Canadian singer Tate McRae has landed in an unlikely cross-border squabble after starring in a new NBC spot hyping Team USA for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy. In the ad, McRae asks a talking white owl how to get to Milan to meet Team USA for the opening ceremony, with her hit "Nobody's Girl" playing in the background. The ad quickly drew sharp reactions north of the border after McRae posted it on Instagram this week, the BBC reports. Critics on social media accused the Calgary-born star of turning her back on her home country amid political tensions with the US, with some calling the move "infuriating."
Toronto Life culture writer Courtney Shea called the move "treason," writing, "Watching the ad, you'd have absolutely no idea that McRae was born and raised in the Great White North." She wondered if McRae remembers that she is Canadian, asking, "Has she been so busy pumping out hits and partnering with problematic country bros that she completely missed the part where our former ally is threatening to invade us?" McRae responded to the backlash on Instagram by posting a childhood photo of herself holding a Canadian flag, writing, "Y'all know I'm Canadian down."
The 22-year-old, who grew up in Calgary and first gained wide exposure on the US show So You Think You Can Dance, now bases her career largely in the United States; her 2024 album "So Close to What" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, the BBC reports. Though she has often spoken fondly of her Canadian roots and hockey fandom, she told a concert crowd last year that "Canada doesn't feel like home anymore, which is weird," adding that Los Angeles feels more "homey" than Calgary.
Not everyone saw the commercial as a betrayal: one Albertan social media user joked that America needing a Canadian pop star to sell its Olympic team was proof of Canadian "domination." NBC has similarly tapped other non-American artists, including British singer Dua Lipa, to promote US Olympians in separate campaigns.
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