The Story Behind Tate McRae’s Vulnerable Hit “You Broke Me First”

Tate McRae got a crash course in the music industry with the success of “You Broke Me First.” Though she had released several singles before “You Broke Me First” in 2020, the then-17-year-old reached new career heights when the song went viral on TikTok and eventually crossed over to radio. The vulnerable lyrics paired with the pop melody led the song to chart all over the world, reaching No. 1 on the Billboard Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart and cracked the Top 20 on the all-genre Billboard Hot 100, in addition to reaching the Top 10 in her native Canada. Below, McRae tells American Songwriter about the writing process and how “You Broke Me First” changed her life.

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The Meaning Behind “You Broke Me First”:

“‘You Broke Me First’ was a session I had when I was 15 or 16. I remember it was me and this girl named Victoria Zaro who I met [for] the first time and Blake Harnage. When you do writing sessions like that, it’s such a strange thing of speed dating because you’re meeting people for the first time, but then also confessing all your biggest secrets to them in the span of four hours [laughs]. So it’s a really interesting thing. I was really lucky I meshed with them super well.

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I had this title in my notes and it was, But I don’t really care how bad it hurts / ‘Cause you broke me first. I really wanted to crack that line and figure out what the story was around it. We ended up writing it pretty quickly. It was so interesting because I remember when I first played that song for a lot of people, a ton of people didn’t like it and thought that it wasn’t exciting enough and it wasn’t big enough of a song. But I remember it really resonated with me and felt really personal to what I was going through and I was like ‘We have to release this.’ It was such a fun process to be able to see the reaction of that song. I don’t think I overthought that song, which is a beautiful thing as well.

That song changed everything for me. I think it was a strange time to release music because it was right in the middle of the pandemic, so I was 16-17, as the song was going global. I had no idea what the music industry was and what it meant for songs to go global. I was writing music in my mom and dad’s basement on Zoom calls and I was trying to finish grade 12 [laughs]. So it was a weird thing because I was doing all these interviews and seeing articles and then I was also trying to finish school. I was really confused by the whole thing. I feel like I’ve realized the impact of ‘You Broke Me First’ when I came to LA and performed it for the first couple times at Lollapalooza and was shocked at the fact that people knew the words. It was very strange.”

Photo by Derek White/Getty Images for iHeartRadio