The Meaning Behind Tate McRae's Flirty Song "Sports car" & the Music Video's Symbolism
The Canadian pop star described her hit single as a “really flirty song” with a “nasty pop girl beat.”
Just after Tate McRae’s single “It’s ok I’m ok” became the biggest debut of her career, the Canadian multi-hyphenate hit us with another flirty pop song: “Sports car.”
Featured on McRae’s third studio album So Close to What, “Sports car” is perhaps the pop star’s sexiest single yet. She even revealed on TikTok that her alter ego, Tatiana, wrote the track along with Julia Michaels, Ryan Tedder, and Grant Boutin.
So what’s the story behind “Sports car”? McRae, who puts in her second turn as a Saturday Night Live’s Musical Guest on March 1, has revealed the meaning behind the hit song — and why the music video is missing, well, a sports car. Read on for all the details, below.
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What is Tate McRae’s song "Sports car" about?
McRae told Vogue her song "Sports car" is about the “adrenaline of love, sex, and the excitement of it all.” Similar to the feeling of speeding around in a sports car.
And that meaning is conveyed through her breathy vocals and the song’s steamy lyrics. As McRae sings in the very first verse: “Hey, cute jeans / Take mine off me / Oh, golly gee / I can't take no more / I'm goin' weak in my knees / Where'd you put those keys? / We can share one seat.”
“This was such a fun song to write,” McRae told Vogue. “I felt like a sports car reminded me of that feeling of love, and like you are right in the middle of it.”
In an interview with Variety, McRae described “Sports car” as a “really flirty song” with a “nasty pop girl beat.”
“As we progressed to the chorus, we found this really cool metaphor — how the feeling of sex and love in a relationship can directly correlate to a sports car,” she explained.
Indeed, McRae sings about the sense of excitement and a bit of danger in the chorus: “I think you know what this is / I think you wanna uh / No, you ain't got no Mrs. / Oh, but you got a sports car.”
“I’ve never spoken about sex in a song before,” she told Variety. “I think my fans have never really heard me talk about it. I wanted to do it in a way that still felt like me, that still had the metaphors and the storytelling I love.”
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Tate McRae’s song "Sports car" features a Ying Yang Twins reference
McRae revealed to Variety that Julia Michaels, one of the song’s writers, wanted to put a female spin on another sexy song by the Ying Yang Twins. “This whole song started because Julia Michaels had this wish for a pop girl to recreate the ‘Whisper Song’ by the Ying Yang Twins,” she shared. “She was dying to do it. I was terrified because I’m such a sucker for melodies.”
While McRae was initially a little apprehensive about the idea, they went for it. “We referenced the Ying Yang Twins with the whisper chorus,” she told Vogue. “And it ended up being really fun.” McRae also told Billboard she thought it “was a bold move for a pop song.”
The sexy music video doesn’t feature a sports car for a reason
The music video for “Sports car” features only McRae dancing in a room, dressed as 12 different characters, including one with a real horse who she said on Instagram “was the best boy ever.” Notably, the video features zero sports cars — and that was very much intentional.
“I know a lot of people hated that I didn’t have a sports car in the video, but I thought it was sick,” McRae told Variety. “I could kind of be the sports car in these rooms. I could be the girl who’s on display.”
Speaking to Vogue, McRae said the fashion featured in the music video made certain choreography quite challenging.
“This was the most difficult video to move in because I wanted to honor the pieces and make sure that the outfits laid well and looked good. But in some shots I was wearing six to eight inch platform heels where I was like this is actually impossible to stand in,” she explained. “I’m such a sneakerhead so for me to walk around in heels is an issue. And for one of the scenes, I had to be in heels and a chair. Learning where to put my weight and where to put my pelvis to be able to dance with heels while also balancing and moving quickly is such a skill.”
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Tate McRae says she was “terrified” of her "Sports car" song
McRae told Billboard she knew she wanted to release “Sports car” because she felt like it “was a big swing” for her as a dancer. “I could really see that song visually,” she said, adding that she had a feeling the song would be a hit.
“Whenever a song kind of scares you in the studio, there’s some magic to it,” she said. “And I was really terrified of that song for a long time.”
Releasing any music, McRae told People, is “one of the most terrifying and exciting things ever,” but she's eager to keep pushing herself. “One of the worst feelings is releasing stuff and it not doing anything — for anyone else, for me, for my growth,” she told the magazine. “Every time I go into the studio I’m like, ‘What do I love? What do I think is exciting at this time? What am I passionate about?’ And trying to take other people’s opinions and criticism outside of it to make stuff that feels the most genuine to who I am as a 21-year-old woman right now.”
