TATE MCRAE BRINGS HER MAGNETIC APPEAL TO MANILA

I went to Tate McRae's 'Think Later' tour feeling a wee baffled about who she is as a pop star. I get it now.

- By AJ RAYMUNDO

There are many things—mostly dreadful—that I associate with Mondays, but attending a pop concert was never one of them. To begin with, who dares to command her fans to catch a show right at the beginning of the week?

And yet, the 21-year-old Canadian singer, songwriter and dancer Tate McRae pulled it off with much audacity last week during the Philippine leg of her "Think Later" world tour. Her galvanizing Manila debut at the New Frontier Theater left her "Tater Tots" struck and wanting more.

McRae, who has had an illustrious journey as a performer, has always been poised to become the next main pop girl in an industry saturated with overwhelming talent. Before she even released her hard-hitting mainstream hits Greedy and Exes, she had already built a name for herself at 13 years old after emerging as a finalist in a reality TV dance show.

But here's a confession: as a casual listener who only stumbled upon McRae through snippets of her music videos used as reaction clapbacks on Twitter, I couldn't quite grasp her appeal.

Now, having watched her perform live, it's not difficult to understand why people are rooting for her domination.