“A Woman Who Can’t Be Contained”: Is Tate McRae’s New Single ‘Housewife’ a Country Song?

Tate McRae is officially kicking off her brand new era with ‘Housewife’, which arrives on Thursday, October 15th. While McRae is keeping many of the details about the single under wraps, we think she might be dropping hints that it will be a country song.

Shortly after unveiling ‘Housewife’, which is expected to be the lead single from the Canadian phenom's next album, McRae appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon to offer some clues as to what fans can expect from the mysterious track.

The ‘Sports Car’ hitmaker remained relatively tight-lipped, but did reveal the song revolves around “a woman who can't be contained”, suggesting the title is tongue-in-cheek. The single artwork, which features McRae donning a bikini and pushing a pram filled with cash, feels like a playful riff on the typical ‘housewife’ stereotype.

During her appearance on Fallon, McRae also joked about how her fans had missed the easter eggs she left them about ‘Housewife’, pointing to the fact that she included the title in the backdrop to her Lollapalooza set, which took place two months ago.

In her fans’ defence, the ‘housewife’ easter egg was very subtle. But with McRae implying she's left us more clues and hints about her next chapter, we've been digging through her recent interviews and performances to see what we can find.

And we have a suspicion that McRae will be exploring some country textures on her new project. The biggest clue we have on this is the fact that, while chatting to Variety in early August, McRae revealed she'd been “mood-boarding” her new album, and that she had been using “a Dolly Parton coffee-table book filled with her lyrics for inspiration”. Variety reported that McRae “has some of the country legend’s songs on a playlist she calls “Bubbly Bubbly Brain Refresh””.

What's more, McRae dipped her toes into the country scene last May when she joined forces with Morgan Wallen on ‘What I Want’, which became her first No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Over the past few years, McRae has continually shown love to the genre, often covering country songs - such as Post Malone and Wallen's ‘I Had Some Help‘ - during her pre-show soundchecks, as well as performing with her good friend, Megan Moroney.

Moroney joined McRae at her 2024 Bridgestone Arena show to perform ‘Tennessee Orange’, before the duo linked up once again at the same venue a year later for ‘Six Months Later’. Last year, Moroney spoke about how their friendship had blossomed, even sharing that they'd planned a trip together, which could potentially spark some collaboration ideas, “We are going on vacation together, so who knows? Maybe we'll get some margaritas and want to write something”.

McRae and Moroney are both due to perform at the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Los Angeles this month. As McRae kicks off her new album rollout with ‘Housewife’, which is arriving a matter of days before the show, could this event also double up as the perfect launchpad for McRae and Moroney's long-awaited collaboration?

Although McRae's sonic palette has always stuck quite closely to pop, the ‘TIT FOR TAT’ singer-songwriter has proven time and again through her live performances and past releases that she has the vocal and lyrical versatility to take on a country song.

We'd go so far as to say we're expecting at least one country-leaning offering on McRae's next project, and honestly, it could make sense for this to be the lead single, ‘Housewife’.

The imagery of being a housewife has been a well-worn trope within the country genre, with many commentators often joking about how male artists sing about wanting to a wife and lots of children, while female artists sing about murdering their husbands - a correlation that, as many artists light-heartedly highlight, may be causal.

‘Housewife’ could, therefore, be a great opportunity for McRae, who is no stranger to rousing battle-cries about independence, as shown by gems like ‘NOBODY'S GIRL’, to subvert a classic country music stereotype. We'll have to wait and see what McRae has up her sleeve, but we're keeping our fingers crossed the trailblazing artist is plotting a foray into Music City on her forthcoming project, with Moroney top of our bucket-list for a genre-blurring collaboration with McRae.