On Friday night, Tate McRae threw an album release party in the Kia Forum parking lot to celebrate her third album alongside some of her biggest fans. Gates opened at 7 p.m. and the line to get in the parking lot stretched out for blocks.
General-Admission passes were $8 each on Ticketmaster, and all revenue from the event will be donated to LA Fire Relief. Complimentary samples from Neutrogena —, the event sponsor —, were handed out as gifts, along with other free merchandise. Some attendees even walked out with new pairs of Adidas shoes. Other activities included branded photo opportunities, dozens of food trucks, claw machines and trivia games.
“I hadn’t ever experienced an album release party, so I thought it was a really cool way to try it out and not have to spend that much money for it,” said Troy Nevil, a sophomore studying political science.
McRae’s performance itself was captivating. She stepped onto the stage in a bedazzled jersey at 9 p.m. sharp, precisely when her album, “So Close to What,” dropped. Fans flocked to the stage, whipped out their phones, and began belting the lyrics to her single “Sports Car.” McRae followed with new tracks from her album.
“I wrote this album from this whole year of touring, and one of the main concepts of this album was the feeling of falling in love again, and how terrifying that can be,” McRae told the audience before playing her new original song “Greenlight.”
She even surprised fans by singing one of her older singles, “You Broke Me First,” bringing to mind the early days of her career. The artist debuted her journey to stardom in 2016 on the dance competition show “So You Think You Can Dance,” where she placed third at just 13 years old. This landed her a spot on Justin Bieber’s Purpose World Tour that same year, and she even appeared on an episode of Dance Moms. In 2017, after a YouTube video of her original song “One Day” received over 40 million views, she signed a record deal with RCA Records.
Fast-forward to 2022, when McRae released her first full studio album, “I used to think I could fly.” Her fame then skyrocketed when her biggest hit, “greedy,” went viral in September 2023. The track, which was part of her second album “Think Later,” was her most popular song to date — generating over 1.6 billion streams on Spotify. McRae got to perform it on some of the biggest stages in music, including “Saturday Night Live” and the Billboard Music Awards.
Needless to say, fans were anticipating her third full-length album, ”So Close to What,” since McRae announced it on Instagram last November. Not to mention, several songs from “So Close to What” were leaked back in January.
“I think that this money is going to a very good cause, and it’s worth the experience that we got,” said attendee Jenna Kim.
The singer will be going on her very first arena world tour later this year. The sold-out “Miss Possessive” tour was in such high demand that she released new dates, adding one more show in Inglewood.
Kim has already gotten her hands on tickets for one of the LA shows. “I think her music is just really fun, really catchy, and always an easy, good listen,” she said. “No matter what mood, what day it is, there’s always a song for you.”