Related Articles
Fresh off her dance party at Madison Square Garden this week, Tate McRae graced the stage of another New York arena Sunday to perform “Sports Car” and “Revolving Door” at the 2025 MTV Video Music Awards.
For the performance at the UBS Arena, which marked her main stage debut at the VMAs, McRae delivered an inspired set that channeled Medusa and her ability to turn men to stone with a simple glance. She kicked off the performance with “Revolving Door,” sitting barefoot on the stage before standing to move through a museum of stone statues.
As she hit the defining backbend from the song’s music video, blaring red lights marked the transition into “Sports Car.” Her statues came to life to follow her to the main stage, where a pit of black sand was waiting to add drama and theatrics to her choreography, along with some blazing pyrotechnics. McRae closed out with an impassioned dance break, cementing the moves at the core of her pop star persona.
The Canadian pop singer is up for six Moon Persons at the 2025 VMAs, including Song of the Year (“Sports Car“), Best Pop Artist, and two nominations in the fan-voted Song of the Summer category (“Just Keep Watching” and Morgan Wallen’s “What I Want“).
McRae was nominated three times previously at the VMAs — including twice in 2024 — but was statuette-less heading into Sunday’s ceremony. Ahead of the main show, McRae accepted the Song of the Summer win for “Just Keep Watching.”
Back in February, McRae released her third studio album So Close to What, which debuted in the top spot on the Billboard 200, her first Number One album. The singer is currently in the midst of her Miss Possessive Tour, which earlier this week included two nights at Madison Square Garden.
“One of the things that makes her Tate McRae is that even when she sings about self-doubt, as in ‘She’s All I Wanna Be,’ she sounds fearless and invincible without even worrying about it,” Rob Sheffield wrote in his review of the gig. “You can’t hear, see, or feel a single moment of vulnerability when she’s onstage. And no doubt that’s exactly how she likes it.”
