one is watching while singing She's All I Wanna Be.
We see an intimate side to this performer as she is lifted up on a smaller platform at the back of the standing area, giving those in the tiers above an incredible view at almost eye level. It feels personable, and nice even, with main lights turning on and fans looking, literally, straight into the singer's face.
During this sequence, McRae swaps her leotards and short-shorts for a long flowy skirt, which she jokes about getting caught in while sitting down to a keyboard. Here she feels her most real, and we are treated to a trip down memory lane. She sings some of her earliest YouTube material, going as far back as One Day, which she wrote when she was 13. It is a real treat for her long-standing fans.
Here she speaks more than at other points in the show – though, with all that's going on, that's not necessarily missed. She's here to put on a show, and she does it really well.
[
Skye Edwards of Morcheeba: 'I heard that Madonna came to one of our gigs – and that Ozzy Osbourne's a big fan'
Opens in new window
]
We're snapped back into star mode – not before a few Olés from the crowd – as the dancers perform an ode of sorts to Chicago's Cell Block Tango. This vibe sums up the show – sexy, fun and powerful.
The final leg of the night consists of the real TikToky songs, Exes and Greedy, and she and the team give us one last perfectly put together routine amid a rainfall of confetti.
The behind-the-scenes work on this show is so impressive that it almost feels wasted in an arena and not a stadium, and McRae definitely has the stage presence, and the moves, to prove herself among the pop girlies.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


RTÉ News
23 minutes ago
- RTÉ News
Hell for Leather: How we made RTÉ's epic new GAA series
Colm O'Callaghan, RTÉ's Head of Specialist Factual Content, introduces Hell for Leather, an epic new 5-part RTÉ One series, delving into the role of Gaelic football in the sporting, cultural and social history of modern Ireland. RTÉ's history of hurling series The Game was first broadcast in May 2018. Made by Crossing the Line Productions and directed by Gerry Nelson, it was a cinematic and wide-ranging undertaking that, in its style, execution and ambition, resonated quickly. I've written previously here about why we commissioned it. As soon as the curtain came down on that series, our thoughts turned quickly to an obvious next step: a similar strand about Gaelic football. The seven years its taken to finally get that five-parter - Hell for Leather - to air, is worthy of a drama serial in itself and there were times when I felt we were never going to see it home at all. Needless to say, I'm glad we stayed the journey. As tends to be case with large-scale commissioned projects, I took many meetings and did an awful lot of talking before even formally asking RTÉ to consider supporting it. The primary issue was with what had just gone before it and with how effectively The Game had landed. Should we even bother, I asked the creative team at Crossing the Line, to attempt something similar with a sport often regarded by purists as the less aesthetic and less skilful of the family of national games? Any misgivings I had were quickly put to bed by a couple of trusted friends and regular sounding boards. Michael Moynihan and Diarmuid O'Donovan are fellow clubmen of mine from the fabled Glen Rovers on the northside of Cork city, even if Diarmuid is arguably better known for his involvement with the football side of that club, Saint Nicholas, and his work in a variety of roles at county level. Sharp, serious men both, they sketched out a provisional list of potential themes, topics, chapters and cast members for the team to chew over and flesh out. They didn't so much ease my mind as bend it in a variety of directions and, by doing so, turned much of what I'd ever thought about Gaelic football on its head. The game in Ulster, industry and All-Ireland success in the midlands, the eventual dawning of the women's game, Kerry's eternal majesty, the Jacks and the Culchies, Dulchies, Heffernan, Dwyer, the mighty men from Down, the mighty women of Cork. Seán Boylan, Mick O'Connell, the golden age of wireless, Sister Pauline Gibbons, Jim McGuinness and Jim Gavin. Bringing boardroom thinking to breeze-blocked dressing rooms. Renaissance, reformation, age of empires, true leaders and the days of our lives: it was up to director Gerry Nelson to shape the mine of history, some of it happening before him in real time, into tangible blocks. Sport is often seen as a reflection of life and, in this regard, its possible to trace the development of modern Ireland since way before independence through the prism of Gaelic football. Stitching this editorial thread into the heart of Hell for Leather was always a tall order but one that producers John Murray, Jessica McGurk and Siobhán Ward managed with typical elan. So in as much as the series tracks the evolution and history of the game as comprehensively as time allows, it also tells a story of Ireland. With The Game already under the belts of the production team – as well as 2020's one-off, Christy Ring: Man and Ball – the doors opened far more easily this time around. Jarlath Burns, who has since become the most recent Uachtarán of Cumann Lúthchleas Gael, was an enthusiastic voice from early on and helped unlock a variety of editorial lines. In every club and parish that we approached during the long gestation of this series – and there were many – the welcome was fierce and the humour was always good. So, what kept us? When we first discussed the potential for a series, I'm not sure if any of us expected the production period to endure for so long. But then neither could we have foreseen Covid, an All-Ireland final played during a lockdown and the consequences for sport, film-making and life in general during that time. Projects of this scale also require multiple funding and finance strands too and, to this end, we're grateful to Coimisiún na Meán, the Department of Finance, the Gaelic Athletic Association and to Collen, our generous sponsors, without whom the project could never have taken flight. And then there's the more mundane and practical stuff. Many of those featured in the series are proud, fabled former players for whom modesty has long prevented them from opening up about their own heroics and the scale of their achievements. The likes of Mick O'Connell, Seán O'Neill, Jimmy Gray and Seán Murphy are among many who decorate this production but for whom numerous site visits and no little persuasion was necessary. Others, despite our best and enduring efforts, just couldn't or wouldn't commit. All history is contestable, of course, and this too is the case with Hell for Leather. How can one realistically do justice to such a varied and complicated past in just 250 minutes of airtime? It is, therefore, to the credit of Gerry Nelson and series editor Andrew Hearne that the series delivers far more than the sum of its parts and still stays true to its purpose as agreed way back at the start. Gaelic football, flush with its recent re-enhancements, is enjoying a renewed sense of freedom, and talk of its latest existential crisis has abated, at least for now. As the former Kerry captain, Dara Ó Cinnéide told Nelson, "at the end of the day it's a game … but it's this bloody game we love so much". As a reminder about why Gaelic football's well-being matters, Hell for Leather is as good a starting point as any.


