Not backing down. In a wide-ranging interview with Rolling Stone, the Canadian pop sensation Tate McRae talked about growing up in Calgary, her journey to stardom, and of course, her music. If her name sounds familiar, it’s because Tate 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, who of course has become public enemy #1 among the this weird sect hyper-progressive people (people who don’t even listen to country music). He’s a racist, he’s MAGA-coded, he’s this, he’s that… all the usual pejoratives from the virtue-signaling crowd who have spent the past 10 years pushing cancel culture, telling you what’s “problematic,” and shaming the American people for thinking for themselves. And Tate’s fans called her all kinds of names because of it, but I’m pretty sure she laughed all the way to the bank. 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. Country music is incredibly popular in Canada, and McRae says her brother is a huge country fan, so she always knew she wanted to dabble in genre somehow: “Honestly, country music is huge where I’m from. My brother’s always been a rabid country-music fan. I’ve always wanted, at some point in my life, to do folk music or country, and I probably still will in the future. But I honestly just got the opportunity to do a country song, and I was like, ‘Oh, this is cool.’ And I wanted to cross genres really bad.” She says she was “shocked” at the negative response from fans, because going into it, she just thought everyone would love the song: “It was just about the song for me. I didn’t realize how much a song would be connected to all the other factors, and it really shocked me.” Didn’t think the song would be connected to… Morgan Wallen… the guy you’re singing it with? Oh, honey… She tells the outlet that she has never met Wallen in person, but she doesn’t regret doing the song with him… which should be incredibly obvious considering how successful it was: “I don’t think you should regret anything in life, because it gives you so much clarity. I think controversy and criticism is a way of learning and figuring out what you want to move forward with, and how that shapes you as a person. I think it’s all important.” Show me the paycheck from a massive hit song like “What I Want,” then show many any artist who would even come close to saying they regret doing it… you can’t. It was far from my favorite song on the album, and I’m not sure if Tate would ever perform it live with Morgan now, but she is clearly happy with her decision, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see her continue working with country artists, including Miss Megan Moroney, who Tate has become good friends with. “What I Want” The post Tate McRae Defends “What I Want” Duet With Morgan Wallen, Was Shocked By The Controversy first appeared on Whiskey Riff.