Concert review: Alberta's own Tate McRae plays pop bangers and ballads to packed Edmonton crowd
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Dear Charlie Daniels: I'm writing you this letter hoping that it somehow gets to you in the beyond. Last night I went to see one of the bigger names in pop music. Her name is Tate McRae and we're kind of proud of her here in Alberta because she's one of us.
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She was born and raised in a province that doesn't have a lot of massive pop stars to boast about, and it's always nice to see someone from the city just a few hours south of you get ahead.
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Now, you're probably asking me why I'm wanting to talk about pop music with a deceased country star? Valid question. You probably don't remember, but almost 15 years ago you and I had a conversation written up in this very newspaper where as an aside we discussed the young phenom that is Taylor Swift. It was a thoughtful chat where we talked about many things, including the question of Swift's audience.
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I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember you saying 'she's not writing for you and me, she's writing for fans who are her own age' while you expressed admiration for her hard work. Now, I'm not bringing up Swift to compare her to McRae; they both approach their jobs quite differently.
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But if you and I had been together in that extremely packed hockey arena on Thursday night for McRae's Miss Possessive Tour, overlooking a sea of young girls, I'm sure you would have turned and reminded me that this wasn't necessarily meant for us.
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🕥️ It's 10:35 and our film photos from last night's @TateMcRae show just arrived 👀📷️ pic.twitter.com/L5acupCT8L
— Rogers Place (@RogersPlace) August 8, 2025
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I would have agreed, but I also would have reminded you that pop music, as disposable as it is, will always have elements that appeal to all. Hooks, for one, and McRae's songwriting team has hooks to burn on tunes like Guilty Conscience, Greedy and She's All I Wanna Be. Much of the rest swam in a swamp in my head, one long song that fans could easily parse but I could not, except for pleasurable elements like the occasional low bass frequency.
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Charlie, I'm guessing that we would have agreed that the arc of the concert was perfectly designed with the audience in mind, pop bangers giving way to mid set ballads like Nostalgia and then up again. A true musical rollercoaster. But I'm not sure what you would have made of the stage show.
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