Irish Times
27 minutes ago
- Irish Times
Aidan Gillen and Ella Lily Hyland to star new crime drama Tall Tales & Murder
Tall Tales & Murder, a new darkly comedic crime drama from the writer of Love/Hate, has gone into production in Dublin. The drama, which stars Ella Lily Hyland and Aidan Gille n, has been commissioned for two series by RTÉ and BBC Northern Ireland in association with Screen Ireland, with the first six-part run due to premiere in 2026. Tall Tales & Murder has been co-created by Stuart Carolan, the writer and creator of RTÉ's hit gangster series, and Chris Addison, who starred in political satire The Thick of It and has directed episodes of Veep and his Sky comedy Breeders. The series, which is based on the eight-book Dublin Trilogy series by Caimh McDonnell, will be made for RTÉ and BBC by British production company Avalon in association with Ireland's Metropolitan Pictures. READ MORE The one-hour episodes will be directed by Addison and Irish director Neasa Hardiman, with Avalon distributing the show internationally. Alongside Hyland – the fast-rising star of Netflix's Black Doves – and Gillen, who previously worked with Carolan on Love/Hate, the cast includes Philippa Dunne and Packy Lee. 'I've been a fan of the brilliant Chris Addison since The Thick of It – it's been incredible fun working with him to bring this insane story to life,' said Carolan, the writer and one of the executive producers of Tall Tales & Murder. Addison, who will executive produce as well as direct, said he was 'frankly giddy with delight to get to team up with the twisted and highly original mind' of Carolan to create the show. 'We've taken Caimh's wonderful novel as a jumping off point and ended up with what I like to think of as a dark and delicious screwball drama.' David Crean, who was confirmed as RTÉ head of drama this week after previously serving in the role on an interim basis, said the series had gone into production after 'a great development process' with Carolan and Addison. 'The scripts are fantastic, as is the cast. RTÉ is excited to be collaborating with such brilliant broadcast partners to bring this great series to audiences on a national and international stage.' Eddie Doyle, head of content commissioning for BBC Northern Ireland, described the series as storytelling 'at its darkest, funniest and most surreal', while Rob Aslett, executive producer for Avalon, said the scripts 'created a wildly original crime drama that shines a light on a modern Ireland'. McDonnell, who was born in Limerick and raised in Dublin, is a former stand-up comedian and television writer who published his first novel in the Dublin Trilogy detective series in 2016.


The Irish Sun
42 minutes ago
- The Irish Sun
Moment idiot TikTok influencer gets instant karma after pulling stupid prank on the WRONG unwilling victim
A TIKTOK influencer got instant karma after a prank backfired horribly. Advertisement 5 A TikTok influencer got instant karma after a prank backfired horribly 5 A plainclothes officer arrested him immediately 5 The yob was cuffed in the middle of the street Approaching a man in London, the Apple Pay The He then tells the man "I took £1,000 out of your account for a new hairline" in reference to his own receding style. As the man continues to hold onto his arm, the cameraman asks his friend whether he should keep filming. Advertisement Read more News Other people then start to get involved, making sure the influencer doesn't get away and saying "you don't go." Despite the chaos, the TikToker tells his cameraman to "keep rolling bro" with a big grin on his face. He quickly changes his tune when the man starts asking people to call the police. The "hairline" Advertisement Most read in The Sun Another man then approaches the youngster and loudly says: "I am a police officer." As the police officer asks the man to explain what happened, the videographer keeps asking whether he should keep filming. 'You can't make this up' - Irish fans in stitches at Ruesha Littlejohn's playful prank upon Katie McCabe's camp arrival The video captures his friend being put in handcuffs by more plainclothed police officers while he continues to shout that it was " The boy is pushed to the floor as the police men tell him to keep still. Advertisement Despite shouting out in pain and saying they're "breaking my hand off," he encourages his friend to "keep recording." Police then calmly tell him that he has been detained so that they can conduct a stop and search for articles relating to fraud. It's not the first time that pranksters have been dealt instant karma. A teenager who Advertisement Road rage can be a common way for motorists to get instant karma for their reckless driving. A silver car cut across a white line marking a bus lane to undertake a black SUV. Blue lights quickly revealed the black car to be an unmarked police car, leaving social media users laughing at his expense. Advertisement 5 Police calmly tell him that he has been detained so that they can conduct a stop and search 5 Despite the chaos, the TikToker tells his cameraman to "keep rolling bro"