Let’s be honest, Tate and Morgan are laughing all the way to the bank…
Last year, Canadian pop star Tate McRae collaborated with Morgan Wallen on a song called “What I Want” for his mega successful 2025 album I’m The Problem. It was his first-ever female duet for a record, and it ended up debuting at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, marking Wallen’s fourth and McRae’s first on that chart, a huge accomplishment for any artist in any genre.
Scoring a hit like that is a dream for anyone, and when it finally happens, it’s certainly one of those “you made it” moments that they’ll remember forever. I mean, what kind of person who makes music for a living doesn’t want to have the top song in all of music? It’s huge, especially if you’re a mainstream, very commercial artist like McRae.
But some of her fans were NOT happy about the fact that she would team up with Wallen, and Tate’s fans called her all kinds of names because of it. At the time, McRae never really made any public comments about it, which was the right move in my opinion, because that was a huge moment in her career and something she celebrated. And when Rolling Stone asked her about the “controversy,” because of course they did… she says she has a lifelong love of country music because she grew up with a huge country festival, the Calgary Stampede, in her backyard.
She talked about how her brother was always a fan of country music, and in an extensive interview with W Magazine that was published today, McRae was once again (shocker) asked about the song with Wallen, and she admitted that she can’t believe there’s people who think “one song could define a whole person.”
She added that she has many aspect that a large amount of her fans don’t know anything out, and she hopes she can one day show more of herself:
“It’s crazy to think that one song could define a whole person. There are many aspects of my personality that three-quarters of my audience has no idea about. You hope one day you figure out a way to show all aspects of it.”
I mean, she’s clearly not going to say she regrets doing the song, she likes country music and she had a ton of success working with Morgan… she shouldn’t have to apologize for that. It’s so typical that she’s asked about it in every single interview.
In August, she spoke about the duet with Wallen for a Variety cover story for the first time, and she explained that she prefers to let her actions speak for her when it comes to her political views and the things she supports:
“I like to say my piece through organizations I support and the environment that I have on tour, it’s pretty obvious what kind of person I am and the things I support. And I hope that my fans can see that through the things that I’m putting my energy towards.”
It’s honestly crazy that she’s still being asked about this song, clearly most people love the song because it was huge, and I think it’s pretty obvious McRae doesn’t want to talk politics or anything of that nature. Nor does she want to bad mouth Morgan… like every publications is hoping she’ll do.
Morgan has never said anything about the whole ordeal, obviously he’s no stranger to controversy and this is the least of his worries, and like I said, they got a #1 hit out of it… though I don’t think we’ll ever see them perform it together.
“What I Want”
