NEED TO KNOW
Tate McRae is ending the online discourse around her appearance in an NBC ad for the 2026 Winter Olympics that also features Team U.S.A. athletesFollowers on social media felt she McRae be rooting for athletes from Canada, her native countryMcRae replied with an Instagram Stories post on Wednesday, Feb. 4, sharing a childhood photo of herself with the Canadian flag captioned “…y’all know I’m Canada down”
Tate McRae is settling an online debate.
The 22-year-old pop artist jumped into the conversation around her appearance in an NBC ad for the 2026 Winter Olympics that also features Team U.S.A. athletes, after commenters questioned why she would be supporting the U.S. and not Canada, her native country.
McRae reassured her Canadian fans, sharing a childhood photo of herself holding a mini Canadian flag on Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Feb. 4. In the caption, she wrote, “…y’all know I’m Canada down.”
In McRae’s ad for NBC’s coverage of the Olympicsthe pop star enters the frame in a red snow suit on skis and stops to ask a CGI snowy owl for directions. “Oh, hi, I’m a bit lost,” McRae begins, to which the owl coos, “Who?”
“Tate McRae,” she announces, before receiving another “who” from the owl. “I’m nobody. Nobody’s girl that is,” she says with a wink, referencing her hit single “Nobody’s Girl,” which plays in the background.
“I’m trying to get to Milan for an amazing opening ceremony and meet Team U.S.A.,” she says. “Then it’s the weekend with America’s best skating for gold, and Lindsay Vonn’s epic comeback. Then come back to the States for the big game, Super Bowl LX.”
Tate McCrae throwback baby photo.
Tate McCrae/Instagram
After another “who” from the owl, she replies, “Okay, I’ll just ask someone else, then. Forget it.”
The ad concludes with the snowy owl conversing with a great horned owl in Italian, with one asking, “What did Tate McRae want?” The other replies, “I don’t know, I don’t speak English.”
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The advertisement was met with mixed responses, mostly due to McRae’s Canadian roots. She does not mention a single Canadian athlete in the commercial.
“The absolute ick every Canadian just felt. In 2026… what were you and your team thinking?” one Instagram user commented.
“Girl, we are Canadian, we do NOT cheer for team USA at winter sports, especially during times like these!!!” another user wrote.
Others cheered on the ad, with one commenter writing, “this is everything.”
The professional dancer-turned-pop star grew up in Calgary, Canada’s third-largest city. Coincidentally, her birthday, July 1, is also Canada Day, which celebrates the day the British North America Act went into effect and created the modern country of Canada.
To learn more about all the Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Milan Cortina Olympics and Paralympics, beginning Feb. 6, on NBC and Peacock.
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