Tate McRae review – Britney-channelling, splits-deploying singer is impressively industrious

O2 Arena, London
Now at arena level after a string of trap-pop smashes, the Canadian star has a knack for elaborate choreography – but it can obscure her personality

After going viral in the pandemic with bruised ballad You Broke Me First, 21-year-old Canadian YouTuber and professional dancer turned pop superstar Tate McRae has shifted through the gears at lightning speed. Her last two albums, 2023’s Think Later and February’s So Close to What, have produced a litany of trap-pop smashes slathered in Y2K influences, all paired with videos that throw back to a bygone era ruled by the choreographed precision of peak Britney.

On her first arena tour, McRae is keen to show how much work that’s taken. During a lengthy ballad section on a small B-stage she introduces three older songs, some written when she was 13, with the weariness of a veteran, while 2022’s piano-led Chaotic is about having a “midlife crisis at 17”. Work is even part of the show’s backdrop. Flanked by two giant yellow “Tate”-emblazoned cranes, and with part of the stage raised on steel girders, it feels as if McRae and her eight back-up dancers are breaking several regulations on a building site – you half expect a foreman to show up and question the suitability of McRae’s heeled boots.